water draining right out the bottom of boxes...

Hi. I have a watering question for you all.

Last year we put soaker hoses on each of our 4x4 boxes (we coiled them around and staked it down). After watering for a bit of time, the corners seemed to not be getting moisture--the water was not spreading out to them and those plants did not do so well. The year before I don't recall this happening. This last year what seemed to be happening was that the water was draining right out the bottom of the boxes (we have the bottoms with drainage holes) and not spreading out. We have carpet around the boxes and we noticed that it was getting soaked from underneath.

Why was this happening? Could our mix be off? We bought it from a company (we're in Utah) that makes Mel's Mix by the cubic yard and sells it. It totally seemed the year before that the water from the soaker hose would easily spread out to all the near by plants really easily, so it's something that would have changed over the year to make this happen.

Thoughts?

Shelly

Even with MM, it's possible the water made channels through the mix, and is now draining straight through, with hardly a chance to soak in.

Rearrange your hoses, or stir everything up would be my suggestion.

Well without pictures I can only guess. That being said here's what I think might be happening.

If your dirt has gotten too dry it will have a hard time absorbing the water. What might have happened is the corners dried out so the water wouldn't go there as it followed the path of least resistence ... through the already moist section and straight out the bottom.

Ever try to clean up a spill with a dry sponge and you didn't do anything except move the liquid around? Same concept.

What you might need to do is rearrange your hose?

drixnot wrote:Well without pictures I can only guess. That being said here's what I think might be happening.

If your dirt has gotten too dry it will have a hard time absorbing the water. What might have happened is the corners dried out so the water wouldn't go there as it followed the path of least resistence ... through the already moist section and straight out the bottom.

Ever try to clean up a spill with a dry sponge and you didn't do anything except move the liquid around? Same concept.

What you might need to do is rearrange your hose?

+1