by Andrew Dodd
Final Setup
2:51 pm in Completed Window Farms, Plants, posts with pitcures!, Projects in Process by Andrew Dodd
Here’s an update on how my buttercrunch lettuce is doing. I bought a small light for cloudy winter days and I have dialed in the watering schedule. I have a timer for the light that turns it on at 7:00 a.m. and off at 9:00 p.m. I also have a timer for the air pump that turns on for 30 minutes every two hours during the day, and for 15 minutes every 4 hours at night. The lettuce seems to be doing very well.
Have you considered running the pump 15minutes ever hour during the day instead of the 30min/2Hour schedule?
As these plants grow they’ll be absorbing a whle lot more water than now, and the 2Hour interval may be too long to keep it adequately moist.
Just thinking out loud.
Do you have any idea of what your air humidity is?
(Mine is usually below 30% and can drop as low as 15% or lower if I’m heating the apartment by burning wood.)
What kind of timer would you use to turn it on every 15 min/ hour? I have a mechanical timer, but it only comes with 4 of the little switches (on/off twice a day).
Hey melissa-
These (product #7993K42*) are similar to the timers that we sell with the windowfarms kits. They come with more precision timing control so you can really specify the kind of watering cycles your plants get.
For my setup I just have a cheap Brinks mechanical timer from Wal-Mart. It cost around $7 I think. It has a grounded outlet you can plug your air pump into, and is accurate to 15 min. intervals. I bought another one for my small fluorescent light as well. I found the light in Wal-Mart’s lighting section for $10. It claims it is a portable grow light for plants and it seems to be providing adequate secondary lighting, as my plants really seem to have shot up since I added the light.