Safe soaker hose?

I'm really enjoying my square food garden

I recently decided to add some type of watering system to my boxes so I picked up a soaker hose at Lowe's today...I haven't put it in the garden yet, but I hooked the hose up to the spigot to check the water flow and it looks like it would work really well. The water just oozes slowly from it down the entire length. Then I read on the packaging that it was made from recycled tires and was wondering if there may be a safely issue with using this kind for food, even though it's shown looped around vegetables on the packaging. If so, is there safer one that would work well? What is every ones' choice in soaker hoses?

Also, how many "runs" of hose do I put for a 4X4 box? I figure it's going to be either 2 or 3, but would love some suggestions so I don't have to "experiment" with it...this will be for a new box since all my other ones were planted a couple of months ago and some of the plants are really big. I want to bury it a couple of inches beneath the Mel's Mix before I add seeds to my fall boxes.

Thanks so much,
Rhonda

Howdy R.

I used soaker hoses for the first time this year. I placed a run of hose every 12 inches one to two inches below the surface of Mel's Mix. I found out through trial and error that the slower I ran the water the more the mix became moist throughout the box. If I ran the water at full force the only area that became wet before the water started draining out of the box was the area within 3 inches of the hose.

Can you tell me if you used the 1" or 1/4' soaker hose?

Mel's new book mentions soaker hoses every 6" but does not specify which size.

Would love to see a photo of how you designed your system.

Re: photos - me too. I have three soaker hoses and one spigot. I can't figure out how to make this work. (Of course, right now we are in our third day of rain, so I'm good for the moment!)

But the one time I used them so far, I had them looped all around the garden boxes, with buckets of any and all sorts to catch most of the water from the part of the hoses that ran between the boxes. I'm not sure this is how it is supposed to work!

I have used soaker hoses in all my sfg. I didn't like the rubber ones, they kink and dry-rot. I found a 75' hose made of canvas at Walmart ($13) that I have had for 3 years. It is just now showing signs of leaking more in a spot or two. Here is how I used it in my 4' x 24'.

see: https://servimg.com/view/15260516/28
and more here https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t5681-large-scale-square-foot-gardening

@ martha see https://servimg.com/view/15260516/27

If I had a memory left, I might have remembered about the splitters! Thanks, Squat! And good feedback about the canvas soaker hose, too.