by Tony
Shower Curtain Rod w/2L bottles
9:03 pm in Uncategorized by Tony
I thought the shower rod design http://our.windowfarms.org/2011/01/07/my-manhattan-windowfarm/ by Dave, @dhult was brilliant so I “borrowed” the idea for my next one. I had an old shower rod laying around and it fits perfectly in my bay window. My other two WFs use 2L pop bottles and so does this one. The 4″ net pot fits in well into the 2L bottle. My Home Depot had the ground clamp ($1.46), however it did not have that style pipe hanger and neither did the Menards store. I had to improvise. I used a 4″-5″ adjustable hose clamp ($1.49) in its place and drilled a hole in it to connect it to the ground clamp.
The other change that is different than my others is that I drilled a 1.5″ hole in the top of the bottles in stead of the 1″. The 1″ allowed the bottles to be screwed together for some additional support, but the extra support is not needed here. The 1.5″ hole allows the neck of the upper bottle to fit deeper into the lower bottle making the column a little more compact and easier to disassemble.
I still have to cover the bottles and resevoir to keep out the light, but I have to figure out what to plant next. Overall, I like this design more than my last two since it has the advantage of easily taking the resevoir out.
Shower Curtain Rod WF Overall View
Shower Rod mouting w/Pipe Clamp
2L Bottlw w/4" Net Pot
1/18/2011 Update – Here is a video of the pump in action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKjkFIcBLj4 This is the same “Tee” style pump I have been using on all my WFs. There’s a good picture of it in this post. http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/12/04/strawberries-9-months-new-wf-first-snow-of-the-year/ The water does go up and around the rod pretty well and its fun to watch. The total lift is only 42 inches. Later on when it is full of algae it will be less interesting and I’ll probably straighten it out then.
Tony,
This looks great! I like how the bottles are still easily removable with the hose clamps. I’ve been thinking about starting another setup using 2l bottles too – They are certainly MUCH easier to find in recycling…I’m excited to see how your system works out!
Fancy! Does the water still easily go up with it spiraling around like that? I had to have my tubes pretty much perfectly straight up and down to get a good push from the air bubble lift system. Maybe you have a different pump…
@funkisockmunki I added a video to the end of the original post so everyone can see the pumping action.
Very nice! Thank you for sharing!
I like your cap-tube extensions. I followed the kit instructions to cut a “cap flap” and it seems to splatter the seedlings a bit more than I would like. Gently moving the water to the pellets surface would be better to keep the seedlings dry.
Very innovative idea indeed! Just goes to show there is no end to creativity and unique ideas! Thanks for the value add!
I like all these innovative ways of mounting! I got a question though. Since we are using a tube to guide the water down into the next pot, why don’t we just completely cut off the top half of the bottle and use the bottom as a container funnel? Won’t that allow more air for the plants?