by Reidar
Long term reservoir
3:37 pm in Completed Window Farms, Getting Started, made from scratch (without a kit), posts with pitcures!, Projects in Process, pumps, R&D-I-Y by Reidar
I have now built and planted tomatoes in my windowfarm with a 200 l reservoir. I hope this will be able to keep the plants happy for long warm periods unattended.
My farm consists of 8 hanging pots that are supplied with water from a t-joint airlift and three large boxes that get water through some pieces of yarn. The reservoir can hold more than 200 l of water and I have added some liquid nutrient in the water.
I am growing tomatoes in the hanging pots and in the boxes I have an ash, rosemary, maple, rowan and white clover.
So far, the plants seem to be fine. Some of the leaves on the tomato plants have some white patches. I might need to adjust the amount of nutrients in the water, but that is just a guess.
What’s with the matchstick?
What are the different tubes for ?
So the boxes are watered just through the capillary effect?
Nice looking windowfarm! I really like how the alternating side-by-side plants look, but I think with that many plants, the ones on the bottom are likely not going to get as many nutrients as the ones higher up. Just a thought.
The matchsticks hold the pots on the wire. Wire goes through a hole in the pot, two turns around the match and back out. Maybe not an optimal solution, I am considering to replace the wire with a chain and use hooks instead of matches.
The blue tube is quite rigid and makes a good fit through the cable gland in the reservoir. The black fits nicely outside the blue and feeds the T on the floor with water. The white is thinner and goes from the T and up to the top of the column. I tried using the black tube to the top, but mostly got gurgling noises and no water out on the top. The white is also a little elastic, so I put a bit of tension on it to keep it straight.
The boxes are on capillary watering only. I used that method last summer and it turned out to work quite well. The amount of water is depending on the water level in the reservoir, so they would get less water as the tank empties. However, the roots from some of the tomato plants i had in the boxes last year extended down into the water and were drinking on their own.
Approximately 6 minuted after the pump has started, water is running out from the lower pot back into the reservoir. So I guess the water and nutrients are soaking all the pots during the last half part of the 15 minute pump cycle. I hope they all get enough, but I agree that the plants on the top get more water than the lower ones as they are soaked for a longer period. If I keep the pump running for longer at a time I might get more even water distribution.
The farm has been running for a few weeks, in a couple of months I will have more details on how the plants are doing on the different levels.
I am also planning to use the other port on the air pump to feed a second zig-zag-column with 8 new pots. I have some more seeds that I would like to grow. Onions, basil, cucumber among others. I would guess that at least the cucumbers would need a lot of water.
Any thoughts on having fish in a tank like this. The volume should be more than sufficient, but they might require more light?
I have made a timelapse video of my windowfarm so far. Since the last update I have added another 8 pot zig-zag column. I have also raised the reservoir another 20 cm to get the airlift working better when the water level is low.
https://vimeo.com/43568017
That video is totally rad. I went back too the first couple of seconds to see the progress. Neat!
Agree! Totally neat!