When I get my new fence built, I'm going to have the perfect place to put my container trees.  I want to do a gravity drip irrigation system.

I have an spot above a retaining wall next to a rain gutter downspout that's about 6' above the lower ground level where the trees will be. I want to put a large reservoir there with a tube running down to tree's below (along the new fence).  I'll take a picture of the spot tonight.

Will that work?  Is 6' elevation enough if i'm using about 60ish gallon container?

If so, any suggestions of specific parts?  I want it to be able to run on an adjustable timer.  It needs to support about 10 trees in 5 gal buckets.

Thanks,
James

I don't have any experience but if the bottom of your reservoir is 4' above the tops of your pots that should be plenty.  60 gal for 10 trees should be enough depending on how often you fill it.

I believe a rule of thumb is 1 lb. pressure for every ft. of rise.   I believe most soaker hose will function with about 11/2 lbs of pressure.  Not sure about drip nozzles but would think you could adjust the size of the opening to match your supply.

goss

You could use a simple plug in light timer and a washing machine water valve. Many of these timers now have multiple trips allowing you to water sevearal times a day if you wish. You would be limited to the minimum run time that is built in to the timer. It would probably be ten to fifteen minutes. That would be very easy to hook up and mount. You could use simple ball valves to limit the flow and not worry with emitters which may not work with the low pressure. Use 1/2" hose, even cheap yard hoses will work. The key to this working is filtered water. You can use a five gallon bucket with screens and filter cloth to achieve this. A simple bulkhead fitting on the lid (inlet) and one on the side at the bottom (outlet) should put you in business. Make sure your bucket or other container has a sealed lid to prevent air from infiltrating causing leaks or a break in you siphon depending how you do it.  Paint the bucket black to stop light from encouraging algae from growing. Build a pre filter box to ensure good flow to the filter. Keep a lid on your reservoir and it should be farly dependable. Make sure you vent the reservoir so that it can drain. Getting equal distribution may be the biggest problem however if you are growing in pots you should have a good draining mix so even if some were overwatered it would not hurt. Placing a one liter plastic bottle sub surface in the pot could be the answer. Preforate the bottle so that the water would slowly over time move into the pot. Each day the timer would come on and gravity would fill the bottles. This would require a sealed system where the hoses are physically attached to the bottle. You might have to vent the supply line higher than the reservoir level to prevent airlocks. You would also need the vent filtered to prevent bugs and things from clogging it up. A simple plastic bottle with screen over the open end woulld suffice as would hundreds of other cheap and available items. You could probably build this for practicaly nothing if you scavaging skills are good.

Using this method or a similar one you could use the filter bucket to incorporate liquid fertilizers also. Shut the inlet off. Add your fertilizer in an appropriate amount for the container size or amount you need to disperse. Replace your lid and reopen your inlet. The next time the system activates you will be fertilizing too.

I realize this is a simple system and certainly not a fertigation system but I believe someone who is cash strapped could put this together and have something fairly reliable.