The Miracle-Gro Soaker System Set is an adjustable mini-drip system for sluggish, deep watering. It consists of 50, 75 or 100 feet of 3/8-inch sturdy soaker hose and up to 20 of the business’s EZ-Connect fittings to establish a drip irrigation system in a wide range of sizes and designs.
You can’t beat drip watering for nearly any plant in your landscape, so a soaker hose system like the Miracle-Gro Soaker System Kit is well worth thinking about. To see how the pipe and connections perform and how simple the set is to use, I tested a few custom setups around my garden and backyard. Here’s what I discovered.
About Soaker Hoses
Soaker hose pipes are rubber tubes with tiny pores along their whole length from which water gradually leaks. You can discover soaker hoses in various lengths (usually 25 to 100 feet) and diameters (from 1/4 to 5/8 inch).
A soaker hose permits you to water gradually around plants so the water can soak down to the plant’s root zone.
To make them work best, you need adequate water pressure to force water through the entire length of soaker hose, but not so high a pressure that the ports and end caps blow off. If water is spraying out of the pipe, rather than weeping, then the water pressure is expensive.
Soaker hoses work best in much shorter lengths; it’s tough to get water to weep along the entire length of a 100-foot hose or a system designed with lots of branches. In those cases, you’ll frequently see too much water emitted along the hose pipe near the spigot, and extremely little at the back( s) of the tube.
These kinds of hoses also work better on reasonably flat ground. If you have a sloped lawn, a soaker tube most likely isn’t a good option.
About the Miracle-Gro Soaker System Kit
The Miracle-Gro Soaker System Kit is an inexpensive mini-drip system for your garden. It enables you to tailor the soaker hose pipe design to fit your needs without wasting water by using excess pipe you don’t need (as is the case with most soaker hose pipes).
What’s Included in the Kit
There are three different Miracle-Gro Soaker System Kits, each with different lengths of soaker tube (50, 75 or 100 feet) and number/types of connectors. I checked the 100-foot set, that includes:
100 feet of 3/8 ″ soaker pipe
4 female ports– they’re comparable to those found on regular garden pipes so you can link the drip system to a faucet or another tube
2 T-shaped feeders– the long end links to a regular garden tube (the “feeder” hose pipe that supplies water to the drip system) while the two ends on the top of the T link to the soaker hose
6 T-connectors– these permit you to connect pieces of soaker pipe into rows or other customized designs
4 male adapters with caps– the caps are used to block the pipe at the end
4 plugs– for blocking water at the ends of a line feeding T-connected lines
built-in water restrictor to manage PSI
According to Miracle-Gro, the soaker tube is built of 65% recycled material, is lead-free and meets California requirements on phthalate content.
How To Set Up the Soaker System
The first step is to unpack the hose pipe and connectors and end up being acquainted with the parts. Then take a look at your design choices and figure out the very best design for your soaker system.
Useful Tip: You require to prepare ahead and lay the soaker pipe out in the sun for a minimum of an hour so it will warm up and straighten. If you have two people, pull the hose out to full length if possible so it straightens much better. When it is directly adequate to deal with, start establishing your system.
My first task was to water some sand cherry bushes in a raised bed. I developed a loop around both trees, utilizing a T-connector to get some additional water under one of them.
It’s simple to cut the hose to the length you want by utilizing a pair of scissors or hand pruners. Just make sure to make clean cuts at a 90-degree angle; a hose pipe with rough edges or angled cuts will likely leakage when inserted into a connector.
It’s likewise basic to connect any of the parts. All of the ports are EZ-Connect fittings developed to be simply pushed/twisted onto the soaker tube– no tools or adhesive needed. Note that they should be pushed firmly onto the pipe to avoid leaks.