A common problem arises for gardeners who need to connect a soaker hose to a water source far away from where water is needed. Or perhaps two garden beds using soaker hoses need to be connected. In such cases you might find yourself wondering: “Can you attach a soaker hose to a garden hose?”
The answer is yes! You can attach a soaker hose to a garden hose. This can be done by using a coupling or connector that is compatible with both the soaker hose and the garden hose. Doing this will allow water to flow through both hoses, providing a steady stream of water to your plants.
What is a Soaker Hose?
As anyone who has ever watered a garden knows, getting the water to the roots of the plants can be a challenge. A soaker hose is a type of hose that is designed to deliver water directly to the roots of plants.
The hose is made of porous material that allows water to seep out slowly and evenly along its length. This ensures that the roots receive a steady supply of moisture, without the leaves and stems becoming wet.
Soaker hoses can be used to water individual plants or small areas, or they can be placed around the perimeter of a larger garden. Either way, they are an efficient way to deliver water directly to the roots, where it is needed most.
Using water efficiently with a soaker hose
Soaker hoses actually conserve water as they help gardeners apply water directly to areas where the plants need it most, directly to their roots.
One drawback with soaker hoses is that they release water along the entire length of the hose. It’s great for areas where there are a lot of plants that need watering.
But what if you have to stretch the soaker hose over a span that doesn’t really need watering?
This is where connecting a garden hose to a soaker hose comes in handy.
How to connect a soaker hose to a garden hose
We’re going to connect the garden hose to the soaker hose with a connector or coupling.
The type of coupling you want will depend on your situation. There are a likely two different scenarios you’re likely facing:
1) You have a full length soaker hose with both the male and female fittings in tact.
To better illustrate what we mean by fittings, here is a soaker hose with fittings:
Here is one without the fittings:
First lets address the task of connecting a soaker hose that has fittings to a garden hose. If the two hoses are the same diameter, it could be as simple as screwing the garden hose male fitting to the soaker hose’s female fitting.
Now, if you’ve taken the time to google this problem, the issue is probably not that simple.
Perhaps your soaker hose’s male and female fittings are in tact, but you need to screw the male soaker hose fitting to the male garden hose fitting.
If that’s the case, all you need is a coupling that turns a male fitting into a female. Before you buy a coupling, however, you need to make sure you’re buying the correct size.
Measuring your garden and soaker hose diameter size
Most residential hoses have 5/8″ fittings, but some are 3/4″ or 1/2″.
If you want to measure the size of your garden and soaker hose, you can do that pretty easily:
1) Take a thick piece of paper (like bond paper or an index card) and form a tube with it small enough to fit inside the opening of your hose. Be sure to get the paper deep into the rubber part of the hose.
2) Remove the paper keeping the diameter of the paper tube in tact where it made contact with the rubber. You may want to place a piece of tape on the paper to help keep it’s form.
3) Using measuring tape or a ruler, take a measurement of the widest part of the paper tube. That will give you your hose size!
Garden Hose Couplings
Now that you have the size of both hoses, you can now purchase the correct size coupling.
If you need to connect two male fittings, you’ll need a coupling like this:
Or if the situation is reversed and you need to turn a female hose fitting into a male, that coupling would look something like this:
One thing to note: if your soaker hose is significantly smaller than your garden hose (less than 1/2″ diameter) then you will want to buy a pressure regulator in addition to a coupling when connecting the two together. Here’s one that could work if it’s the right size:
A Useful Video on Attaching a Soaker Hose to Garden Hose
2) You have a soaker hose that does not have any fittings
The second scenario that can likely occur is that you have a soaker hose that doesn’t have male & female fittings.
If you have one without fittings, you’re going to need to purchase a compression fitting that you actually insert into the end of the soaker hose. The other side of the fitting should have threading that the garden hose can screw onto. Here’s one that would work (if it’s the right size!)
**Pro Tip: To make it easier to insert the compression fitting into the soaker hose, boil some water and dip the end of your soaker hose into the water for a minute. This will make the rubber more flexible and able to fit around the compression fitting easily.
Not finding the right size hose couplings?
If you’re having a hard time finding the right size couplers, you can use scissors to cut the fitting off the end of your garden or soaker hose and refit it.
You can do that with this type of coupler:
Conclusion
There you have it! You should have all the information you need to connect a garden hose to a soaker hose. Just pay attention to the size of your hose and fittings before making any purchases.
Happy gardening!
