Open plant “bottles”?
6:06 pm in Getting Started, questions, Seeking Advice by Nicholas Stephan
Hi,
I’m brand new to this forum, window farms, and hydroponics, so forgive me if I ask a lot of stupid questions up front.
First stupid question:
In the v3 DIY instructions it says to use whole bottles for the plants, with a “plant hole” cut out of the side, creating something of a half dome around the plant. It then says to direct water from above, using a “cap flap”, away from the plant hole. Is all that to limit evaporation, create a greenhouse, or just simply to make daisy chaining the bottles together easier?
I’m thinking of deviating from the instructions and having open containers for the plants, so something more like your average hanging potted plant. Is this a horrible idea? And if so, why?
Thanks
R&D-i-y. is one of the best things about this project. there is no set in stone way to do things. if you have a look at all of the others farms and their procedures. you will quickly see that not one of these is exactly alike. do what you think is best – and post the results here. i am sure if you run into problems there are enough people here that will be willing to assist with ideas and suggestions.
Hi,
I have an open solution window farm and I think it works just fine. The only time it does not work is if the plants have their leaves just beneath the dripping water because this makes the water drip everywhere. I usually adjust the plants so they don’t get the water directly on the leaves. A benefit I see with having an open solution is that the plants can grow in any direction.
Hope it works out.
Hey Anna,
Thanks for the advice. I was mostly worried about evaporation and whether or not the hydroponics would work in the open air. The water going everywhere is a good point. I see how that would happen. I’ll keep that in mind.
Thanks again.
Hi,
I am also running an open window farm. I haven’t had much trouble with evaporation, but like Anna, I occasionally have trouble with water splashing off the leaves. In fact, the first day that I transplanted my broccoli, it made a HUGE mess because of splashing. Like Anna, I can often just position the plants so that their leaves aren’t directly under the drip. However, some of the larger plants can’t help but get in the way, and they often shift with the sun throughout the day and place themselves directly under the drip.
This has been my solution:
1) I keep a drip tray under my farm to catch a lot of these splashes (I use a “boot tray” -meant for holding dirty shoes at the front door. They’re $1.50 at Target, so not a huge investment.)
2) My window farm is made with small plastic planters, rather than plastic bottles, so I had to drill my own drip holes. When I drilled these holes, I drilled them to hold the standard 1/4″ airline tubing. It’s a snug fit, so I can just can just pop them in and out as needed without using sealants. I don’t run tubing through all of the containers (although some people do), but when I have a splash problem (like my broccoli), I just run a piece of black airline tubing from the pot above, down to the base of the plant. This way, the water just runs down to the roots and never hits the leaves.
Depending on your setup, you may have to experiment with different ways to run tubing from an upper pot to the base of the next plant, but this general approach seems to work well. Lots of people are doing this in different ways, so peruse other people’s designs and see what works for you.
Good luck!