Drip Irrigation In A Bucket

Drip watering container plants. I have posted about drip watering in the past. Some of my installations worked out better than others.

This time I need to water 2 tomato plants, 2 squash and a container filled with small green onions.

I opted to use a 5 or 6 gallon bucket as my water container. I had on hand several short sections of 1/8 drip feed line, valves, emitters and barbs.

Barb(s) are sued to attach drip lines to my bucket as well as to splice short drip hoses together when I need longer drip lines.

Emitters attach to the end of my drip lines at the plant base. Emitters can be purchased that dispense water rated at GPH(gallons per hour). The emitters I had are rated at 1/2 GPH.

Much to my surprise, the emitters didn’t work! It seems that I received a FFI, failure to follow instructions. That 1/2 GPH rating is based on a line pressure of 20 to 40 PSI(pounds per square inch.
My gravity feed bucked failed the pressure requirement.

Plan B Remove emitters and allow water to free flow from the 1/8 inch drip lines.
Yea for me.
Without the emitters attached, water free flows nicely. Taking about 1 1/2 hours to drain 2 gallons of water from my bucket. I’m putting 2 gallons in my bucket twice a day. Once at about 7 or 8 AM and again about 7 or so in the PM.

Results. So far and it’s been about a week of 95 – 102 degree days. Container soils have remained nicely moist, not to wet, and with this slow application no water has drained out the bottom of my containers and soil temperatures are remaining fairly cool. Cool soil in hot weather for tomato plants is a good thing.

How I did it. I used an ice pick to punch the hole near the bottom of my bucket where I used epoxy glue to glue barbs into the bucket. After the glue setup I attached my 1/8 inch drip lines(rubber tubing).
Note, I think a 1/8 inch drill bit is the correct size to drill the barb holes. BUT, test this hole size before drilling holes in your bucket. However using a liberal amount of glue on the barbs should help you avoid and unwanted leaks.

Added side benefit using left over and recycled parts, cost on my container drip watering system was $0.00 United States Dollars.
Also I can add fertilized to my bucket when a dose of fertilizer is needed.

Not from the USA. Please leave me comment about your home town and country.

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Why is common sense so uncommon?
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