Going to try an experiment this spring. An alternative to soaker hoses and drip emitters. The plan is to drill 1/32" holes in 1/2" pvc piping. Haven't made a test run yet, just in the "it's 28: outside, the days are so short, will spring ever get here" planning phase. Drip and soaker hoses are too expensive and always irritate me - low flow, high flow, clogged, crimped. Any thoughts? If it wasn't this I'd probably be playing in the street!

Dirt

Dr. Elaine Ingham of SoilFoodWeb.com, (who is also my favorite compost tea guru) suggests that properly brewed teas used as both foliar feeds and soil drenches in conjunction with lots of organic matter in the soil plus thick organic mulches, will actually drastically reduce the use of weekly watering.

I remember last summer in mid-July, going 2 weeks without watering my tomatoes just by using only my homemade teas!

Remember those old style garden hoses that were kinda flat with lots of holes in them? They were called "soaker hoses" years ago, before the modern black kind was invented. I remember buying one, and attaching it to the faucet. Turn on the water, and those predrilled, tiny holes each shot out a stream of water. Too much pressure and the holes made incredible streams. Too little pressure and the first holes leaked, but the ones further along didn't get any water. That comes to mind with your idea of predrilling holes.

My favorite kind of drip irrigation is the 1/4" soaker hose. Nothing to clog. You can cut short sections and plug the open end, or reconnect it to the main system so it loops. About $5 for a roll (either 50 or 100 ' can't remember which). I really like this for beds that need to stay wet in a larger area, and I don't like the expense of so many individual drips. I connect this stuff to my 1/2 larger drip line. And it doesn't seem to blow out with greater pressure. In fact, greater pressure just causes more water to ooze out all along the stuff.

I agree with your comments about soaker hoses. I have used 100's of feet for my garden, but run into challenges trying to keep the flow consistent over the great lengths. More problems occur if the hose is not on level ground. Soaker hoses have the advantage here over drilled PVC.

I agree with the other response about "little fountains" probably coming from each of the drilled holes.

I like your topic because I live in Colorado, and any way I can conserve water would be a real benefit. We get very little rain during the summers. My garden soil is made from the composted results of wood chips, grass clippings, kitchen scraps and what ever I can find. Hot, dry Colorado summers dry it all out, even when I mulch heavily.

Harmony

Hello again,
I just thought of another idea that people may want to comment on...

Could you lay some type of absorbant material (i.e. cloth, paper toweling) that would absorb the water, slow down the splashing from your drilled holes, and distribute it over an area?

Harmony

Isn't that called mulch?

Thanks for your responses. Several more comments. I will bury the pvc several inches and cover with mulch. The longest run of pipe will be no more than 24' and the holes will be 1/32" (that's little!), I'm hoping (predicting) with a presuure regulator to get a drip. Not sure of hole spacing. Plan on testing it above ground. Hey, it keeps me out of the street and the neighbors amused.

Dirt

Dirt, let us know if your idea works. I've thought about doing the same thing but worried about not having enough water pressure. I'm thinking about doing a little experiment this year also. Using PVC pipe and irrigating down the furrows. The farmers around here that water their crops that way have better yields and with the high winds that we have I try to keep as much water on the ground as possible. We also have sandy soil which tends to clog the holes in the soaker hoses.Let me know what y'all think of this idea too.

I started getting excellent results from my small black soaker hoses when I threw them all away and replaced them with the larger diameter hoses. That didn't solve the entire problem, though. Home Depot sells little flow restrictors to control the pressure in the hose. The flow restrictors come in a bubble pack with six inside. They have two each of three different sizes (different colors). Supposedly the different colors/sizes are required for different lengths and diameters of hoses. But after using them for two years I haven't noticed a nit's worth of difference in the overall water on the yard.

So now I lay out two hoses connected to a Y with shutoff valves. I have a restrictor on each hose. Then I turn the water on full and let it sit for several days. It takes about 5 minutes for the water to start dripping all the way out to the ends of the hoses (50 ft). Every day or so I flop the hoses to a new position and let them soak somewhere else. I'm convinced my yard is surviving solely because of the soakers. We have drought water restrictions for most of our summers where we are limited to watering for 12 hours 1 day a week. However, soakers hoses are legal 24/7, so that's a no brainer.

I might point out that built-in sprinklers are possible here but I have shallow soil before running into a slap of rock the size of most counties. I also have 60 year old oak tree roots the size of my upper leg. So putting in a sprinkler system won't be an option for me. I can make the soakers work and they are very flexible for me.

If it doesn't work, send it to me. I'm working on engineering a push-power Zamboni for a backyard skating rink. The drilled PVC pipe is just what I was thinking of for the "sprinkler" part, along with several chamois or canvas rags for the drape, and a rain barrel for the reservoir, all mounted on a wagon! :-) Ah, a glass-like surface is nirvana for a skater...

This idea is what my company has been workin on for several months now. Installing a drip irrigation system out of a 3 acre wastewater lagoon on a Pilgrim Pride egg farm. We have ran 1.5 million feet of 1/2 inch drip tube. Plowed it in 24 inches deep. The holes on the tube have emitters on them that only allow each hole to drip 1/2 gallon per hour. The tubes are 2 feet apart throughout the entire 70 acres. Each station runs 4 valves each valve runs an 80 foot header with 40 tubes, each run is about 500 ft long. THe stations run for 11 minutes then cycles to the next set of 4 valves. They plan on planting corn and winter wheat on the surface, which is used for silage and livestock grain.

True, but I was thinking of a material with better capilary action over a wider span, such as paper toweling -highly absorbant and may spread the water 12" wide.

Interesting idea. One that I have thought about too. Don't have the time to water by hand, and I never got around to setting up the soaker hoses. PVC is cheap, and stands up to the weather pretty well.

Here are my theories as an engineer, and as a true engineer, I will admit that this is theory. I have yet to conduct the experiments.

Hole size: If the holes are too big, you will get more water at the near end than you will at the far end. Not a bad thing if you are testing different moisture levels vs health of plant and/or crop yields. Big holes will also let in more dirt and stuff. If the holes are too small and you are not connecting your PVC to a faucet (see Water Pressure below), the surface tension of the water may prevent the water from dripping out of tiny holes, but this will give more even watering. (I don't know what too small is. 1/32" may be ok or it may be too small. Thus experiments need to be done to determine the optimal hole size.) Small holes can clog easier if roots work their way in or dirt and stones get washed in during natural rain. You did mention burying the PVC.

Water Pressure: Too much water pressure with holes that are too big will just flood the near end, and the water will shoot out in jets washing soil and mulch away. Too much water pressure with holes that are too small will definitely will create jets of water that will push stuff away from your holes. This may be ok depending on how quickly your soil absorbs water and how thick your mulch is, but it will not be a drip system.