6 Best Extension Hoses For Reaching High Trees Old Farmers Swear By
Watering tall trees requires the right gear. Discover the 6 extension hoses farmers swear by for their proven durability, flexibility, and maximum reach.
There’s nothing more frustrating than dragging a 100-foot hose out to your young apple trees, only to have it kink 20 feet from the spigot, cutting off your water. Or worse, having a cheap vinyl hose split wide open just as you’re about to apply a crucial foliar spray to the highest branches. A reliable extension hose isn’t a luxury on a small farm; it’s a fundamental tool that saves you time, water, and sanity.
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Why a Tough Extension Hose is a Farmer’s Best Friend
A good hose is about more than just moving water from point A to point B. It’s about reliability when you’re far from the house, trying to douse a newly planted windbreak or deep-water a mature walnut tree. A cheap hose fails when it’s dragged over gravel, snagged on a fence post, or left in the sun one too many times.
Reaching high trees demands more than just length. It requires a hose that can maintain pressure over 100 or even 200 feet without bursting when you attach a high-pressure nozzle. It needs to be tough enough to be pulled through tall grass and around thorny bushes without getting punctured. This is a tool, not a disposable convenience.
Think of it as an investment. Spending a bit more upfront on a quality hose means you aren’t buying a new one every other season. It means you can trust it to work when you need it most, whether you’re washing down equipment or giving a struggling tree a much-needed drink during a drought.
Flexzilla Garden Hose: Lightweight & Kink-Proof
The Flexzilla is a game-changer if you’re tired of fighting with heavy, stiff hoses. Made from a flexible hybrid polymer, it’s remarkably lightweight, making it easy to pull across a large property without feeling like you’re in a tug-of-war. This is the hose you’ll grab for everyday tasks because it’s just so easy to handle.
Its main claim to fame is its "kink-free" design. While no hose is completely immune to kinking if you try hard enough, the Flexzilla comes impressively close under normal use. This means you can walk around trees, sheds, and equipment without constantly doubling back to fix a stoppage. The material also stays flexible in colder temperatures, a huge plus on chilly spring and fall mornings.
The tradeoff here is ruggedness versus convenience. While durable for its weight, the polymer jacket can be more susceptible to punctures from exceptionally sharp objects like broken glass or jagged metal scraps than a thick rubber hose. For most farm tasks, however, its durability is more than sufficient, and the ease of use is a massive benefit.
Craftsman Rubber Hose: The Classic Heavy-Duty Choice
Get professional-grade performance with this lightweight, heavy-duty 5/8" garden hose. Its flexible design resists kinks even in cold weather, and anodized aluminum couplings ensure secure, crush-resistant connections.
When you need a hose that can take a serious beating, you reach for something like the Craftsman black rubber hose. This is the old-school, no-nonsense option. It’s heavy, it’s tough, and it’s built to withstand years of abuse. You can leave it out in the blazing sun or drag it across a rocky driveway, and it will just keep working.
The key advantage is its sheer durability and pressure handling. The thick rubber walls resist bursting even with high-pressure nozzles, which is essential for blasting pests off high leaves or cleaning caked-on mud from your tiller. They almost always come with heavy-duty, crush-proof brass couplings that will outlast the hose itself.
Of course, that toughness comes at a price: weight. Hauling a 100-foot rubber hose is a workout, and coiling it neatly requires some muscle. This isn’t the hose for delicate flower beds; it’s the workhorse you bring out for the tough jobs where failure is not an option.
Gilmour Flexogen Pro for Unmatched Durability
If you want a hose that balances heavy-duty construction with modern kink-resistance, the Gilmour Flexogen Pro is a top contender. It’s an 8-ply hose, meaning it has eight distinct layers designed for strength, flexibility, and longevity. It feels substantial without being as back-breakingly heavy as an industrial rubber hose.
The multi-layer design is specifically engineered to prevent kinking and bursting. It has a foam layer that helps the hose self-straighten, which works surprisingly well. This is the hose you buy when you want a "one and done" solution that will last for a decade or more of hard use. It’s a true professional-grade tool for the serious hobby farmer.
Compared to a basic rubber hose, you get significantly better flexibility and kink resistance. Compared to a lightweight hose like the Flexzilla, you get a major upgrade in puncture and abrasion resistance. It’s the ideal middle ground for someone who needs daily reliability and toughness for varied tasks around the farmstead.
Dramm ColorStorm: Professional Grade for Orchards
You’ll see Dramm hoses in commercial greenhouses and professional orchards for a reason. These are premium tools built for people who depend on them for their livelihood. Made from EPDM rubber, the ColorStorm is exceptionally resistant to weathering from sun and ozone, and it remains flexible in a wide range of temperatures.
The bright colors aren’t just for show; they provide high visibility in the field, reducing the chances of tripping over it or, even worse, running it over with the mower or tractor. The nickel-plated brass fittings are also a step above standard brass, offering superior corrosion resistance and a crush-proof design.
This is an investment in absolute reliability. When you are applying a carefully timed organic spray to your fruit trees, the last thing you need is an equipment failure. The Dramm hose delivers consistent pressure and performance, ensuring your hard work isn’t wasted. It costs more, but it’s a classic case of getting what you pay for.
Continental Pro: Handles High Water Pressure
For certain jobs, standard water pressure just won’t cut it. If you’re using a pressure-boosting pump or have exceptionally high water pressure from your source, the Continental Pro (often sold under the brand ContiTech) is the hose to trust. This is an industrial-grade hose designed to handle pressures that would make a consumer-grade hose bulge and burst.
Its construction is all about strength, with reinforced rubber designed for a high burst pressure rating, often exceeding 500 PSI. This makes it the perfect choice for tasks requiring a powerful jet of water, like cleaning out culverts, washing down muddy equipment, or using sprayers that need high pressure to atomize liquids effectively for canopy penetration.
This is a specialized tool. It’s heavy, stiff, and not particularly pleasant to drag around for general watering. But for high-pressure applications, its safety and reliability are non-negotiable. It provides the peace of mind that your hose won’t be the weak link in your system.
Water Right 400: Slim, Tough Polyurethane Hose
Get a lightweight and durable garden hose that's safe for drinking water. The Water Right 400 Series hose is made in the USA with toxin-free polyurethane and features lead-free brass fittings.
The Water Right hose offers a completely different approach. It’s made from polyurethane, a material that is incredibly durable, abrasion-resistant, and surprisingly lightweight. These hoses are often slimmer than traditional ones, making them a breeze to coil and store on a reel.
A major benefit of polyurethane is that it’s drinking-water safe and contains no lead or phthalates, which is a consideration for anyone filling animal waterers or irrigating organic vegetable gardens. It also remains flexible in freezing temperatures, a feature that anyone who has wrestled with a frozen-stiff rubber hose will appreciate.
The main tradeoffs are cost and flow rate. These are premium hoses with a price tag to match. Additionally, the slimmer profile (often 1/2-inch or 7/16-inch diameter) means a slightly lower volume of water flow compared to a standard 5/8-inch hose. For most spraying and watering tasks this isn’t an issue, but it’s something to be aware of if you’re trying to move large volumes of water quickly.
Caring for Your Hose: Tips to Make It Last Decades
The single best thing you can do for any hose is to release the pressure after every use. Turn off the water at the spigot, then open the nozzle to let the remaining water out. A hose left pressurized in the hot sun is a hose that is begging to fail.
Proper storage is critical. While a good rubber hose can handle UV rays, no hose benefits from being left in the sun 24/7. Coiling it on a quality hose reel or simply in a loose loop in a shady spot or shed will protect it from sun degradation and physical damage. Before the first hard frost, always drain your hoses completely to prevent ice from expanding and splitting the inner wall.
Finally, don’t neglect the ends. The small rubber washer inside the female coupling is the most common failure point. They get compressed and brittle over time, causing annoying leaks at the spigot. Keep a small bag of replacement washers on hand; they cost pennies and can fix the most common leaks in seconds.
Choosing the right hose isn’t about finding the "best" one, but the right one for your property and your tasks. Whether you prioritize the effortless handling of a Flexzilla or the bombproof reliability of a Craftsman, a quality hose is a foundational investment. It’s a tool that, with a little care, will serve you reliably for years, letting you focus on the trees, not the tangle at your feet.
