[Arid_gardener] RE: Soaker hose

[Bill Woody]

Re Polly's recent question, I recently installed 1/4" soaker hose on a
number of young trees.  So far I like it.  It delivers quite a bit of water,
so on trees that don't need much water I used two pieces about 2 feet long
on opposite sides of a basin about 8 feet in circumference.  Water flows
around the basin pretty well even though the hose occupies only half of it.

One trivial drawback is that one or a few holes in every yard or so of the
hose may spray a thin stream a foot into the air.  Nonuniform hole sizes, in
other words.  Covering the hoses with mulch takes care of that and
presumably extends the life (UV protection).

If eventually the holes plug up or the hose deteriorates, it's cheap and
quick to replace them.

Bill