It has been awhile and I have been busy outside, but I did something interesting with my strawberries.  One of them put out a runner so I planted it.  I actually had runners last summer, but just cut them off at the time.  The original strawberries are getting old and I will replace one of them in the WF with this baby.  The three on the right have all been in the window farm for a year and a half.  The one on the left is the baby and the other three started off just like it and 1.5 years ago.   As you can see the crowns have really grown tall and have divided a number of times.

After deciding to plant it, my jalepenos and strawberries had to get cozy for a couple of weeks.  The runner was only about 18 inches long so they had to be really close.  I have a jalepeno growing in a three plant WF and the top two positions are empty so I planted it in a net pot in the middle position and waited for the roots to take hold.  I held it in place in the net pot with a paper clip.   So a few weeks later, we cut the cord on the new baby.

http://our.windowfarms.org/2011/07/23/jalapeno-spider-mites/

Baby Strawberry

http://our.windowfarms.org/2011/02/13/strawberries-11-monthes-still-flowering/

Left my plants unattended for a week.  Plants sure bounced back when finally watered on the 7th day.

Its playable in HD 1080p, so be sure to turn up the quality setting!

Windowfarm Timelapse

Which system would work better in a greenhouse?  The home or school?

Hello everyone,

I just finished my windowfarm system last night. I started with the 2.0 instructions, but made quite a few adjustments along the way. One thing I really want to showcase is the airlift system. Seeing how many people are frustrated trying to build submerged airlift systems, I really recommend using an external system instead. I skipped using inflation needles, and went straight for the t-joint. But I figured there had to be a better, more reliable way than submerging a t-joint.

I got a 3-gallon water dispenser from Walmart, the kind that has the pouring spout. I took regular 1/4″ tubing, and wrapped a ton of plumber’s tape around it, and stuck it in the spout. (the spout screws apart, so you can actually pull the tube through) The water drains through the tube very well, it gets full water pressure since the spout is at the bottom, and you can even use the lever to stop water flow. I put a check valve on the water tube, so no air could bubble up into the tank, and I connected the tube to the perpendicular part of the t-joint. Then air comes in from one side, and the air/water mixture goes out the other. It’s helpful to keep the water tube perpendicular to the ground, and the air and air/water tubes parallel to the ground.

The system is incredibly reliable, and adjusting things and taking things apart is really easy, because it’s all out in the air and easily accessible. No wet hands!

Here’s a video of my entire setup, you can see the airlift system:

Lincoln’s Windowfarm on YouTube

(I’ll add pictures later)

———————————————-

A few quick questions, since I’m new at this:

• What kind of water should I use? Is tap water alright, or should I use distilled water?
• What kind of nutrient solution would be best for green veggies? (lettuce, swiss chard, peas)
• Would aeration of the nutrient water help? (via airstone)
• I’ve been reading a lot about the benefits of kelp, and I was wondering if that could be used as a nutrient solution alone, or if it was just supplementary.

I wanted to share my experience building the WF Version 2.0 Standing AirLift Mini (SAM) in hopes that someone will find it helpful when setting up their own system. I encountered some problems and posts by people who had gone before me were tremendously helpful; I couldn’t have done it without the community.

I have been building hydroponics systems off and on for a few years now. I have experimented with NFT and ebb & flow systems primarily. The windowfarm system interested me because of its ease, simplicity, aesthetics of the designs as well as the ethos, philosophy and community-supported approach that form the foundation of the project.

I decided to go with the SAM as it presents an inexpensive, both in terms of time and money, entry into windowfarming. I have a high-need baby who drains both resources at the present moment so it fits my particular situation well.

Materials

• (1) Two-Nozzle Aqua Culture (Walmart) Air Pump
• (1) 10′ 3/8 ” Exterior – 1/4″ Interior Tubing
• (1) 8′ Aquarium Airline Tubing
• (2) Check Valves
• (2) Air Needles
• (1) 2.5 Gallon Water Jug
• (1) 5′ Tomato Plant Stake
• (1) Package of 4″ Zip Ties
• (1) Package of 14″ Zip Ties
• (2) Aquarium Airline T-Joints

Process

1. Bottles: Having attempted to cut plastic bottles in the past, I dreaded this part of the process. Water bottles are generally thin and crease easily. In my experience, they confound attempts to cut them but directing the scissors or knife in obscure and unwanted directions. So I did a little research on the site and discovered a genius suggestion: fill the bottles with water and freeze.

I filled the bottles with water, leaving a couple inches of air at the top. I also left the caps off. This kept the bottles from exploding in the freezer. It took almost 24 hours to freeze completely through. I used the template and a wet-erase marker to trace the lines. A utility knife sliced easily through the plastic and the top bit of ice, staying on track for the most part. The ice also held the cut piece in place, preventing it from twisting around and getting in the way. I let the ice melt and was left with bottles cut much cleaner than I had hoped for.

The connected bottles served as a height reference for the rest of the project to make sure the nutrient solution reached high enough.

2. Air Lift: I temporarily connected the airlift tubing to the column support (the tomato stake) using string to tie it in place for testing.

3. Air / Nutrient Solution Injection: I cut the bottom of airlift tubing at an angle. I then attached two lines of mini-airline tubing (that’s all I had at the time) to the two injection needles. They were small enough to slip inside the ends of the needles. I used aquarium sealant to secure and seal the tubing to the needles. I had to buy normal aquarium tubing at this point. I used used a connector to connect the mini-airline tubing from the needles to a standard-sized aquarium tubing. This tubing connected to the air pump, one line per nozzle, with a check valve on each line. I inserted the needles on opposites of the airlift tube four inches from the bottom.

4. Testing: I filled a five gallon bucket to the same height as my reservoir, placed my plumbing into the bucket and plugged in the air pump.

Problem: The nutrient solution only bubbled up about a foot and a half. I held the stake perfectly vertical and made sure the airlift line was attached straight. No luck.

Attempted Solution #1: I thought the air pressure might be too low since I was using a Walmart air pump. I removed the check valves. It pumped higher, but only by a few inches.

Attempted Solution #2: I then thought that maybe the pressure was too high. Unlikely since I was using a Walmart pump, but I decided to try it anyway. I connected both air lines to a single airline and check valve using a t-joint. Now only one nozzle of the air pump was delivering air to the injection needles. Again, I only gained a few inches. I removed the check valve, which only gave me an extra inch or so.

Attempted Solution #3: I read about a modified version of the intake assembly on the instructions page for the SAM windowfarm. It reverses the intake process by delivering nutrient solution through the needles and the air through the bottom of the airlift tubing. To accomplish this, I cut the tubing connected to the needles a couple inches below the needles and then sealed a single airline tube to the bottom of the airlift tubing using aquarium sealant.

After waiting another 48 hours for the sealant to cure, I tested the system. This new configuration pumped a little higher, somewhere close to three feet but still not high enough. Some air leaked out of the needle tubing. When I removed a couple inches of water to simulate evaporation, the system failed miserably. This is unacceptable as I need a system with a certain level of tolerance.

Attempted Solution #4: At this point, I feared that my air pump was just too weak and reluctantly started to price pumps. I also did a lot of research on the site and discovered the alternative T-Joint Airlift method. I decided to try this configuration. I connected my air pump tubing to the left side of the t-joint with a three foot coiled length of airline tubing connected to the right side. The top part of the t-joint connected to the airlift tubing. I used another t-joint to connect both of my air pump nozzles to the air pump tubing and employed a single check valve to get the most pressure out of the pump as possible.

Unfortunately this method delivered similar results to my previous attempted solution. It also leaked a great deal of air from the intake tubing. I read that it is normal to have some air leak initially but that it should stop after a few seconds. That was not the case with my system. I tinkered with the configuration, removing the check valve, trying to use one nozzle instead of two and increasing the length of the intake coil to four feet. Nothing worked.

Frustration: I enjoy the process of engineering and building hydroponics systems. I am used to systems not working. But I’m also used to finding solutions. I had tried everything I could think of short of buying a new pump. While in the process of seeing if I could afford a pump this month, I thought of something I hadn’t tried.

Solution: I replaced the 3/8″ ext – 1/4″ int airlift tubing with the standard-sized aquarium tubing used in the rest of the system. I connected both nozzles to a single line of tubing using a t-joint and added a check valve to the line. Finally, I connected the tubes to the appropriate ends of the t-joint. I didn’t want to get my hopes up so I drained the water to a real-world level (simulating days of evaporation) before plugging in the air pump. The nutrient solution intake coil leaked lots of air and my hopes fell. Then it stopped leaking, just like the said should happen.

Then it just worked. The pump produced a modest flow rate of one drip per second (200ml per hour), but it worked.

I tried attaching the air line tubing to just one nozzle of the pump. This time no air leaked on startup but I still received the same flow rate. I added an air stone using the free nozzle to oxygenate the nutrient solution.

5. Construction: With the plumbing working, I was ready to connect everything. I propped the 2.5 gallon water jug on its end, which gives me access to pour in solution through the sprout. I drilled holes in top for the air and airlift tubes. I weighted the intake coil, air stone and t-joints using rocks and 4″ zip ties and arranged them on the bottom of the reservoir. I attached the column support to the handle of the jug and the airlift tube to the support using 4″ zip ties; I made sure not to squeeze the airlift tubing too much with the zip ties.

I wrapped the bottom of the bottles with a layer of black electrical tape and then covered it with a layer of white electrical tape. I then attached them to the support using the 14″ zip ties. I also inserted a few inches of aquarium tubing into the bottle caps, sealed with aquarium sealant and then screwed them to the bottles. This will allow me to direct the nutrient flow for each bottle.

When I tested the system with the reservoir fully filled (a good two inches higher than I had been testing with previously), the system delivered a much higher flow rate. I still need to test it to find out exactly what that flow rate is.

I seated in the net pots in the bottle and had a completed windowfarm on my hands!

Epilogue

This may be a long post, but I didn’t really write it for casual blog readers. Instead, I hope that its length and detail will help someone in the future who finds the post while searching for solutions to problems they are experiencing. If you read it just for the heck of it, then allow me to make the observation that you are a rather rare and patient breed for the internet.

Photos

It’s only been 12 days since my last post, but things got a little more interesting this morning .  http://our.windowfarms.org/2011/07/11/jalepeno-at-6-months-and-vacation-survival/

Big storms went through here overnight and we were awoken by our water sensor in the basement at 3am telling us we were taking in some water.  Nothing major.  Normally, I wouldn’t mention this type stuff, but it is such a strange coincedence that later in the morning one of the tubes between the levels on my window farm plugged up and I had a mini flood in my window.   I hardly ever clean out the algea so shame on me.   So, in cleaning up that mess looking closely at the plant I noticed that I had spider mites. 

I was not completely surprized by this because last week I had noticed that my strawberry had mites.  I dealt with mites on the strawberries last year.  http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/08/01/strawberry-5-month-update-spidermites-other-bugs/  Last year I only sprayed the leaves off outside with a hose every few weeks and eventually they went away.  This year though I have purchased some neem oil and soap.  I gave the strawberries a good soaking last week.  Today, I sprayed off the japaneno with the hose and then gave it a spray with the neem oil.  So 11 days ago I had not noticed any thing and today they were all over it.

This is actually the first time I had the jalepeno out of the WF so I got a picture of the roots.  I have noticed that some plant roots like to travel out of the net pot and other don’t.  The jalapeno, strawberry and lettuce roots had been very content in staying put.  Both the peas and beans tended to roam.  http://our.windowfarms.org/2011/03/29/green-bean-roots/ 

So far I have been very happy with the jalapeno and it is producing well with at least one a week.  A couple fell off while hosing it down today.

Enjoy the pictures!

Spider Mites

Neem Oil & Soap

Jalepeno Roots

Jaleneno Harvest

 P.S.  I just made some jalapeno poppers out of these for lunch.  Yum!

Not much happening since I have been concentrating on the outdoor garden, but I thought I would give everyone an update on the Jalepeno.  It’s 6 months old and producing a pepper every few weeks.    Back in June I was a little worried about it when we went on vacation for 2.5 weeks.  I filled the 2.5 gallon resevoir to the tippy top and set the timer to only run for 2 hours in the morning.   I use rockwool grow cubes that hold the moisure like a sponge.  When I got back it was still alive and still pumping.  The resevoir was down maybe 4 inches.  It is the only plant in the WF and peppers don’t use a lot of water it turned out well.

http://our.windowfarms.org/2011/05/05/jalepano-at-4-months-and-close-to-harvest/

Jalepeno Closeup

Hello all,

I experimented with cutting two holes in each bottle and planting 2 or more plants in each bottle. The Romaine and Butter Crunch lettuce is doing great (2 to 3 per bottle), the Arugula (Easily 8 to 12 seedling plants per bottle ) pretty well and my transplanted  Alpine Strawberries are living but with some brown leaves. A couple of them have recently grown 3 small berries so I am hopeful. My Butter Crunch and Romaine grow fast and have recently  bolted. I’m pinching off the tops where this happens so hopefully it will fill out in its growth instead of just get super tall. I love this project! Since summer’s come around I’m topping off the water twice a day due to evaporation. I may look into larger bottom bottles. I’ve successfully cleaned the tubing of algae, I was wondering if the bottles need to be dismantled and cleaned as well as mine are getting really green and stringy near the caps and I can’t tell about inside the bottle. How would I do this and not disrupt the plants or hurt the root structure?

Thanks everyone!

Its basically a variation of version 2.0. Instead of using the needles, I used the T method for pumping water and I have a tube going to the reservoir instead of connecting directly . It seems to be working so far because the plants (sage and lettuce) have survived overnight.

There seems to be an issue uploading pictures. Ill try to upload some later.