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Pa

what is the difference between the two, which is better? Thanks.

2/7/2010 3:17:09 PM

Connecticut

Hi Titanic-

    I used soaker hoses to begin with in my early days of growing. However, what I noticed is that the area near the water source received too much water, the area in the middle was just right, and the end portion was to dry. This lead to poor root structure across my plant.

    Also, the distance of adequate water was not very far with soaker hoses. It was difficult to get water down a 30ft. section for me. So I did some research and found drip tapes. If you have used soaker hoses before you may find it hard to believe that I can now water 130ft. stretch of drip line with equal watering across the entire length. This has allowed much greater control over water applied to the plant and more even applications.

    All I do is run the feeder line on the edge of the patch and tap off my drip lines from there. There are some required components (filter, pressure reducers, and such) but overall benefits are worth the set-up, in my opinion.

    To simply answer your question: drip tape allows for more even watering over a long distance and gets my vote for being ‘better’ for watering giant pumpkin plants.

    Check out the post below this for the exact type of drip tape I use and links to pictures.

-Matt

2/7/2010 10:09:11 PM

Section, AL

also the drip tape turns out to be less expensive

2/8/2010 12:47:45 AM