Hi stephanieelaine, If you put the pump inside the bucket it must be submersible; if it is outside the bucket then centrifugal will do. A centrifugal pump can be mounted on the balcony itself & will easily draw the water up 10 feet from your tank. You can probably wire & monitor it better from the growing balcony as will be checking on plants there. You can run a centrifugal pump dry, but if the impeller is plastic it can eventually deform from the friction heat. If your water supply is an outdoor faucet near that proposed 5 gallon bucket placement site you can probably plumb it to a centrifugal pump sitting up on your balcony & wire the timer in to the pump. Submersibles are not meant to run dry for long stretches; sorry don't know particulars on your chosen brand. You usually use a check valve in the water tank that is connected to the feed pipe going into the pump; to keep from having to prime the pump every time go to use it. Put a screw on filter housing (so can clean inner screen out) somewhere before any water actually reaches the drip emitters to keep from clogging up. Use a pressure regulator at the outflow end of the pump. Match the regulator of the water pressure to the ratings of your drip emitters so you are not over powering their ability to release water from their holes. This is pretty simple sizing of the elements in a system, so don't be put off. I would say determine which pump can lift the water to the height you require & then work backward from the specifications of the total drip emitters you plan to use to size a pressure regulator. Emitters with built in diaphragms assure it that you will receive equal water outflow, irregardless of the planting height differentials. Put a removable end cap on the irrigation tube so can purge any algae that builds up inside, or it can block an emitter. If use an end cap that can be adjusted to bleed off some flowing water then it will let you release excess pressure if you find system design is flawed.

Hi Nanzey, The system sounds great. There are dripper emitters that vary in amounts and even adjustable ones to match the amount of water to each plant. You can check how much water you are supplying to all the plants by measuring the water level drop in the 5-gal bucket and calculate the volume then convert it to gallons. You can measure the flow of the pump by volume divide by time the timer was on. Your emitter flow is measured in (Gal per hour). Your total emitter flow needs to be less than the total flow from your pump minus 10%. Aloha.

Hi Colm, 1. Do some probing in the soil and actually see where the water travels and why. Water moves according to the soil structure (fines vs Course grain makeup which creates soil tension). The surface appearance is not an indication of moist soil because of evaporation of the surface water. Run the system longer to see if you get more lateral water movement. 2. You have the right idea about water conservation and root growth. Think of the size of the root ball and getting water just to that part of the plant. Know your plant's needs at different stages of growth. Certain plants like more or less water. You might think about placing the line closer when the plant is young and farther away when the root ball has expanded depending on the plants needs. At the beginning it is all trial and error and how observant you are to your plant's well being. You are smart not to take general instructions literally for all conditions. Gardening is a an art based on scientific principles. You will never stop learning and developing a better way of doing it. JMHO. Aloha

all this running on the pressure coming out of one spigot???? at some point.. if not on multiple zones.. you MIGHT run out of pressure to PROPERLY run all your gizmos ... this might be complicated by your multiple product lines... as predictability of the system is part of the design ... what that all means .... observe all the emitters and their performance ... just because water is dripping out.. does NOT mean the amount coming out of the first one.. is the same as the amount coming out the last one ... if the first one is working to specs of 1 gal per hour.. the last might be only 1/4 gal .... make sense??? ken