When you buy a new nozzle for your garden hose, you may notice it comes with a lot of different spray settings. It’s not always clear which settings are best for different situations, such as taking care of your lawn, plants, or walkway. So, if you’re wondering how to use the various spray settings on your garden hose, here are a few essential tips to remember for some of the more common settings.
Shower
The shower setting is one of the standard settings on a garden hose nozzle. This setting is generally suitable for covering a nice range without using high pressure. The shower is an ideal setting for garden boxes and flower beds. Some sprayers come with a full setting that is similar to shower but usually with higher pressure to reach further distances.
Soaker
Many people wonder how to use this spray setting on their garden hoses. The soaker is low pressure and low distance, often seeming more like a dribble than a proper spray. However, this setting is ideal for watering shrubs, crops, and other plants where you want the water to land closer to the base of the plant. This is also a good setting for getting close to the ground.
Mist
The mist setting is best for more fragile plants that need appropriate amounts of humidity. Tropical plants, orchids, and bamboo do very well with moisture and respond better to regular misting rather than any sort of torrential downpour from your hose.
Jet
The jet setting is a very powerful blast that focuses on a single area. Because of the high pressure, this setting isn’t good for plants but is a great solution when you want to clean dirt and debris off of your sidewalk or porch. The jet is a useful hose setting, but it shouldn’t be used when tending to the garden.