by Helene
How to: cleaning tubes?
4:27 am in Completed Window Farms, How-Tos, questions, Seeking Advice by Helene
I started window farming last Christmas and things look really promising so far (meaning, I haven’t killed anything yet). Just wondering, how do you clean the insides of the tubes you’re using to deliver the nutrients? For some reason, mine has the tendency to build up “gunk” (for lack of a better term) and I find it annoying. The water system still pumps water just fine, but I’m afraid that it will eventually get so dirty that it would just clog the passage way.
What cleaning methods and products are you using? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Somewhere in the instructions, it says to use a beaded chain that’ll fall through the tube easily. Attach (directly or indirectly using a piece of wire if the chain isn’t long enough) something that’ll “brush” the tube, and pull it through the tube. You can tie a couple of pieces of rope together to create a brush, i used a bit of “pipe cleaner”, that worked. I did have one pretty long tube (almost 3m), and i didn’t get the beaded chain all the way through, so i rinsed it with water as good as i could. Next time i’ll get myself a longer chain.
Damn, must have missed that bit on the instructions. I had a hard time looking for the bead chain (they don’t sell that in our hardware stores for some odd reason) so I improvised using metal chains for the hanging system. I’ll try out your pipe cleaner suggestion first then take it from there. Thanks!
You can also use fishing line and tie some torn cloth on the end and run it through…
One method is to stick in a wad of cotton wool and somehow connect the tube to a tap. Turn on the water, and the water in your tap will force the wad through the tube and clean as it goes. (If you can disconnect your tube from your windowfarm, that is probably the easiest way to do it.
I bet that some shower tubes would connect fairly easily to the windowfarm tubes.
If anyone wants to try a new method, a little fine sand, with the T or Y joint method should work. (I mean about half a teaspoon or less). I haven’t tried it myself but I did use airlift to sort sand many years ago. Basically the sand recirculates for a long time in the up tube and as it does so, it scrapes off the crud. You would have to experiment to get it right though. I will not be windowfarming for a couple of months so I cannot demonstrate anything yet.
Brian
Yep. I just got some bead chain (heavy, so if falls through the tube) and one of the end couplers with the hole in it. I tied some cotton twine or a mop thread into a little loop at the end. It works best when the twine is dry and the gunk inside the tube is wet. Try not to let the gunk dry. If you can’t find bead chain, try using fishing wire but tying it through a very small heavy bead or- better yet- clamping it thru a fishing weight and dropping that down the tube.
Best of luck.
-B
PS- What are you growing?? Pictures!!
I ended up threading a wire through the tubing with a mini pipe cleaner attached. These were the only supplied I had on hand (too lazy to go to the store). It took me half an hour I think, just because the wire won’t budge at times. I’ll try the other methods everyone suggested about the next time it needs cleaning (which I hope wont be any time soon!) just so that I can compare methods and see what works for me.
As for the plants I’m growing? I started out with lettuce (l.b. altima and romaine) and cherry tomatoes. Some leaves have sprouted, but I’ll give it a few more days before I post pictures.
I really appreciate everyones enthusiasm to help!