by katystreet
Using Naked Juice Bottles, Also, General Questions…
5:47 pm in Getting Started, Projects in Process, questions, Seeking Advice by katystreet
I have been collecting Naked and Odwalla juice bottles forever, and would like to use them to build my windowfarm. I was wondering how much room the roots need in the bottle. (These juice bottls are slightly smaller than plastic water bottles in about all dimensions, and are rectangular. Pictures below!)
Also: is the idea of the farm to just drip the water through all the plants? I guess my question is: is it any more complicated than making sure enough water drips from the top to get to the bottom, or am I missing something? I’ve never really grown anything before, but I love building stuff and think this would be a good way to start. Do people recommend buying plants and transplanting them into the net cups, or starting with seeds? (Whichever one is more likely to work. 
) Depending on how much time I have, I may design my own timer for the pump.
I use two liter bottles and old metal hangers to make my system. I alos have some of the giant Gatorade bottles. It was easy to find them and they are rigid enough to use. My system drips 24 hours a day.
Windowfarms have been developed with the 1.5 liter water bottles in mind largely because the cinched “waist” in the middle of the bottle is the perfect cradle for a typical hydroponic net cup. If you can figure out some way of suspending your plant/pellets that works with the bottles you want to use, then there’s no reason not to use them! (if you do figure it out, can you post a picture?)
In terms of the water dripping… I’m not sure what exactly the question is, but the point is definitely to make sure enough water/nutrients get to each plant’s roots. Some of the reservoir systems drip for a certain # of minutes ever certain # of hours (around the clock) and the air lift systems typically drip non-stop.
And finally the seedlings… I’ve done both – I’ve “cheated” and bought soil-grown plants, shaken out all the soil and stuffed them into my WF, and I’ve grown seedlings in Root Riot compost plugs, which you can stick directly into the cup/pellets. If you have to time/ability/interest I’d say you should try growing stuff from seed, especially since you seem to be designing a small system (re: bottle size). But maybe you should try both! See what works, and keep us posted.
Good luck!