automatic watering?

I live near Dallas and I want to grow some hops. I heard that Cascades do OK here. I have a spot that gets pretty much full sun. I figure I will grow them in pots so that I we move I can take them with me. However I know that if I have to remember to water the hops, I will forget and they will die. So I will have to rig up some kind of automatic watering.

Can you get drippers that you can just hook up to the water and leave on 24/7, and they will just drip slowly? What are they called so that I can search for them?

Hey BetterSense,
I purchased and installed one of these and it has worked out pretty good. I turn it on manually as needed as it hooks up to a standard garden hose - but you could just leave the valve a bit open all the time.

You can also get battery-powered single-zone timers that will turn the thing on/off automatically whenever you want.

Gridlocked said:

You can also get battery-powered single-zone timers that will turn the thing on/off automatically whenever you want.

Click to expand...

+2 - one for our veggie garden and one for our hop garden! I use these Melnor controllers (purchased from Ace Hardare, iirc - but it might have been Home Depot)



and they have both done their jobs admirably...

Cheers!

I've seen the automatic timer things, but it seems simpler to just have something that constantly drips. Then there is no need for batteries or programming.

The smallest emitters that I've seen are .5 gallon per hour. I know it gets pretty frigging hot in DFW, but I think 12 gallons every day is over kill. A timer is $20-25 max to go with a drip system and it will do your whole garden.