LOW PRESSURE LEAKY HOSE

rickmoister

I have a veggie garden consisting of 18 raised beds 5m x 1m. 12 of these are covered with cloches. At the moment they are watered using a timer and a flat pvc soaker hoses connect to a 3/4" hose coonected to the mains. I am in the process of changing to using collected rainwater 3 IBCs. Does anyone know or have experience of a specific type of leaky hose that will work without mains pressure or a pump. Thanks in advance.

redser7

Yes I have the same system in my tunnel - IBC -> Timer -> leakey hose. You're in luck because I use these ...
http://www.lidl.ie/cps/rde/xchg/SID-CEF80CA8-C947BE6C/lidl_ri_ie/hs.xsl/index_29604.htm

And they are in right now. Great value and work brilliantly. They are very efficient with the water and waste nothing. Mulch over the top to save even more weater.

Also, they have various fittings in at the moment which I use in the setup ...
http://www.lidl.ie/cps/rde/xchg/SID-CEF80CA8-C947BE6C/lidl_ri_ie/hs.xsl/index_29596.htm

My tank is raised about 3 feet and that gives me plenty of pressure; these soakers work well with low pressure. One thing that I had to do and would recommend is to set up a circuit whereby the water returns to the source. That way you will get even distribution of pressure/weeping all along the hose. In fact it's vital you do that. I used one of the Y connectors from lidl and attached it to the timer. One end of the hose attached to one connection, hose snakes around the tunnel and then returns to the other connection.

Good luck

Sonnenblumen

OP

avoid the convoluted mish-mash leakey hose set-up which are easily compromised and problematic from the outset.

A professional grade hose dripline is readily available only costing a few € more than what you pay in a German discounter, except it will do exactly what you want and where. For example use 16mm (similar size to domestic garden hose)

Dripline is pre-punched at 300mm centres and will operate perfectly with typical domestic mains pressure (no need for pumps or puffing) or any other DIY gadget set-up. Even at higher pressures, Dripline will only release approx 2L of water/hr. Inexpensive and costing < €1.0/m and available cut to length or 100m coils, it would be silly to use anything else.

redser7

Funny, I'm sure I read that those hoses only work well with the higher pressure you would get with mains or pumped water. Otherwise you get bad distribution of pressure along the circuit and uneven watering. The OP is specifically looking for something that doesn't use mains or pump ie. gravity fed.
The IBC tank route is not a mish mash. It uses the simplest of principles and works a treat. Soaker hoses weep/bleed water so need only very low pressure to work. There is an abundance of evidence on gardening forums, just like mine. I kept a polytunnel fully watered all last summer without having to manually water a single plant. I filled the tank every 5-7 days and that was it.

paddy147

redser7 wrote: »

Funny, I'm sure I read that those hoses only work well with the higher pressure you would get with mains or pumped water. Otherwise you get bad distribution of pressure along the circuit and uneven watering. The OP is specifically looking for something that doesn't use mains or pump ie. gravity fed.
The IBC tank route is not a mish mash. It uses the simplest of principles and works a treat. Soaker hoses weep/bleed water so need only very low pressure to work. There is an abundance of evidence on gardening forums, just like mine. I kept a polytunnel fully watered all last summer without having to manually water a single plant. I filled the tank every 5-7 days and that was it.

Exactly.:)

paddy147

redser7 wrote: »

Yes I have the same system in my tunnel - IBC -> Timer -> leakey hose. You're in luck because I use these ...
http://www.lidl.ie/cps/rde/xchg/SID-CEF80CA8-C947BE6C/lidl_ri_ie/hs.xsl/index_29604.htm

And they are in right now. Great value and work brilliantly. They are very efficient with the water and waste nothing. Mulch over the top to save even more weater.

Also, they have various fittings in at the moment which I use in the setup ...
http://www.lidl.ie/cps/rde/xchg/SID-CEF80CA8-C947BE6C/lidl_ri_ie/hs.xsl/index_29596.htm

My tank is raised about 3 feet and that gives me plenty of pressure; these soakers work well with low pressure. One thing that I had to do and would recommend is to set up a circuit whereby the water returns to the source. That way you will get even distribution of pressure/weeping all along the hose. In fact it's vital you do that. I used one of the Y connectors from lidl and attached it to the timer. One end of the hose attached to one connection, hose snakes around the tunnel and then returns to the other connection.

Good luck

That Lidl soaker/drip hose works very well....especially off an IBC tank....have same setup myself.Very handy for the allotment and garden

ponddigger

hi paddy .have you any photos of your ibc setup. jack

rickmoister

Thanks for all the help went and bought the hoses in LIDL.:):) It will be some time before I have it working (before water meters are installed).I am hoping to run 3 seperate feeder hoses which will water 4 beds , 1 or 2 5m hoses on each bed .

redser7

Cool. Don't know what your layout is like but you could possibly daisy-chain your tanks using garden hose as syphons. Meaning you would just need one length of joined hose coming from one tank and snaking over all the beds. Just a thought. You would only need one timer that way too.

deandean

I used leaky hose and a time switch on my vegetable patch for a while but I found that mould used to grow along most of the path of the hose, I changed to a spray system instead.

paddy147

ponddigger wrote: »

hi paddy .have you any photos of your ibc setup. jack

Nothing as fancy as your setup.:D

Its up on some old paving slabs.

20 meters of garden house connected to it,and then the 15 meter Lidl soaker/drip hose connected to the end of the garden hose.

Very simple and works very well.:)