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.

Hey B, Its been a heck of a bad summer hasnt it? When I had my trees in Austin area I had to water a good bit during the summer to get any size going. I think in heat and drought like we deal with some water is needed for the health of the tree. I ran drip to some of my young apple trees this summer and I used the spikes that put out about five little individual streams of water and I used only one spike per tree but the trees are pretty small and next year I may need to add one more per tree. So far the drip system is working great as the trees have grown well in spite of the awful heat. Scape

You are well to worry about clogs from the well water. The first component in your system should be a fine mesh filter. Get a "y"-shaped one with a small valve on the end that you can periodically open to flush out the debris. Slopes are problematic for drip systems. You'll want to use pressure-compensating emitters. This means that the emitters on the bottom of the slope will control the amount of water they release, even though the water pressure in the system is greater at the lower level. This allows the pressure to build and send the water to the higherplants. However, when the system turns off, all of the water remaining in the system will drain out of the lowest points, the emitters on the bottom of the slope. This generally means that the bottom plants get overwatered, or the top plants get underwatered. One easy way to reduce the problem is to run the main drip tube (the one that the 1/4 inch, or "spaghetti" lines, connect to) all the way down the hill without any emitters attached to it. Then run it back up the hill, and tee off at regular intervals to run across the slope to the plants. Put a bend in the tube, like a p-trap under a sink, after each tee. You can also use spring-loaded check valves installed in the tube to hold back the water. You may want to have a seperate system for your hanging plants, they will want more frequent watering and smaller amounts per time than plants in the ground, which should be watered for at least 20 minutes at a time, even up to an hour or more, and only a few times per week. Be sure to use at least two emitters per plant to water the whole root ball, and place them on the uphill side of the roots,so the water runs down. I don't know what they carry at Harbor Feight, but the typical hardware store lines are adequate, as long as the emitters are pressure compensating, and you get a good filter. You won't be able to clean pressure compensating emitters if they get clogged, they'll need to be replaced. I typically get my parts from commercial irrigation suppliers, such as Ewing, Horizon, and John Deere; they can give you good advice, and the small amount more that you may pay will get you more reliable materials. If you are in a snow zone, there are freeze considerations they can help you with as well. Good Luck! Tim

Brian, A larger line doesn't give you more pressure, only more volume. Your faucet coming out of your house is probably a 1/2" line operating at 60 PSI which is pretty common. Plastic pressure regulators aren't needed, IMHO, as you can effectively regulate the pressure with the faucet handle. Just another plastic part to degrade and fail in the hot sun. If you're setting up sprayers, go ahead and crack the sprayer adjustment enough so when you blow through it, some air escapes, then hook everything up and crank the faucet half way open and see how they're covering. The only advantage to high pressure is that the line pressurizes completely sooner than later. As an example, on one run I have eight sprayers, and about two dozen 1-10 gal emitters, and I run full pressure on the faucet, which is coming through a 3/4" galvanized nipple from a 1" PVC water line. The only time you run out of pressure is when you have a lot of large sprayers operating at max output, then they'll drop the pressure downstream quite a bit. Don't forget a vacuum breaker.