Advice on watering system for polytunnel please

[kathyd]

Hi. My polytunnel is 30ft long and 14ft wide. I have a water butt at each end, but no mains water or power. This year OH set up some plastic hose with holes in, fed by a pump to the well which is some distance away, the pump being located inside the barn / house. It was fantastic in some ways, but I stopped using it because it was plonking too much water on a few plants and nothing at all on others, and watering places where nothing was planted. So I've been watering by hand, which is OK but desperately time consuming, and painful on my hip which is getting increasingly dodgy. Plus I inevitably get water on leaves, and risk mould attacks. I'm keen to get something better sorted out for next year if possible... Anyone got any realistic suggestions please?

Thx

[roitelet]

I use soaker pots which only need filling every 4-5 days. If you have a pump and a well then it could be used for filling them and no watering can lugging. Keeps the leaves dry and puts the water where it is wanted, at the roots. Not expensive as if you buy the cheap terracotta pots and keep them out of the ground and dry during winter they will last for ages. There is nothing to go wrong with them as there is with some more commercial methods. There is an old thread but I don't know how to post a link.

Hope that helps.

[kathyd]

That sounds like a bigger version of what I've been doing with some individual plants, and tomatoes in pots, which is sticking milk bottles down by the roots - but once the squashes and cucumbers get their leaves on, I can't find the pots any more! Plus the water just seems to run straight through some of the pots and disappear, so I'm not sure if the plant is getting it or not. So a bigger version might work better, thanks . How many of your soaker pots do you use in say a sq m? Or do you put one in per plant... Does the water seep out through the sides of a terracota pot, or just out through the holes at the bottom?

[roitelet]

The hole in the bottom is blocked with a peice of slate stuck in with a waterproof silicone type adhesive and the water seeps out slowly through the sides. They are covered with some sort of lid to stop evaporation. I work on the principle of 1 pot to two tomato plants and 1 for each cucumber. If you are using them for things like lettuce just plant them in a circle round the pot. You need 10 or 12 inch terrcotta pots which hold about 5-7ltrs. You can also use them outside.

[esbo]

Hi. My polytunnel is 30ft long and 14ft wide. I have a water butt at each end, but no mains water or power. This year OH set up some plastic hose with holes in, fed by a pump to the well which is some distance away, the pump being located inside the barn / house. It was fantastic in some ways, but I stopped using it because it was plonking too much water on a few plants and nothing at all on others, and watering places where nothing was planted. So I've been watering by hand, which is OK but desperately time consuming, and painful on my hip which is getting increasingly dodgy. Plus I inevitably get water on leaves, and risk mould attacks. I'm keen to get something better sorted out for next year if possible... Anyone got any realistic suggestions please?

Thx

Would it not be possible to amend the hose, ie block some holes and make smaller ones and put more holes in where there is not enough water?

That is perhaps easier said then done. But if you have some rubber, like that in a bicycle inner tube, and you put a piece over the holes letting out too much water lashed to the hose by string then would it not be possible to reduce the water coming out in some places, this should have the effect of increasing it in other places.

Also perhaps as it is a handpump??? maybe if you lift the hose higher where it is giving too much water it might help? If it is mains pressure it would not make much difference I guess.

[kathyd]

Hi Esbo, thanks for your comments. It would be almost impossible to amend the hoses I think, unless just to add more by stabbing them with something (and I've been tempted!). One of the problems of course, which has nothing to do with these hoses specifically, is that as you pull up one crop and plant another, the next one is invariably going to have plants in different positions and therefore the holes you made for the original crop are no longer in the right place.

The pump is a mains pump, and we can't adjust the pressure unfortunately, so things nearest the beginning get loads of water, and it gradually reduces as it moves around the circuit. Water that seeps out of the holes also doesn't go very far (and at a guess is evaporating quite quickly in hot weather), so unless the hose and a hole are right next to a plant, I'm not convinced the plants are benefitting at all.

We've been thinking about soaker hoses but don't know how effective they are, and they're quite expensive to buy on a trial basis, plus we'd still have the same issues I assume of watering bits that don't need it, and the hose being too far away from needy plants to do any good? No idea, I'm hoping for some input...

I don't want to go for overhead watering because it'll just add to mould problems, so something at or under ground level seems the most appropriate. *sigh *

[zazen999]

Get a solar pump. We bought one and its kept our 50ft poly hydrated this summer. Put seaweed feed and/or a comfrey tea bag in the water butt and it feeds as it waters as well.

[kathyd]

Zaz - you have the pump attached to a water butt? That'd be good . What do you have in the way of hoses attached at the other side?

[redser]

I use soaker hoses and they are great. Lidl sell them twice a year. Look out for them next year around March/April. I think I paid 10 euro for a 15 meter length.
LIDL

To avoid the problem where the pressure drops further along the hose, you need to set up the hose in a circuit. Lidl also sell a Y splitter as part of a hose accessory set ...
LIDL

So the water will enter through the middle connection, exit through one of the splits, the water will snake round your beds, then return trough the other splitter. This will equalise the pressure all round the circuit and you will get even watering.

Works a treat for me

[zazen999]

Zaz - you have the pump attached to a water butt? That'd be good . What do you have in the way of hoses attached at the other side?

The normal thin pipe, and seep hoses coming off that.

[bazzaboy]

I There is an old thread but I don't know how to post a link.

R, To post a link simply go to the page you want to link to, copy the URL (address of that page at the top of the screen) and paste it into your letter. The system will automatically list it as a title (examples below). Easy-peasy.

If you use the Search facility to find previous discussions about watering systems in polytunnels etc (many, many many) you can easily find a wealth of suggestions and different techniques. Interesting topic. E.g. see:

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...tem_71534.html
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...eas_70520.html
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...nel_71003.html
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...use_69967.html
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...nel_68095.html
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...oop_65800.html
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ing_63565.html

Splish splash, happy watering, Kathyd

[veggiechicken]

Or click on the post number (Bazza's ^^^ is #11) and right click "Copy link address" http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1163471

[kathyd]

Thanks ppl, this is all really useful. I've sent OH a link to this thread and suggested he follow all the other links too. Will let you know how it develops!