by Bess
planting in a couple weeks…suggestions?
2:03 pm in Education, Getting Started by Bess
Hi Everyone,
I’ve really enjoyed reading all of the posts and getting an idea of what people are doing. I’ve finally just completed building my first column, following the excellent directions provided by WindowFarms…Version 3.o…they were quite clear and the photos were very helpful. I do plan on building three more for my apartment, but since this is the first one I just wanted to test it out for a bit. My apartment has a large south-facing window, and so I did not build an additional light column because I don’t think I’ll need it. I did, however, follow the example set by others and cut two holes in the plant bottles instead of just one, so I can grow two plants per bottle.
I will be out of town for a large remainder of August, and so I’m reluctant to start growing anything yet, since I don’t know if I’ll be able to replenish the water reservoir on a timely basis. However, that means I have some time to plan what I want to grow, and I’d like to experiment with companion plants. Does anyone have any suggestions for good pairings?
My goal is to have a 4-column window farm in my classroom this year (I teach 9th grade Biology, among other things). I’m hoping to help my students build it themselves, as well as guide them in designing their own controlled experimental set up for the window farm. If there are other teachers out there who have done this sort of thing, I’d love to hear from you and find out what worked, what didn’t, etc.
How long will you be out of town at one time?
The way my system is set up (a 5L reservoir shared by two columns, 6′ airlifts using flexible tubing) I have about two weeks before the water level drops so much as to fail the airlift. (with the few plants I have now) This may drop to a week or less when I have it fully operational, with plants in all pots.
(Everyone should try to find the minimum required liquid level in the reservoir for the lift to work properly. Just siphon out liquid until it fails)
Anyway, if you get a large, deep reservoir, it should be able to keep your plants alive for longer. It may run out of nutrients in the water, but as long as they have water, they shouldn’t die too soon. (Fingers crossed. There’s PH fluctuations, algae growth and all kinds of stuff that can happen… )
Hi Trygve,
I’m going out of town for 5 days. This isn’t a very long time, but my reservoir is only 1.5 Liters. I built it according to the window farm instructions, which is a column with four, 1.5 liter bottles converted to hold plants. The fifth bottle on the bottom is the reservoir. Of course, a larger reservoir makes much more sense, but since I’ve never done this before, I thought it would be best to just follow the instructions and then modify as needed. I would upload a photo and show it to you…but I can’t figure out how to post pictures with my posts. Do you know how? I’d like to see a picture of your window farm if you can post it.
In any case, once I’m back in town for good, I’m going to grow either strawberries and arugula, or basil and tomatoes.
You’ll find acouple of pictures of my farm here:
http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/08/17/my-second-attempt/
(They’re a bit outdated, and also doesn’t show my reservoir)
The only way for most usrs here to post pictures seems to be to upload them to a server somewhere and then add links to them in your post.
(I’ll be posting new pictures as soon as I get the third column up and running, and have plants in most of the pots. )
What matters for the reservoir isn’t just the size, but the height also, as the lift needs a certain water pressure to function. To know how long it’ll run you need to know the minimum water level required and how much water is used each day. The first is easy to find, but the second requires plants growing in the pots.
Hi – the picture button is a bit difficult to find; it’s the left symbol above the text field you’re writing a new post in, next to ‘Add Media’. Try IrfanView to shrink the photo before inserting it, if you know how to use a program like that.
Companion plants are a good idea, and with more than one column you can try out whether that basil really does kill the thyme
With the four pots that you have you can start with the species you mentioned (strawberries at the top, tomato at the bottom).
Hi,
I am also going to try window farm in my classroom this year as well. i don’t know how it would work
Great! We are actually hoping to work with teachers and classrooms much more in the coming months! Also checkout http://windowfarms.org/classrooms