I have a lemon and a lime trees in large pots. However, I’m not a snowbird. These trees in the summer take GALLONS of water weekly. I can’t imagine a drip system delivering enough water. I water mine with a hose every 3 days. About 5 gallons of water each watering. They are very healthy and my lime has been known to put out 50 limes in a season.

Citrus in Pot
 

We are considering the same thing. Our landscaper said we should put in a pot in our outside landscaping and he could add a drip line to the irrigation line. Solves all problems and said he did that and has never had an issue with critters getting to plant

Watering
 

Have a neighbor water it for you.

Don’t do it. The patio citrus grow like bushes with thorns. I moved mine to the yard.

I use a Rachio smart hose timer for my garden. I bought it mainly because I was too lazy to get up early to turn on/off the soaking hose. But I also use it because we travel a lot, and I can control it anywhere in the world through its app on my cell phone. The app tells me how much rain it thinks my house got and I can adjust the watering schedule accordingly. I think it would work for your citrus trees. However, I'm comfortable using it for a few weeks unattended but leaving a pressurized system for several months would be another story. Even when we are away, I ask my neighbor to occasionally look in our backyard to make sure we don't have a geyser going. If you have your TV house routinely monitored by somebody and/or cameras this might work.

We are snowbirds. We planted our citrus trees in our yard. The lawn irrigation takes care of the rest.

I have grown citrus in pots semi-indoors before for yeara. It's not a tree that you can set on an irrigation schedule and forget as other issues will come up eventually like insects, fungus, etc.

The OP never said the lanai was glass enclosed. Any excess water will simply drain out through the weep holes, at the base of the screen frame, just like rainwater does...

I agree. They're great if you want access to a hose when on your lanai...

Do you have a lawn irrigation system? Do you have an elevated nozzle head near your birdcage?

Them make a "tap" you simply unscrew the shrubbery head. Add the tee tap and then put the head back on... You now have a 1/8" line that you can run inside your bird cage...

I was talking about the hose springing a leak. I'd hate to see that water bill.

I'd never leave a water system running in my house if I was gonna be gone for a significant amount of time. In fact, if I were gonna be gone more than a week or two I would shut off the water in the whole house. But that's just me. If your lanai is just a screened in one, it's probably less of a big deal.

If you have popup close you can use it.

In newer areas irrigation water separate from potable house water.

Thank you'all for these insightful responses. Upon reviewing your insights and advice, I'm going to probably just plant them in the yard. If a pop-up sprinkler head (with extension) can't reach into the pot, I'll convert a head to drip tubes.

That bib-extension into the lanai is great. Not much use for it here in The Villages, but up north on my enclosed screened-in porch it would be great for getting a hose to the second floor for spring pressure washing purposes. Great idea!

I 2nd using the Rachio smart hose controller. They work great and can be controlled from your smart phone using wi-fi.
https://rachio.com/products/smart-hose-timer