Micro Irrigation · DFW
Drip Irrigation for Pots, Planters & Containers
Pots dry out faster than anything else in the yard, and a North Texas summer does not wait for you to get home with the hose. We put containers on filtered, pressure-regulated drip, built so it keeps working instead of quietly clogging.
TCEQ Licensed Irrigator LI0023963 · TxCLIA Certified Auditor
How We Build It
Micro irrigation is simple hardware, which is exactly why it gets installed badly so often. The parts that matter are the ones you never see: the filter, the regulator, and how the water gets from the valve to the pot.
Filtered and regulated, every time
Every micro line we install runs through a filter and a pressure regulator before it reaches an emitter. On a dedicated micro zone that is a drip valve kit at the valve. When we add pots onto an existing spray zone, it is a Rain Bird 1800-RETRO dropped into an 1804 body, which filters to 200 mesh and regulates down to 30 psi right at the head.
Blank poly carries the water
From the filter, we run blank 1/2" poly (drip tubing with no emitters in it) out to the pots. One distribution line can feed a whole row of containers. How it gets there depends entirely on the site, and the goal on every job is the least visible path we can find.
Micro tubing stays short
The 1/4" micro tubing only covers the last stretch from the distribution line into the pot. We keep those pieces to about three feet. Long runs of micro are where we see clogging over and over.
Protected where it leaves the ground
Where micro tubing comes straight up out of the soil, we sleeve it in a short piece of Schedule 80 PVC that stands three or four inches above grade. A string trimmer hits the pipe instead of the tubing.
Pots Water Best on Their Own Zone
Your controller makes one decision per zone: how long and how often. A spray zone is set for the grass or the bed it waters. A pot holds a small amount of soil that dries out on its own clock, so the right answer is a dedicated micro zone with its own valve and its own schedule. That is how we prefer to build it, and it is the same idea behind hydrozoning the rest of your yard.
Dedicated micro zone
Its own valve on a drip valve kit with a filter and pressure regulator. The pots get a schedule set for containers, independent of everything else.
Best for: patios, rows of planters, anything you care about keeping alive.
Add-on to an existing zone
A Rain Bird 1800-RETRO in place of an 1804 spray head, filtering and regulating at the head. The drip is protected, but it runs whenever that zone runs.
Best for: a few pots sitting next to a bed that already has a zone.
Hanging baskets dry out on yet another schedule and really want a zone of their own. We can build it. It does add cost, and we will tell you what it adds when we quote.
What we fix
Why Micro Drip Fails
Emitter plugging is the leading cause of failure in micro irrigation, according to Virginia Cooperative Extension. Small particles that would pass through a sprinkler nozzle without a problem collect in an emitter opening and seal it off. Almost every failed pot system we open up traces back to one of these three things.
Drip adapters screwed in under a spray head
This is the one we find most. A small adapter threads in between the riser and the spray head, 1/2" male by 1/2" female with a single 1/4" barb on the side, and a piece of micro tubing runs from that barb to a pot. The spray head keeps spraying and the pot gets drip off the same zone. Those adapters have no filter and no pressure regulator, so every bit of debris in the line and whatever pressure the spray zone runs at go straight to the emitter. Rain Bird specifies 150 to 200 mesh filtration for its drip emitters. They clog all the time, and since the emitter is hidden in the pot, nobody knows until the plant is dying.
Long runs of micro tubing
Clogging is worst when someone runs long pieces of 1/4" micro across a bed or patio instead of carrying the water in 1/2" line. Whether it was an installer or a homeowner, really long micro lines are a problem. Every extra foot is more tubing lying exposed to kink, get stepped on, or get pulled loose.
Bare tubing coming out of the ground
Micro tubing poking straight up out of a bed with nothing around it is a string trimmer target. One pass and the pot downstream is dry, and nobody notices until the plant shows it.
Already have drip that is not keeping up? See our drip line repair guide, or our drip irrigation service for beds, trees, and foundations.
What Every Install Gets
- A filter and pressure regulator ahead of every emitter
- Blank 1/2" poly as the distribution line, routed as out of sight as the site allows
- 1/4" micro tubing kept to about three feet per pot
- A Schedule 80 PVC sleeve wherever tubing comes straight up out of the ground
- A flat-rate quote before any work starts, and our 3-year warranty on the work
Frequently Asked Questions
Can my pots go on the same zone as my sprinklers?+
It can be done, but pots water best on their own zone. A spray zone runs a short schedule built for grass or beds, while drip in a container needs its own runtime. When a dedicated zone is not practical, we add pots to an existing zone through a Rain Bird 1800-RETRO, which filters and regulates the water at the head so the drip is protected, but the pots still run whenever that zone runs.
Do drip adapters for sprinkler heads work?+
They put water in the pot at first. The problem is what happens after. The single-port adapters that thread in under a spray head have no filter and no pressure regulation, so debris reaches the emitter and full zone pressure hits the tubing. They clog all the time, and because the emitter is inside the pot, the first sign is usually a dying plant. A retrofit body with a real filter and regulator, or a dedicated drip zone, is the fix.
How long can 1/4 inch drip tubing be?+
There is no single published limit, and the numbers you will find online vary widely. For micro tubing feeding a single pot, our standard is about three feet. We carry the water in 1/2" line and use micro only for the last short stretch, because long micro runs are where we see the most clogging and damage.
Can you water hanging baskets with drip?+
Yes. Hanging baskets dry out on a completely different schedule than pots on the ground, so they really belong on their own zone. That adds cost, and we will tell you up front what it adds when we quote it.
Why does my drip in my pots keep clogging?+
The most common reasons we find are no real filter upstream of the emitters, long runs of 1/4" micro tubing, or both. Emitter plugging is the leading cause of failure in micro irrigation. If your pots are fed from an adapter under a spray head, that is the first place we would look.
How much does micro irrigation for pots cost?+
It depends on whether the pots get their own zone or tie into an existing one, how many containers there are, and how far the line has to travel to stay out of sight. We give a flat-rate quote before any work starts.
Tired of hand-watering your pots?
No call center. Brandon answers personally and quotes flat-rate before any work starts.
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