Soaker hose in polytunnel/greenhoues beds?

[Alison]

Smaller pipe will definitely need a greater pressure to drive through the water (trust me, I used to design hydraulic systems ) and there is actually a risk that the friction losses will actually mean that the water won't really flow out at a rate that you require. I'd definitely go with a simple battery operated timer, that way you can up and down the amount of water as you get the hang of it - if you look at the links I posted earlier you'll see they way I get it to work but feel free if you have any further questions. One thing I don't understand is why you're putting part of your reservoir inside the valuable tunnel space - mine are outside with and inverted syphon pipe (made of hose pipe) from the water butts under the base rail and into the tunnel. There is then a normal hosepipe ring main round the tunnel with soaker pipe hoses buried into the individual beds.

[bario1]

Hi Alison, thanks for your (and everyone else's) input on this, it's been very helpful. I think i will go with a timer.
The reason i was going to put a barrel inside the tunnel, was simply so that i would have access to water without going in and out of the tunnel wth my watering can the whole time (there's no mains water nearby)... I also heard that a barrel of water inside the tunnel can act as a kind of storage heater at night. However, in a tunnel as small as mine it does seem a bit of a wate of space, in summer at least. I have now dreamt up another system, with a row of 6 barrels at the back end of the tunnel (outside) that i can access through the rear door (used for ventilation only) This would up my reservoir to 300ltr.
What i don't understand is what an inverted syphon hose is, and how you get the water into the tunnel? What do you attach the soak hoses to?

Thanks.

[redser]

Hi Alison, thanks for your (and everyone else's) input on this, it's been very helpful. I think i will go with a timer.
The reason i was going to put a barrel inside the tunnel, was simply so that i would have access to water without going in and out of the tunnel wth my watering can the whole time (there's no mains water nearby)... I also heard that a barrel of water inside the tunnel can act as a kind of storage heater at night. However, in a tunnel as small as mine it does seem a bit of a wate of space, in summer at least. I have now dreamt up another system, with a row of 6 barrels at the back end of the tunnel (outside) that i can access through the rear door (used for ventilation only) This would up my reservoir to 300ltr.
What i don't understand is what an inverted syphon hose is, and how you get the water into the tunnel? What do you attach the soak hoses to?

Thanks.

You can buy Y junctions to split a line. Lidl get them in during Spring. Each outlet on the Y has a little tap on it. Place a Y on the hose that runs from your barrel, just inside the tunnel door. Have your soaker hose running off one of the Y outlets, and then a short length of solid hose running off the other one. So you will have a tap with running water inside your tunnel. That's what I did It's nice and convenient.

[Kristen]

What i don't understand is what an inverted syphon hose is, and how you get the water into the tunnel? What do you attach the soak hoses to?

Picture attached. When water fills up to light-blue level siphon will start, when siphon empties tank down to dark-blue it will stop

[bario1]

Sorry, i still don't get it... why not just have this?




Am i being thick? I'd really like to understand this!

[Kristen]

My thought was that you need pressure to drive the system. If you just have a drip-drip feed then that won't get through the seep hose to the far end. If you could have a drip-drip feed into "my tank", and lets assume it took 24 hours to fill my tank, then once full the siphon would kick in and provide decent pressure to the seep hose. Once my tank emptied the siphon would be "broken" and it would resume filling back up again.

But it relies on having a slow-fill drip-drip method - although that might be had for free . If you can use a timer I think that would be much better. Only slight downside of a timer is that as the header tank approaches being empty the flow rate will be slower, so in X-minutes the plants would get less water [than when the header tank was full]. It's probably a moot point though.

[bario1]

Have your soaker hose running off one of the Y outlets, and then a short length of solid hose running off the other one.

Yes, i see, and attach the timer to the soaker hose outlet on the 'Y'. Brilliant!

[bario1]

My thought was that you need pressure to drive the system. If you just have a drip-drip feed then that won't get through the seep hose to the far end. If you could have a drip-drip feed into "my tank", and lets assume it took 24 hours to fill my tank, then once full the siphon would kick in and provide decent pressure to the seep hose. Once my tank emptied the siphon would be "broken" and it would resume filling back up again.

But it relies on having a slow-fill drip-drip method - although that might be had for free . If you can use a timer I think that would be much better. Only slight downside of a timer is that as the header tank approaches being empty the flow rate will be slower, so in X-minutes the plants would get less water [than when the header tank was full]. It's probably a moot point though.

So a timer would eliminate the need for a syphon, but the pressure will be lower...

Think i understand... so taking the syphon out of the equation for a moment, this is my system - would it work?

[bario1]

Sorry to go on about this, but would a 'leaky' hose (i.e. a normal hose with holes in it, as opposed to a proper porous 'soaker' hose), require less pressure?

[Kristen]

this is my system - would it work?

Looks fine. In practice you don't need 2 connections for each tank. Assuming each tank has a single tap then connect a hose to that, and connect all the hoses with Y connectors, and then finally into your Y connector for manual-use / timer-use

[Bill HH]

I cant see how a syphon helps in this situation, raising all the tanks would help increase the pressure though,

[bario1]

The barrels aren't purpose built water butts, they're just plastic barrels i can get for free. The idea was to link them DIY style using hose and sealant rather than using expensive connectors and taps.
Potentially i could have a large overflow tank nearby with the syphon thingy in it to take water back into the barrels when they empty?

[bario1]

I cant see how a syphon helps in this situation, raising all the tanks would help increase the pressure though,

I know Bill, but unfortunately the tanks cannot be raised because the gutter outlet is at a fixed height (4ft or so).

[Bill HH]

I know Bill, but unfortunately the tanks cannot be raised because the gutter outlet is at a fixed height (4ft or so).

Raise the green house then LOL


Here is my system that works well, three barrels connected via their taps, a pump in the right hand barrel pumps water to the top of my garden (Very steep slope) to filll a barrel up there for watering plants on the summit.
The right hand y piece has a take off point with a hose and tap for filling watering cans or a soaker hose in the GH.

In the top barrel I have placed a block of polysytrene with a stick in it, leading through a hole in the lid, on the top of the stick you can see a white lump of sponge (A roller off a mini paint roller) This tells me how full the barrel is to save me walking up there. I was chuffed with this little invention and it works



I just took these pics and can you see I have a flippin rose in bloom in the one picture!

The fittings for the hoses I bought from B&Q, they have a range of non hozelock ones (blue) which are £1 each instead of knocking on £4, they seem to do the job without leaks, particularly as its all low pressure.

[bario1]

Wow Bill, impressive stuff! Your garden looks amazing. What fills the barrels in the first place?