by burt
Some parts and a question about cats, nutrients and drips
2:36 pm in Getting Started, made from scratch (without a kit), posts with pitcures!, questions, Seeking Advice, Water flow by burt
Hi everybody, some very slow but steady progress on my windowfarm. I’m about to start building, but much rather double check my ideas with you guys first. If i’m about to do something really stupid please don’t even try to be polite. ;->
I’ve found these plant container thingies in the discount (from 5 euro to 50 cents! I guess nobody wants these (-: ). I intend to suspend them on the chains (with key rings unless i come across a better way). I can always vary the vertical distance, but if anybody has any advice for a starting point, that’d be great.
At the top plant, the “Small Adaptation” (splitting the water-up tube at the top with a T-Joint) posted by @jflassche would fit perfectly at the top.
I’ve made holes in the bottom of 2 buckets, tried to let water run through. It looks like a steady and straight stream, but i still wonder if i can allow the drips to just freefall their way to the next plant? Or do i need tubes or wires that lead the water (and nutes) down to about the soil level of the next plant, so they don’t bounce of the leaves? At the moment, the cat food cans are right below where i intend to build this thing, so an alternative way to phrase this question is: Will my cats die, hate me and never look at me again if a drop of nutrient solution would land on their food?
For suspension on the chain, you may want to try S-hooks rather than key-rings, I used them for a number of my designs and they work great and allow very easy removal of single planter units for replanting/ tending etc.
For the distance of the planter pots, you will need to see how the water is dripping, sometimes it can drip straight down, others it may just get flung in any direction but down, the former means you can use just about any height you want, the latter means you will have to move the pots very close, or you can try redirecting with tubing/ wicking. You will probably want to seal some of the holes in the bottoms of those pots to ease this process up, one source of water will definitely allow you more accuracy in the dripping. You probably won’t run into the issue of the water bouncing off the leaves, as the plants tend to grow away from the tower toward your light source, but if it is an issue, you can always pull the plants out from being in the way, and tie them down.
Using the T-joint is a great way to supply multiple columns with a single water supply, it also allows you to run tubing from the T into the first pots’ media to prevent over splashing and reduce noise (the very top of the growing medium doesn’t necessarily need watering, just the roots).
Your cats will probably not die if a drop were to land in their food, nutrient solution is very diluted, and is essentially just soil, not toxic. With that said, in my experience there is a lot more overspray in drip systems than you even realize, simply from the splashing of every droplet dropping, I would say better safe, just move the cat food a few feet.
Good advice! Thanks…
My prototype drops pretty neatly so far. (-:
@JamesNutter, i made my own s-hooks from a metal clothes hanger. They turned out to be perfect!! (-: Thanks.
My compliments! Looks good!
…I’d be more worried about the kitties climbing. I am thinking about getting a cat. Burt, will my WF and (future) cat get along?
Yeah, one of our cats sometimes tries to eat from one of the plants, but swapping the plant with another one (higher up), solved that. The biggest damage i could imagine is if they damage one of the tubes, and the whole farm spills on the floor. I did that without the help of my cats a couple of times. While the cats controlled quite some damage the few times one of them warned me when the farm was leaking. (-:
Our farm is in the kitchen, so people walk/move/work there, and occasionally we bump into it, or stress the tubes or something. My point is: Making sure your windowfarm is robuust is a good idea anyway. I worry more about the farm being me-proof than cat-proof.
And i don’t think there’s anything in the nutrients that isn’t in soil/dirt, so i don’t worry about that either. I’d say: go for it!