How to Do Drip Irrigation for Hanging Plants

If you have a group of hanging pots dangling in a group or hanging close to each other, you can set up a connected drip irrigation system to make watering efficient and easy. By putting your hanging pot drip irrigation system on a timer you can make sure no one forgets to water the plants. With the slow delivery system of drip irrigation, water is likely to penetrate slowly and deeply into the pot yet be less prone to splash or overflow as it can with hand watering. Does this Spark an idea?

Things You'll Need

• Hanging potted plants
• Backflow prevention device
• Optional timer
• Flexible drip tubing, 1/4 inch
• Drip emitters
• Garden staples

Instructions

1. Place your hanging pots so they are conveniently located near a water source. You will be attaching your water tubing line to a faucet or hose bib. Indoor drip systems will require more creative thinking to hide a water line of any length than outdoor drip systems. The closer the water source is, the easier and more attractive your drip installation will be.

2. Buy a backflow prevention device to screw onto the faucet so dirty water cannot drain backwards from the hanging pots into the clean water supply at the water source.

3. Screw the inlet connection of a water timer onto the backflow if you want the drip system to turn on and off automatically.

4. Attach your water tubing line to the backflow or, if you are using a timing device, to the timer. Lay out the line so it reaches your first hanging pot. Lay or hang your line so it is as inconspicuous as possible. Make sure your tubing line remains fairly straight or curved and avoid sharp corners or kinks to allow water to flow smoothly.

5. Drape quarter-inch tubing into the first pot, cutting the line where you will slot an inline dripper into the end. Slip a length of tubing onto the other end of the plastic drip emitter and link it to the next pot.

6. Press the ends of a gardening staple into the soil so it sits over the water line just above the emitter to keep it in place. Gardening staples are available at most garden centers or home stores. They look like a U-shaped piece of bent metal and will efficiently "staple" the line and emitter into place in the pot.

7. Supply each pot with one to three emitters, depending on the size of the pot. For larger pots that need more than one emitter, each emitter can be separated by a short length of water line tubing. Continue by linking the last emitter to another length of drip line tubing that will span the space to the next hanging pot.

8. End the line with an emitter that will drip into the last hanging pot.

9. Set your timer to water according to the speed your pot naturally dries out. This will depend on where your pots are hanging, the kind of potting soil in the pot and what kinds of plants are growing in your hanging pots. Or turn on your faucet manually whenever your hanging pots need watering by your drip irrigation system.

Resources

• Source for drip irrigation supplies