I use pcv pipe, 2ltr soda bottles,milk jugs all worked well for me think i like the one gal milk jugs best i use 2 1 gal jugs per plant one on each side . in the heat of summer i fill both jugs once a week.we use lots of top mulch to save water. The only reason i use this method is because i use rain water and water from a near by stream.

wolfwalker, please explain. So the jugs are buried??? Holes in them...? How far from the plant? Details please. Thx

Cut the bottoms ( i cut a 4 in circle in the bottoms and plant them neck down) from some gallon-size jugs, punch a few holes and remove the caps and set them in the ground with only about an inch of the jug showing above the surface. Use two jugs near each tomato plant and fill them one or two times per week -- or more often, if needed. This method directs water right to the root zone , I plant the jugs about 6 inches or so from the new tomato plants.

I use 1/2 gallon plastic milk jugs or those clear juice bottles (from grape or cranberry or apple juice). Punch holes in the bottom, and plant them right-side up. I uncap to fill the bottle, then cap it back up. I was doing it once a day last summer, but it's so hot out here and like a dummy I didn't mulch...so...this year, I'll mulch and see if I can get away with watering less. Oh, and my tomato plants got a little crazy-like, so it was hard to get to the jugs...I'll prune them this year...

wolfwalker and cyumickey-- At the end of the season are the buried jugs cracked or decomposing? Do they leach any chemical substance one might not want leached into the root zone?

Wolfwalker-- Does that broad an open space on the top form planting the jug upside down create mosquito problems?

I am intrigued by this idea.

I just pulled mine up a few weeks ago. Aside from being slightly yellowed, they were fine. I don't know if it leached anything into the soil, though. I tossed them to start anew this year. Actually, last year I only used the clear juice containers (aesthetically, it is nicer to me, lol). I have to go and buy some juice now so I can use the containers...although...I wonder if cooking oil containers would be ok, too...

Thx. I will have to try this. My garden is too far from my house to use a hose so this sounds like a great idea. Too bad beer doesn't come in gallon jugs... I'm curious how big your plants are when you transplant them. Including pot, how tall are they? How deep do you plant them? Have you tried this on anything else besides tomatoes? One final question, do you use a liquid fertilizer, like Miracle grow with this technique? Thx, Daryl

I use a drip system for my whole garden- one line tor the tomatoes and peppers and one line for "everything else". That way I can keep my sugar snaps and lettuce happy while keeping the tomatoes a little on the dry side. I have used the buried PVC pipe for planting trees- it gets the water down deep to encourage deep roots and keeps the water away from the surface to discourage weeds. It should work for tomatoes.

Wolfwalker-- Does that broad an open space on the top form planting the jug upside down create mosquito problems? Not in my garden because they drain but in clay soil it may be a problem.If i didn't use them in the garden they would go to trash so its postponed until late fall. I have know way of knowing what the jugs may leave or leach from them but if you drink milk. lol