Lidl watering hose

[Yorky]

Has anyone used one of these LIDL Ireland - lidl.ie ? It's a porous / perforated hose

If so, in what way(s)? I'm thinking of connecting it up to the water butt pump for watering raised beds rather than going to and fro with watering cans.

Thanks in advance.

[chris]

Yes, however be sure to give a prolonged watering session - little and often via the seeper hose will encourage shallow roots - it's better if the water goes down so the roots have to travel further to get to water/nutrients. It also helps to stabilise the plants better.

[redser]

It looks like a soaker hose. Havn't used one , myself (yet) but I might just buy this one Like you say, people hook them to their water butts (or taps) and the water seeps slowly out through the material of the hose. They can be buried to preserve water evaporating.

[Yorky]

Yes, however be sure to give a prolonged watering session - little and often via the seeper hose will encourage shallow roots - it's better if the water goes down so the roots have to travel further to get to water/nutrients. It also helps to stabilise the plants better.

Thanks. Could you give an indication of how long to leave it running for (and how often) on each bed? They're about five square meters in size & the water butt pump is Hozelock brand

[Yorky]

They can be buried to preserve water evaporating.

Sounds like a good idea but I need to transfer it from bed to bed. Would it be possible to get one for each bed and interlink them? Perhaps that's what the coupling pieces are for or would there be insufficient flow-through for the second hose onwards?

[Aberdeenplotter]

Just remember water won't run uphill so make sure the tap of your water butt is above the level of your raised beds. Your beds need to be moist but not saturated. How long will depend on how dry the beds are to start with, the diameter of the hose, the rate of flow etc etc. Just keep an eye on the bed.

[redser]

Sorry like I said I haven't used one yet myself. I'm sure someone will be along who has used them

[redser]

Yes, however be sure to give a prolonged watering session - little and often via the seeper hose will encourage shallow roots - it's better if the water goes down so the roots have to travel further to get to water/nutrients. It also helps to stabilise the plants better.

So let's say I have an IBC, if I left the tap open permenantly (but only slightly open to restrict the flow to stop the beds flooding) do you think this could work? It's just that I've been reading a lot about people having failures with timers and it's put me off a bit. Ta

[kathyd]

We used something similar last year - plastic hoses with little holes in - and connected 4 to each butt via a multi-connector thingy (technical description). We left the tap open permanently because we weren't living here at the time and we had drough conditions... no pump though. Our neighbour kindly re-filled the butt for us every day or two from the well. The hoses only dribbled a tiny amount of water onto the surface of the beds, just enough to keep plants next to the holes alive until we arrived. The butts emptied every day though. We're going to re-route the hoses into the polytunnel this year just to keep the soil a bit damp. It doesn't replace proper watering on a long-term basis though.

Re-your butt pump - is this mains powered?

[Davyburns]

Just remember water won't run uphill so make sure the tap of your water butt is above the level of your raised beds. .

It doesnt have to be. Water will run up hill as long as the head of water (the water level in the butt), is higher than your hose

[Florence Fennel]

That reminds me, I need a new hosepipe.