I do not have a stream near my place so I had to use a little solar powered water pump to make a “head of water”. So imagine that little flow of water is your stream, and it falls down a tube or pipe.  This is enough to power 1 windowfarm, so a real stream falling a ft  through a 3 inch pipe and going another 2 ft under water in the pool below the day  would pressurize enough air for about 6 windowfarm columns.  Then you can pipe the air through 3/8 irrigation tubing to wherever you want, into your house or greenhouse and up to your windowfarm.  (I found 3/8 irrigation tube the cheapest at my location).  Anybody want to try ?  Brian   Link is pulser pump nano demonstration

Here’s a pic of week 5. I use my phone’s camera so I couldn’t capture everything. I bought a new air pump with four outlets because I plan to build another grow container and put it on the other side of my windowsill. Making sure to have it elevated higher than the reservoir this time because my last pump had backlogged. I’d like to use all glass if I can…but most likely I’d have to get it cut the way I need it. Any suggestions? I’m thinking of a small glass fish tank for the reservoir. Adding another 15 watt solar panel to my Goal Zero Escape 150 will help with the addition to capture more battery power. Questions? Comments?

If you’d like to power your window farm via solar I suggest going with Goal Zero. Their kits are affordable and definitely work.

Hello you beautiful people,

This is an update to my first post found here:

http://our.windowfarms.org/2013/01/03/heres-to-a-blooming-project/

I have had lots of success with my first set of crops off of my window farm, and lots of “oppurtunities for growth” (ha!).

The vast majority of luck I have had has actually been with my pepper plants! I have taken a first harvest off my cayenne pepper, which was so bountiful that all of the peppers I could not manage to use for cooking I am now drying so I can grind them into my own homemade cayenne pepper spice.

Also, I was pleasantly surprised when my first pepper plant (whose seeds came from a mixed bell pepper grab bag) turned out to be purple! Huzzah!

The thing I am really enjoying about my pepper plants is that  even though they are usually very difficult to grow in Canada because of the limited growing season, an indoor garden growing season is limitless, so you can give them as much time as they need. Also, they are productive yet compact, which is means they don’t over take other plants in my system. I am having the opposite of the experience with my tomatoes. They have managed to take over the entirety of the window and the productivity to space ratio just really is not cutting it! I planted mainly small tomato varieties, since I was nervous about how much weight my system could hold. For my next round of small tomatos I will have to do some more pruning. I did sucker all of my current tomato plants, but I really plan to discourage them from getting so tall next time.

Another issue I am wondering if anyone else is experiencing, is that a lot of my tomatoes have succumb to blossom rot (black spots on the bottom of the tomatoes). I ripped out a gigantic yellow pear tomato plant because all of the 20 tomatoes it was growing developed black spots on the bottom! Does anyone else have any experience with this issue?

I have finally gotten around to upgrading my air lift system to a t-valve setup, which I have been really enjoying. I now only have to fill up my reservoirs every 4 or 5 days, as opposed to every day and a half. Which is great that I don’t have to worry about my plants when I head up to the mountains for a long weekend!

My other crops which have been moderately successful have been beans and peas. However, both of these plants only produced a small serving of fruit each, which was great for a snack, but not terribly effective as a serving of vegetables with a meal. Even so I have planted more of both peas and green beans, since they are so quick to grow. Also, the snap peas in particular are incredibly tasty.

I am learning that for the most part, my window farm is an awesome project that I really enjoy, but only very specific crops actually yield a really useable harvest. Which is totally fine, as long as you look at your project as an awesome hobby, not a substitute for grocery shopping.

My new crops that I am currently sprouting include dwarf kale, brandywine tomatoes, black beauty eggplants and edamame beans! I am extremely excited about the eggplant, since they are genetically similar to peppers, I am hoping that they will behave in a similar manner to the peppers in the system. Also, I am hoping the brandywine tomatoes will give me a little more bang for my buck with growing space, because they are supposed to be huge! The packet says 12 to 20 oz., so fingers crossed!

Also, if any one is wondering if power bills have been effected at all by my aquarium pump and three grow lights, it has not! My power bill still ranges between $65 and $70 dollars a month, and I think it is alot more dependent on how much I use my clothes dryer, than keeping my grow lights on.

I would love to hear any input about the blossom rot issues, tomato pruning tips, and what varieties of plants others are having lots of success with!

Happy Urban Gardening

So, anyway I have been making pallet gardens and I airlift the water up to them and around and cycle it back to a reservoir just like in windowfarms. But it is a pallet so the water has to be spread across the pallet. I made a “flip flop” to do this and it fills up from the airlift pipe and then dunks the water out along the length of the pallet. Maybe that could be adjusted to work with just one airlift tube supplying 2 or 3 or 6 windowfarm columns? and video is at Flip Flop Video

Hi!

Ich habe hier auf Windowfarm und in ein paar Onlineshops (hauptsächlich Conrad ist am ordentlichsten) mal ein bisschen recherchiert was es denn so hat an möglichen Lampen.

Wir wollen was mit 5500-7500 Kelvin (Britta)

Das gibt sozusagen grob die Lichtfarbe an. Und entsprich ungefähr Tageslicht-Weiß/ Kalt-Weiß.

In Wellenlängen ausgedrückt wollen wir ungefähr so ein Spektrum (Thanks @Matthias who found it here)

Wobei Wellenlängen um 400-450nm und 640-670nm am besten aufgenommen werden können. (frei abgelesen)

Wichtig ist es im Hinterkopf zu behalten das unterschiedliche Farbkombinationen und Belichtungslängen besondere Effekte auf unsere Pflanzen haben können. (z.b. früheres Blühen, oder Blühen trotz Winter…)

Lichtstärke

Lichtstrom z.b. 1lm (lumen) entspricht der Leistung einer Lichtquelle. Die Beleuchtungsstärke z.b. 1lx (Lux) entspricht der Beleuchtung einer bestimmten Fläche. 1lx = 1 lm/m^2

Umrechnung von cd (candela) in lm: 2π(1-cos(α/2)*Lichtstärke(cd)=Lichtstrom(lm) wobei α dem Abstrahlwinkel der Lampe/ LED entspricht.

Bild	Name(Weblink)	Kelvin	Wellenlänge	Lichtstärke	Leistung	entspr. Leistung	Kosten
	MEGAMAN ESL 20W-E27	6500K		1215 lm	20W	89W	7,13€(-10€)
	MEGAMAN® Pflanzenlicht ESL E27 15W	Weiß			15W	75W	8,28€(-10€)
	MEGAMAN ESL23W-E27	6500K		1395 lm	23W	99W	7,13€
	6 SMD-LEDs pro2,5cm Strip (rot)24V/DC	rot	623 nm (nicht ganz 640-670nm)	< 480 lm pro LED? (< 2880 lm)	0,48Wpro 2,5cm		1,92€
	6 SMD_LEDs pro2,5cm Strip (blau)24V/DC	blau	470 nm (nicht ganz 400-450nm)	< 480 lm pro LED?	0,48Wpro 2,5cm		2,13€
	1 SMD LED Uf=4VIf=20mA	blau	455nm (näher an 400-450nm)	0,025 lm			0,85€
	1 SMD LED Uf=3,2VIF=20mA 11mW radiometrische Strahlung	UV	400nm (im 400-450nm Bereich)	UV nicht sichtbar			3,67€
	SMD-LED Geh 1 SMD-LED Geh 2 SMD-LED Gehäuse 3 Uf=1,85V If=20mA	rot	660nm (Im 640-670nm Bereich-> Peak!)	0,314 lm			0,11€0,13€
	SMD-LED Uf=1,85VIf=20mA	rot	650nm (Im Peak Bereich!)	0,314 lm			0,12€
	SMD-LED Uf=1,85V If=20mA	rot	640nm (Im 640-670nm Bereich)	0,471 lm			0,22€
	SMD LEDUf=2V If=20mA	rot	632nm-645nm	0,079 lm – 0,63 lm			0,34€
	60 SMD-LEDs pro Meter12V/DC	6500-8000K		300 lm (pro LED?)	4,8W		8,90€/m
	60 SMD-LEDs pro Meter12V/DC	6500-8000K		900 lm (pro LED?)	14,4W		16,90€/m

To be completed

Wenn ihr noch gute Komponenten entdeckt füge ich sie hier gerne hinzu.

Warnung: die Lampen/ Bauteile wurden noch nicht von mir getestet! Nur recherchiert was es denn momentan so auf dem Markt hat!

Leider wird die Tabelle nicht ordentlich dargestellt sodaß die Spalte mit dem Preis abgeschnitten wird… ich vesuche da noch was zu verbessern aber das dauert noch bis ich dazu nochmal komme

viel Erfolg die Ziska

It’s been almost a year since I lasted posted on here. Now I’m back with a little video update below. I bought a new air pump because my last one back siphoned due to the fact I didn’t have it elevated higher than my reservoir…oops! The new one has four air outlets, so I’m thinking of setting up a horizontal system on the other side of my window sill.

I’m open to any advice or comments! Here’s the video update link…

http://j-memory.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/mov015.mov

So, just for play I wanted to see how little submergence I could get and still pump water. I filled a bucket, turned on the airlift and waited. How low would the water level go and still work? The gallery shows screenshots from the video when the submergence was 4 and a half inches. Sorry that they are so poor but you can always watch the video instead!

Hello everyone!

I’m new to hydroponics and I just built my first system the other day. This is a really fast and easy system, it took me about an hour to build and I used only parts that I already had at hand. The materials that I used are:

      - Medium sized plastic pop bottle

      -  Small plastic flower pot (similar diameter as the bottle)

1.       - Metal coat hanger wire (for the hanger)

      – Standard fsh tank tubing, check valve and T-joint (two of them)

      – Air pump (just a cheapo one I had from an old fish tank)

      – Coarse gravel (as my growing medium)

      - Electical tape

      – Calking (to seal the connection between the tubing and the bottle cap)

One thing that took me a little bit was to get the airlift system to work out. I just had pictures of other people’s to go by without much explanation of how it works. Turns out it is just a simple syphen that is supercharged by an air pump. Pretty cool. I fond that it will work as long as the T-joint that introduces the air into the water stream  is below the water level within the pop bottle. Knowing this, I put it pretty low down on the column.  Right now I have the water level about midway between the bottom of the flower pot and the top strip of electical tape. You can kind of see it, but the tube running up the left-hand side of the column is my water level gauge (note that due to displacement by the pot and gravel, it’s a bit higher inside the column than what’s shown on the gauge…figured that one out the hard way… *splash!*). I’m starting out by trying to hatch an avacado seed. It was sitting in water for about a week before putting it into my gizmo, in which it’s been for about 4 days now. It’s JUST starting to crack open. So I’ve got high hopes.

Currenlty I have no added furtilizers or nutrients in my system. After some research I will will begin experimenting with that.

My next challange will be to try and think of a way to quiet it down a bit. Right now it sounds like that slurping noise as if someone’s blowing bubbles in chocolate milk through a straw. Being in my bedroom it gets a bit annoying. Anyone have any ideas?

Did a quick energy use calculation. Turns out this is a super cheap system to run!

- The air pump has a power rating of 1.5Watts. By staying on 24/7, this gives us:

- 1.5 W/1000 = 0.0015 kW                         – 24 hrs/day * 365 days/year = 8760 hrs/year

- 0.0015kW * 8760hrs/year = 13.14 kWh/year

- 13.14 kWh/year * 0.12 $/kWh (at the worst of times) = $1.58/year        **Here in eastern Ontario, Cananda, we pay

Pocket change!                                                                                                                         about $0.12 per kWh

~Riley

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.

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.