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Santa Cruz, CA

We are thinking of burying soaker hoses for the patch this spring. Are soaker hoses a good idea? What are the down sides? Is there a brand that works well and lasts? We will have five plants with five spickets. How long a hose will I need per plant? 50ft?, 100ft? or 250? It looks like you can buy them on Amizon. Any other supply places that are recommended?

12/16/2005 4:18:41 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

They are a few down sides. 1. Its hard to fertilize with them as they clog. 2.If the ground is not level the water pools. T-Tape may be a better option or even a drip system like we use with little nozzles that we turn on as the plant grows out. I would check out a hardware store or a walmart before Amazon..shipping will kill you.

12/16/2005 6:47:36 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Soaker hoses also cannot be connected in series without significant disparity of output. Each section of hose would require it's own supply line from a manifold to keep output the same for each section.

12/17/2005 12:54:23 AM

Cameron,ontario Team Lunatic

Kristine

T-tape would be the best to use. It's too expensive for me to have it shipped up here in Canada, so I just use sprinkler hoses, turned upside down. They allow more water through them than soaker hoses do. They work great for me. I found that it's best to take a sharp nail and make the holes in the hoses a little bit larger. This will eliminate the clogging problems.I grow 4 plants (400-500 sq ft)and each plot gets 150 ft of hose. Hope this helps.

Phil

12/17/2005 8:35:36 AM

Ontario, Canada.

Kristine, Rittenhouse.ca has a similar product to T-tape called Irrigro. It dosen't clogg up and you can leave it on 24/7. Darrell Leonard use it last year and grew his 1185

http://www.rittenhouse.ca/asp/Product.asp?PG=837

http://www.pumpkinfest.org/photoalbum-growers_full.php?ItemID=289

12/17/2005 12:36:51 PM

Ontario, Canada.

here is a direct link to the company which makes the Irrigro line. They sell to the US and Canada.

http://www.irrigro.com/test/list.html

12/17/2005 12:49:21 PM

Santa Cruz, CA

Thanks everyone for the help. About how many feet of T-tape would an average pumpkin plant need? Our patch is about 3500 sq feet. Would one spicket feed the whole T-tape for all five plants or would I need a spicket per plant?

I looked at the different web sites and think I had better go look at a T-type system at our local garden store in person before I ask too many more questions. I'd like to get something set up that will work year after year, has the ability to hook timers to it and is not too hard to break down when the season is over and the ground needs to be tilled. I use a drip system on timers on my small home garden (@100 square feet) but it doesn't seem tough enough for the pumpkin patch. It lays on the surface of the soil too.

12/18/2005 2:27:43 AM

Montoursville, PA

Your own DRIPWORKS firm, in California, has good product, excellent help (conditional) and lots, of experience, with small patch problems, through major commercial users.

The conditional help is available when you do your homework as suggested and laid out for you, in their catalog. The catalog is on line. Factually if you do not provide this help no one can really advise with much intellegence. Most folks who follow this plan or one like it usually do not need much help.

My Dripworks T-tape is installed one hoe's debth deep. It pulls right out, in the fall. This gives me a visual check, for line punches I have made and an opportunty, to hook, each leg, to line pressure, to more or less blow out the dust and prove the holes are still open. When used burried Dripworks suggests many years, of use. The blow out action is not suggested and may not be needed. It's just my nature, to tinker and do things like this.

I operate a thousand square feet, in one patch, 100 sq. feet raised bed and my 25 sq. foot long gourd root area, from a single tower source. The line pressure is about 4 lbs, by estimated gravity. The water distribution is even unless I have punched a hole with a fork or hoe.

12/30/2005 9:49:19 AM

Owensboro, Ky.

Doc, how tall is your tower...I am thinking about doing 2K sq ft with a gravity feed system...how tall do I need to go up? Thanks...Peace, Wayne

12/30/2005 7:19:39 PM

Montoursville, PA

I used four 8ft. landscape timbers for the tower legs. Given the slight pitch it is therefore a bit less than eight feet. I got some contractor reject 2 X 4's for bracing and the a piece of damaged 2 X 8's or 2 X 10's for the deck. That will service your desires with about 4 1/2 lbs. pressure, by gravity.....Asuming you are using Dripworks T-Tape for the drip. It is strong enough, to hold four 55's although I only use two.

12/31/2005 9:34:20 PM

Owensboro, Ky.

Thanks doc...Peace, Wayne

12/31/2005 11:00:39 PM

Mn

I will be using simple but efective garden sprinklers. A little input here, scott palmer grew his 1443 by only hand watering. A little time consuming if you have a ton of plants but I only have 4 so it's easy to manage.

1/1/2006 11:38:17 PM