Soaker Hose

[DeadDoc]

Ok i have a 2 zone timer with soaker hoses and all... how often and how long should I run it for watering the hops. Once an hour for 5 minutes? or less often?

We tend to sit on the slightly humid end during the summer with usually 90's+ but as I am seeing the hop garden I have will start getting shade around 1pm but gets the early morning sun. The part that starts to get the shade first will be the sunbeam.

 

[Mutilated1]

Much less often.

What you want to do is water deeply when the plants need it. If you overwater you don't encourage the plant's roots to dig deeper or spread out.

What you should do is water around the plant, not directly on top of the plant water until a puddle starts to form on the ground and then stop. Don't water again until you start to see that the leaves look wilted or that the ground around the plant is dry past the depth you can push your finger in the dirt.

If you do that, you will encourage the plants roots to spread out and grow deeper to "reach" for the water. If you over water, not only are you cheating your plant out of the opportunity to grow you're opening the door for rot and fungus.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

New rhisomes should be watered lightly and frequently, keeping the soil moist but not saturated.

Older crown benefit more from deep watering.

To define an exact watering schedule is impossible without monitoring the actual soil moisture and knowing the age of the plant.

I had mine set at 5 minutes, twice a day and even that has proved too much for this time of the year.

 

[david_42]

I'd start at 5 minutes once a day and increase it as the weather & bine growth dictate. Drip lines are better than soakers for weed control.

 

[CodeRage]

I run my 2 gph drippers for 5 minutes every other day on my first year rhizomes. I used one of those $5 moisture meters from Lowes and tweak my watering so when the soil got on the low side of the moist range it would kick on the following morning. The plants are growing just fine, a little slow but I am sure that is because they are establishing a root system.

 

[cheezydemon]

Timers are for when you are on vacation. Take into account rain fall and don't just leave them on a timer.

Days that are 100 and dry will require twice as much water as days that are 75 and dry.

 

[southern brewer]

Its been 85 degrees here lately. i put a timer on mine and basically hooked a soaker hose up. I have noticed that if I dampen the soil, i get more growth from my plants. for the longest time, nothing was growing. Then one of my hops started pushing up and it was going really slow. i started watering 4 times a day (just dampening the soil a bit) and in a week it shot up 3 inches and put 3 more shoots out of the ground. My timer turns on from 8am-8pm for 4 minutes each. It waters my 4 large pots with my hops in it (via 18" soaker hose per pot) and the rest of my herb garden (45' worth of soaker hose). I have the water barely cracked on. I have watched it water and it waters just enough to dampen about 3/4 of each pot. When it gets consistently hotter, i will add a minute or two extra depending on if the hops look like they are struggling or not. But from what I have noticed, they enjoy the extra water that I am giving them.