Matt,
It seems you have a very accurate recollection of the conditions here in Tucson. When I first arrived here with the intentions of staying, about fourteen years ago, I had a nice collection of
Sarracenia plants, which I tried to maintain outside (I had no other place for them at the time). They would all fit inside one of those plastic children's wading pools. So I built a 10' x 10' x 8' area enclosed in plastic shade cloth, covered on all sides, to keep out some of the hot sun and any animals that might cause difficulties. I put in the wading pool, then I installed the
Sarracenia plants and filled it with R.O. water. The
Sarracenia plants, in their pots, filled the pool so that they held each other upright, otherwise they might have tipped over and drowned. At that time I only had a 50 GPD R.O. unit, so I connected it so that its output was feeding directly into the wading pool. Sad experience - the R.O. unit was not enough to maintain the pool. It did okay for a few days, but then the winds had blown so much dust into the pool that it became a toxic mud pool and the R.O. unit couldn't produce enough water to flush out the mud and keep the plants watered.
Soon, I plan to try something similar again. I have a 600 gallon water storage tank, filled by a 10,000 GPD R.O. unit. I built a 14' W x 18' L x 10' H greenhouse-like structure that I will cover partially with plastic panels, partially with shade cloth. I have a system to pressurize the R.O. water into a delivery system, similar to how tap water is delivered, but inside this structure, and I have a 1000 PSI fogging system which should help cool and humidify the area near the plants. I am building plastic lined benches with 2x4 sides and plastic sump tanks of R.O. water that will periodically and automatically flood, then drain the bench trays. Growing CP is just a hobby, but I'm trying to get a little more serious about it. Tucson, Arizona is not my favorite place to try to grow CP, I once lived for nine years in Oak Harbor, Washington, but my wife only wants to live here. So I need to help Tucson become more like Oak Harbor.