Hello,

I am trying to build a pump-powered drip irrigation system on my balcony, which has an electric outlet but no water hook-up.

I've done hours of research on the Internet and haven't found much advice from anyone who has actually done this, which seems strange because the problem of no water hook-up on a balcony seems to be a common one.

I'm looking for any tips or advice, and am also happy to share what I've figured out so far (although I have no idea if this is going to work).

Here's what I think I've got down:

I plan to connect a regular drip-irrigation system for container plants to a pump designed for garden fountains. My balcony is small, so I don't think I will need a big pump. I am going to plug the pump into my electric outlet and a christmas-tree timer that will control the on-time by the minute. I'll figure out how long it needs to stay on once I have the thing running.

It seems like the most important thing I need to figure out is the pump size. The measurements I've seen for pump powers are: gallons-per-hour, psi, and how many feet you want the water to rise.(if you are interested, there are a lot of explainers on the Internet showing how to calculate psi.)

I'm pretty sure I don't need to worry about gallons per hour because I'm not going to pump that much water, and I'm hoping the timer and the pressure-gauge on the irrigation system will help control how much I am pumping.

It seems the most important thing I need is a pump that has enough power to propell the water up the hose--I'm going to put the tank on the ground and snake the feeder hose to the balcony overhang, which is about 8 feet up. I want to attach smaller drip hoses from there to my three hanging baskets, two window boxes and about 10 potted plants.

So I think I need a pump with about 3.59 psi, or about a 9-foot rise (just to be safe.) I have done a little browsing on the internet, and it looks like the safest bet would be to get a pump that can operate in and out of the water--just in case I can't check the water level and the water runs below the pump or something). I found one that fits all those requirements for about $40.

I'm going to pump the water from a standard 5 or 8 gallon bucket--I don't have room for anything bigger, so I'm going to monitor the water level daily (and hope it will hold enough water to last for a few days or more when I go out of town). I think I need to put a lid on the bucket to keep debris from falling in and clogging my pump and drill holes in the lid for my tubing and electrical cord. I think I also need to drill an air hole--I read that somewhere but I forgot why. I'm not sure if I need any additional filtration.

I'm about to buy all the parts for this and was wondering if anyone could tell me if I'm on the right track? From my estimation, it looks like I can put this together for about $100. If I can have a whole summer with all (or most) of my plants surviving, I think it will more than justify the expense. (I like to go out of town for the weekends and hate coming back to dead plants--also it seems that even when I am home and can water every day, some of my plants invariably shrivel up during the hotter part of the summer when I can't monitor them all day long.)

Does anybody have any idea if this will work???