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When our backyard gardening and nature studies began, we happened upon a research project involving bees. This was a continent-wide study to test the health of the bee population in North America. The strategy was to grow sunflowers, and then when the flowers were blooming, to watch and count how many bees came by in a 15 minute period.

So, we began the study about a month ago and recently realized that our sunflowers in the gallon sized pots would become so top-heavy they would constantly fall down. We needed the following: 1) a place in the ground with almost full sun 2) a place with easy water supply 3)  A place with little roots from surrounding trees.  We decided that the southside of the house would be fine except for the lack of water.  That wall did not have a hose bib.  I found a solution.

To solve this problem, I attached a drip irrigation system to the air conditioner unit and dripped the water into the sunflowers.  That way, the hotter it is outside, the more the air conditioner will run, the more it will water the hotter sunflowers.

The air conditioner actually makes ,quite a bit of water.  We air condition nearly 2000 square feet.  One time I calculated we removed 1/2 to 1 full gallon of water an hour from our house.  That should be plenty of water for some simple sunflowers.

Here is the setup.  The pipe from the air conditioner is water that come from water condensing inside the air conditioner in the house.  The pipe is merely the means to move it from in the house.  Most pipes are 3/4” and are usually easily protruding from the ground. 

If the pipe is too low, or it the pipe outlet is lower than perhaps the bed of plants you want to water, you may be able to raise it up.  Here the dilemma: The water will always drain to the lowest point, so if you raise the outside pipe too high, the water will not leave the inside air conditioner. So if you want to raise it then you will need to figure out someway for the outside drip line is lower than the inside unit.  I have an idea and explanation if you can’t figure it out, but is too long to detail here.

Anyway, once I had my hight correct, I laid down the pipe and put a piece of tape at every place there was a plant.  It is at this point that I was going to drill a hole and position the hole on the bottom of the pipe by rotating the pipe until they were all on the bottom.  I merely found the labels that are printed on the pipe and used the tops of the line as the drill line.  Once drilled I put the pipes in the fittings and turned the pipe until they were all on the bottom.  At the very end, I placed a 90 degree elbow turned up.  This way if there was a long flush of water that couldn’t drain out of the holes fast enough, the water would easily drain out the overflow and backup.

To test the setup, I took a hose and put it in the elbow that is turned up and filled up the pipe with water.  I could look under the pipe to make sure all of the holes are open and dripping.  In some places, I needed to lower or raise the pipe in order to level it out.

Hole size: I have used a 1/8” drill bit. When I drilled it in the pipe it raise a small indention in the inside of the pipe.  I guess you could picture a small volcano.  This is good because this will allow the water level to rise in the pipe and spread throughout the pipe before the first hole begins to release the water.