I have finally completed my windowfarm, and transferred my baby plants! So far it was neat watching the plants grow from seeds. I hope they bear fruit. I have 2 spinach plants, 2 different tomatoe plants, 3brocolli plants, and 3 mint plants, and 1 lettuce plant! I used the air T-lift system to get the water pumped to the top.

Adjusting the airpump higher seems to have fixed the issues I was having on the right side. The H20 was getting stuck in the tube and the air-pressure was off.

After all the work, everything seems automated so I won’t post until I updated the water food next week.

I am still adjusting the airpump. The left stand plants (airpump working better) are looking perky, but the right plants did get watered yesterday. I have the covers off the bottom container so I can watch the airpump, bubbling issues.  

We have a solar rainbow light that Tom and Shakti gave use for our weddings so when the rainbows dancing about the room, I know the plants are getting the max light of the day. It just came on today at 1:37. Windows face NW.

stats:

PH levels look close to 7, so I am not going to adjust it. The lettuces doesen’t look great on the top – so I am not sure it will work.

1 tsp of the organic seaplex (a thread less than a cap), and 3.5 ml of the CBS17.

Timer is set for every 15 mins. It is set to around medium which works better for the right side stand. I also labled the plants since taking the photo.

Top L Top R down to bottom

Upland Watercress  —-  Sweet Bazil

Upland Watercress  —-  Sweet Bazil

Chive —-  Sweet Bazil

Chive —- Wildfire Lettuce

Hi Justin – PLEASE forgive my inability just now – to send you a more direct answer.  After doing much research on aquaponics I realize that it uses MUCH LESS WATER than other systems of gardening or farming.  Countries who have desert like conditions use aquaponics with wonderful success – and it is a puzzle to me.  It appears that our water cycle is closely reproduced in the aquaponic setup.  For small windows many people do well with hydroponics and I love seeing their wonderful work.    I loved the fish tank and joined window farmers who were getting into this area.  With my temporary soil setup, I have to water each plant separately.  While the dark soil might generate more heat causing evaporation – there seems to be much more at play with the fish tank and completing the water cycle.  BUT, I AM NO scientist – just another fascinated window farmer – watching the wonders of growing in window conditions.  There are disapointments and successes.  Sylvia Woerner Manchester IN USA.

It is important that there is no kink in the air hose but it is difficult to move the hose in the tank. Tongs used for moving plants in aquariums cost 20$. These were in the kitchen section of Daiso 100 yen for 1$.

The Flemish Windowfarm Project.

Hi Everyone, maybe it is best that i introduce myself before commencing with the project and my R&DIY.

I am a guy that is self-educated, i have no college degrees, but i now a lot about everything but not everything. Everyone in my family, including my father were engineers but my father died years ago and i don’t have contact with other members of the family. Everything i know about gardening i learned from both my grandfathers and the rest i learned through surfing the net and reading. I am not perfect, far from to be exact, but i am a team player. I am 36 years old an disabled so i have lots of time on my hands for researching and building my projects myself. In Aqua or Hydroponics my interests lie in different fields such as Windowfarming, Backyard Hydroponics using IBC containers and indoor growing.

I am allso an electronics guy so when my project’s hardware is running flawless i tend to automate it all through my favourite microprocessor, the arduino. Off course i have a network of people that are interested in the same things. I live in the Flemish part of Belgium so most of my growing outdoors stops in wintertime. Windowfarming is one of the projects i hope to build for indoor use.

A couple of months ago i started with the windowfarming project. I first researched and developed it all on paper. Since a month i am building from scratch with recycled materials, needless to say is i want my project to be as “green” as possible.

My setup is now two columns of four bottles with an old drink cooler as reservoir. I have a loop going in the container, water is drawn through a needle for inflating footballs. The only problem is when the airpump shuts off, air blows through the needle, but i’m tinkering with it as we speak…

I’m cleaning an old trashcan in wich i’m going to drill a hole in the bottom and then add air throug a T-joint in the tube, maybe the water pressure at the bottom of the container will simplify things and resolve the problem with the inflation needle wich i will not have to use in this configuration.

This adaption works like a charm. It has been working for the whole day now. Tomorrow i will hook up another two rows of four bottles…

I’m allso warming the water with an aquarium heater, i have a circulation pump to keep the nutrient solution mixed really well and an aeration pump for adding oxygen in the water. I allso plan to release co2 in the water.

Loving the first moments of seeing our new window farm in action, drop by drop. Used the standard design only replacing the larger water bottle with a bucket, that size wbottle not being available in Switzerland.

Ill be sure to send a photo or 2 of the bok choy, hot pepper and lettuce in whatever form they take in a couple of weeks.

Jules and Filippo

*First post

I’ve been running a small indoor 6 plant windowfarm for a month or so,  and it seems to be working… so today I built an outdoor 16 pot setup.

Each vertical group has its own reservoir, which allows me to have 4 different mixes of nutrients if I need to. It only takes a minute to drain them, so changing the nutrients x 4 won’t be too much of a pain.

Each plant sits inside a pot inside a pot inside a pot …  It’s a bit convoluted, but it works. The top pot contains the plant and hydroton, second pot (which is actually a plastic tumbler) holds the roots and about 2mm of nutrient, 3rd pot is attached to the chain/string.  The reason I did this was so that I could move plants around by lifting out the top pot – from inside to outside, and to a different nutrient stream if required.

I’m waiting for some indoor plants to toughen up before putting them outside, so only 8/16 pots are in use.

The reservoirs are sports bottles that I got for free, and even though they only hold about 500ml, they seem to be working.  Not sure how they’ll go in the middle on an Australian summer though. I’ve wrapped them in silver to stop them getting too warm, and to keep out any light.

My indoor windowfarm:

Until my leg is better I am using soil in my window farm.  My problem became painful and I put the fish tank out of comission till the leg is better.  I promised this pic long ago and my son helped me figure out how to get it on the site here.

I purchased the plants in early summer when they were growing in small pots, at a local nursery.  They were growing very well.  The soil uses a lot more water than my previous aquaponic setup with expanded clay pellets in them.  The fish tank water cycled up into the air lift tubes and then down through the solo cups, dripping into the fish tank.  The plants are low enough in the window so that I can water them easily.  I warer the pots like I would an ordinary house plant sitting in my window.  I put holes in the bottom of the red poastic cups just like ordinary terracotta pots.  With the experience I am getting and seeing the new window farms going up It will be easier to place my fish tank back in place.  Sharing your successes and failures both is a tremendous help to me.  Thanks to all of you who have contributed.  Sylvia Woerner Manchester Indiana USA.

I got many tomatoes. If I grow standard mini tomatoes again I would prune the plants to keep them smaller. I also added a larger reservoir. Snow peas are difficult because they need a lot of space. I threw out the tomato plants because the new shoots and tomatoes were getting small. I now have dwarf mini tomato plants. It took 4 months from seed to get flowers from mini tomatoes. It took 2 months for the dwarf mini tomatoes. I am also growing arugula.