I thought I saw something on this forum about watering along the lines of what you've mentioned. The person takes a 5-7 gallon plastic bucket. Drills a hole in the side. Into the hole goes one end of some vinyl tubing. The other end is placed by the plant that is to be watered. The top of the bucket is covered to keep out things that could clog up the tubing. I found a couple 5 gallon buckets the day after I read the post. I then popped over to the local hardware store and picked up some 3/16 OD 1/8 ID vinyl tubing - the smallest they had. I'll be experimenting next week with the watering device on a couple of watermelon plants. In the past, I tried the 2 liter method by burying the bottle right next to the plant. Screwed up in that the hole I put in the bottle was too big and the water was all gone within a couple hours. The bucket and tube method does bear some promise however.

rj - I should have mentioned that I am growing my toms in 18 gallon containers. I'm sure the bottles drain much faster than they would if they were in the ground. We've been having on/off rain here so I've only had to fill the bottles once in the last week. When the soil was really dry (we had a hot spell prior to the rain) the bottles would drain over several hours. For vacation watering we usually set up a sprinkler on an automatic timer. We have it "sprinkle" twice a day just in case it doesn't rain all week.

Update on these planters need to find a better way to hang them after months of heat the tie wraps have worked throw and some are hanging by a thread but i must say all grew super well peppers best here are some pic Dont think ill do the 4 jugs again ill just do the pail upside down pots nexted year they sure gave me tons of bell peppers and japinos and way more cherry tomatoes then i know what to do with for less space great and the upside down shades the plant from our very hot texas sun hehehehe I did water ever other day and very little fert .All my dill died and im starting new batch. Angie

Oohh the 12 days of WSing - that's the Xmas spirit! Love it. Your containers look great Token! You have been an eager and busy beaver. :) I found that once the seeds started sprouting, one of my favorite things was to go out there everyday and check for sprouts and fuss with the containers! I would check each and every container, peering in the top (this gives you a bit of eye strain), lifting the covers, holding them up to the light for a better view. When you see the first little sprouts it's so exciting, that it wasn't a chore at all to fuss over the "babies". As for covering/uncovering, well it wasn't a big deal. None of my sprouts got killed by frost or scorched, covered or not. Maybe it helped that they were placed on the east side of the house where they got AM sun only. All the tender annuals and veggies were placed right up against the foundation of the house for protection, and while the containers 6 feet away from the house were frosted on a cold morning, the ones next to the house were not frosted at all. Here's a pic of some Rudbeckia seedlings, uncovered at that point, and all frosty. As you can see, they didn't miss a beat!