With the dry winter we had, I believe it will be a dry spring and summer. I have a 600 gallon setup for collecting rainwater and can usually make it through the season with never having to drag out the hose but I have a feeling that isn't going to happen this year.

I'm looking to convert to SIP's like Bill's Figs uses, but cant find heavy duty plastic whisky barrels. If I'm going to do it and invest the time to build them, better make sure they are going to last as long as possible. Does anyone have a link?

I've also thought about using large saucers as a temporary solution. They have these big saucer type pan at home depot they stick under a water heater. Those would work well I think.

Apart from mulching alot. I also tought about this issue.
The alluminium pans used for cooking are a good candidate as saucers as prices are cheap.

I am afraid of toxicity though from the allumium- is it a concern?

This is what I was thinking about. They are actually called water heater pans and come drilled with a PVC insert. You could connect all the inserts together and flood the whole system watering the plants all at once..... HMMM????
 

Hi Mike, Home Depot has a 22.5 inch heavy duty resin wiskey barrel pot that I used. I followed Bill's method and they turned out pretty good. They go around $20 each and seem to be pretty sturdy. While they are a little smaller than Bill's sips, they should be easier to move.

Mike, I like your idea of using the water heater pan. How would the pvc insert help? Will this be connected to another pan via a short hose?

I was thinking connect a bunch of pans together with a PVC T coming out of the pan. You water the first one in the line, the water should rise equally across all the pans.....in theory.

I know when I water the trees if they are kind of dry, the water runs right out the bottom until the soil starts to soak it up. I'm guessing I'm wasting quite a bit of water because of it.