Hello Jay, I have the same issue with watering, so my whole yard and pots are automated. For a while (15 years) I used the Toro brand controller from Home Despot, it allows for up to 8 stations and has a flexible watering time in minutes. I have had no issues with these controllers or the Toro valves. At one point I had 2 separate 8 station controllers since I had 14 separate zones... This was hard to program as they should not run at the same time... I have since upgraded (3 years) to a RainBird 16 station controller and I am very happy with it. I have my pots on a 2 times per day cycle of 4 minutes each (11 am and 3 PM). This timing is important for clay pots in full sun here in CA. The controller supports 4 different programs - so in my case I have the pots cycle(2x per day) the once a day cycle (some drip lines), the every other day cycle (other drip lines) and Monday/Thursday for the sprinkler systems. For my pots (which are all different sizes and spread throughout the garden) I have switched from regular drippers to mini-sprayers which connect via 1/8 inch tubing from the main 1/2 inch line. These do a good job of wetting a large area of the potting soil surface and avoid the dry-side syndrome. The sprayers are available is different rates - to adjust for pot size and exposure etc. HTH, Chad Schroter -----Original Message----- From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Justin Smith Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 10:35 AM To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org Subject: [pbs] Are automatic watering systems good? was ( Garden Tours ) HI all, what was said, I have a few tender species growing in containers on the deck, but the repotting, and especially the watering, of container grown plants takes so much time... > Jay For me manually watering just isnt gonna happen. I have about 95% of my things set up for automatic watering but all I have are those cheap timers that wally world carries. They are only set for 15 min increments and that either waters too much or not enough. Has anyone used those timers from Rainbird and if so do they last more than a season? I have seen where some of their timers can run up to 9 or so different watering lines. They are a bit expensive but if they are worth it I will install a system. Justin Woodville, TX 8b/9a _________________________________________________________________ Lauren found her dream laptop. Find the PC that's right for you. http://microsoft.com/windows/choosepc/…