by joanna
Window Farm Troubles
7:33 am in Seeking Advice by joanna
I’m a bit confused about what’s going on in my window farm. After good initial success, the whole thing has taken a turn. First I started to lose my snap peas. Next my silver sage, red basil and my sweet basil, all which are very hardy and were doing incredibly well, began to go. I haven’t changed the way I’m maintaining the system. As an experiment, I’ve been using Earth Juice Grow, an all purpose nutrient rather than a specific nutrient for vegetables because I was growing both herbs and vegetables in the same system.
I had my system kicking on every 3 hours for a minute. I noticed that the clay balls dried out quickly so I began to turn on the system more frequently for 1 minute. The stems of the herbacious plants began to rot. When I pulled the basil out, the roots were fried. I know I didn’t burn them with the nutrient solution because I always test it before putting it into my system. All I have left now is rosemary and tri-color sage. I’ve just ordered Earth Juice Bloom for my floor hydroponic system (I’m growing peppers) but haven’t used it for m window farm yet.
Has anyone tried a different growing medium other than the clay balls in their window farm? I’m wondering if a more soil like growing medium, like coconut husks, would work better. Thoughts?
First off all, Joanna, you really should only use Scientific names, not common names. Second, coconut husks are very good for fixing roots, but they don’t have nutrients. Third, depending on what plants do you have, they can need diferent solar light exposure. Can you give more details?
I’m having a similar problem with my own hydroponic system, although it isn’t a window farm. My beans, peas, tomatoes and lettuce are happy and growing quickly. But, my zucchini and cucumbers just don’t want to play nice and are exhibiting symptoms similar to what you describe. I’ll keep an eye out to see if anyone else has suggestions, or if I come across something I’ll make sure to post back here!
How many weeks along was your farm before this started happening? I started having problems near the end of the 2nd week with yellowing of the leaves, then just outright failure. It sounds like yours was probably more established?
We put the farm in my window this past August. The problems began about a month ago. I’ve reset the timer to 1 hour intervals. I let the water run for an hour and it takes about an hour for the reservoir to empty. So basically I have a constant drip. A friend who does floor hydroponic system told me that the clay pellets have to be wet all the time or the roots dry out. I think that was part of the problem.
When I started my floor system, my pepper plant died in about 2 weeks. I realized the drip wasn’t quite right (which was confirmed by my friend who gave me the clay pellet advice). I made a quick fix so that the water was dripping directly on to the roots and now my pepper is quite happy. Have you checked your nutrient levels for your cucumbers and zucchini? They’re similar vine plants. What nutrient solution are you using? I’ll post if I can find info about your problem!
Hey Joanna. So sorry to hear you lost some plants. Farmers upstate this year had too much rain, sounds like your windowfarm was not getting enough!! Thank you so much for sharing this info with all of us. It is really helpful and exactly the kind of participation I am hoping for.
I love your trouble shooting approach.
I have also found that a more frequent drip is ideal for some plants with the clay pellets. In the big system at eyebeam, we ended up increasing our frequency too. I found that some plants liked being more regularly saturated (cilantro, parsley, chard) while others seemed to get root rot. I hear tell that there is a better timer that allows more frequent intervals than the ones we have all been using, but I have not been able to find this mythical beast!!
We did try out some other hydroponic media earlier on in the process: rockwool, coco coir, perlite mix. I had so much trouble with little particles of coco coir and perlite flaking off and making it into my pump that I gave up on them. The rockwool I just did not like because it was not really reusable, it felt nasty on my fingers, and I got a lot of root rot. But you should certainly give some of these media a try and let us know how they work for you. Maybe a claypellet and rockwool mix??
Hi Anderson. I often use the Latin names but I’ve found that not everyone is familiar with them so unless I know who I’m talking to, I go by common names. This also seems a good road to take as I am just learning the Latin names. My professor in my Botany class switches back and forth between the botanical names and common names so her students can learn both.
At any rate, my sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) was doing great after my first big harvest of it in early September. As I mentioned in my original post, I’m using Earth Juice Grow although I switched to Earth Juice Bloom yesterday primarily because I want to encourage my hot pepper–I’m going to go with Capsicum Annuum here as the plant was a gift from a friend–in my floor hydroponic system to bloom. I put the same nutrients into my window farm so see its affect on my rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) and thyme (Thymus vulgaris) which have been in the farm since installation. I had some red basil (Ocimum basilicum) growing in a pot. After gently washing the roots, I transplanted those into my farm to see how they’ll do.
Regardless of what growing medium is being used a nutrient solution would be needed so no worries on that front–I wouldn’t grow with just water whether it be hydroponically or otherwise. I’ve grown the same plants that are in my window farm on my fire escape, which gets the same solar light (my farm is in the window that opens onto the fire escape). Everything I’m growing is hardy and can take full sunlight. Now that the season is changing I get less light than before so it could be I need supplemental artificial light. That doesn’t really explain the root rot however.
So…now that you know more facts, other ideas as to what’s going on?
Hi Britta! I was looking for another timer yesterday that allows for more than 8 intervals. I fudged the times a little for 6-8 but I don’t think that will matter much. If I find the mythical beast of a timer I’ll post it here. I built soda bottle hydroponic gardens with some kids the other day (hilarious and fun) using the coconut husk medium. Of course those don’t use a pump so no worries about clogging the system. I hadn’t thought about that till you mentioned it. I’m going to stick with the clay for now. I’m hoping a more constant drip will help my little guys out. I’ll have to read up on rockwool. Can I also knit with it?
BTW I’ve been experimenting with knitting wires coverings to decorate the gaffers tape I used on my bottles but kind of got distracted by holiday knitting. I’ll get back to it and post some pictures.
Hope all is well with you!