Hallo,

as the title says this well be exiting. I came across the idea over ted. So I planed to build the V3-Version as it is and optimize it later. But I could not hold on me to give it my one twist. Customiced for my needs, so her is the plan:

The main difference are the bamboo containers. I will install this windowfarm in our kitchen, so i like it to look a little bit more pleasend as the pet bottle version.The second difference is the mixing of water and air. I want to put up an almosted closed system, so i thought I’ll try to mix the air and water with a t-piece and two check valves. This idea is simple, maybe so simple, that it was already thought of and didnt work.

0. Contents

1. Part list

2. Installation and Mounting

3. Plumbing System

4. Problems to solve

1. Part List:

Installation:
1 x 3.5m bamboo trunk 2 x 4m of 3mm steel rope 8 x eye nut m3 (maybe 10x) 8 x female screw 8 x washer – small inner, big outer diameter 8 x luster terminal (inner metal part) 2 x hook for the wall 4 x hydroponic planting cups
Plumbing:
1 x APS 50 airpump 1 x check valve (need one more) 1 x 4m transparent tube – inner diameter 8mm 1 x 4m semi transparent green tube – inner diamter 4mm

2. Installation & Mounting

1. Cut the bamboo trunk into pieces, just right above the in wall. Put some “after work” on the cuttings (sandpaper).
2. Drill two 1cm holes, each hole facing the other hole one the opposite site of the trunk. Positioned about 2 cm below the upper rim of each bamboo container.
3. Also drill a 6 to 10 mm hole in the bottom of each bamboo container (exept the water reservoir). Be carefull and drill gently, so the wood doesent break.
4. Put an eye nut in each hole and fix it with a washer and an appropriate female screw. Maybe you need to cut the screw little bit to safe space inside the trunk.
5. Take a piece of bamboo, which you don’t plan to use. Peal of some bamboo fibers. At least 3 x 10cm for each bamboo container.
6. Tie 3 fibers together. If they are too curved, you can straighten them by heating the bamboo up. I think the temperature should be around 170 ° Celcius. So take a heat gun or one of these kitchen things to make creme brulee. WATCH OUT! Dont burn yourself.
7. Put them into the bottom hole of the container.
8. Now take the luster terminal and get ride of the plastic. Work your way as far as possible with a princers and then try to rip the rest of with a comb pliers.
9. Put it together.

PS: I will add some images.

3. Plumbing system

ToDo

4. Problems to solve

1. As i told, i would like to mix the air with a t-piece and two check valves (see sketch above). Solved!

2. The water tube will be inserted to the bottom water container either by:

1. vertical: V3 System at the bottom with a bicycle valve or
2. horizontal: at the side like this (just at the bottom of the container):

It fits pretty tight. I will see if it leaks.

I am in Shanghai and having a difficult time sourcing the materials needed.

If I have a text file I can attempt to use http://www.nciku.com/ or google translate to get the list in Chinese and look for places.

Please let me know.

I posted earlier about designing a prettier window farm. I’m now building a clean and simple single column farm, and I figured it might be about time to post something about my progress. The pots, suspension and drip pipes are mostly in place. The reservoir and the airlift are still in the works. I haven’t made up my mind yet about what kind of reservoir to use.

Part list:

• 4 Plastic orchid pots. These are made of Polypropylene, which is (afaik) safe to use with food. The pots also have an inward dent in the bottom, so they will never drain completely. I don’t know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Be careful when drilling plastic. I managed to break one pot by using too much pressure. (2 euros/pot at Bauhaus)
• 2 meters of aluminum pipe, 6 mm diameter. One meter for drip pipes and another for the air lift. (4 euros/meter at Bauhaus)
• Two meters of aluminum strip. Mine is about 12mm wide and 2mm thick. I wouldn’t go any thinner than 2mm, since the rigidity of the column would likely suffer. (4 euros/meter at Bauhaus)
• 4 gaskets for sealing the drip pipes. The ones I got seem to do the job pretty well: 17mm outer diameter, 5mm inner diameter, 4mm thick. (around 2 euros for a 4-pack)
• M3 Nuts, washers and screws (or bolts) for attaching the pots to the aluminum strip. (Less than 1e total)

Parts not installed yet:

• Sera Air 275R Plus air pump with adjustable air flow and two outlets. Came with two non-return valves. (28 euros at a local aquarium store)
• 6mm “colorless” air hose. It’s possible to stretch this over the aluminum pipe using pliers and some soap as lubricant. (2 euros / meter at a local aquarium store)

Still missing the reservoir and the airlift needle(s).

This is not the final assembly and you might notice that some of the drip pipes and pots are not straight. I’ll fix that before doing the actual planting. Originally I’d thought I’d have to glue the drip pipes to the pots, but with the gaskets in place and the hole being tight enough, I’m not sure if glue is necessary. It won’t matter anyway if the drip pipes are wet on the outside.

I was wondering though, should the downward water flow be somehow restrained so that the water drips down slowly? Now when I pour water in the top pot, most of the water has come down in less than a minute. How does it work in WF 3.0?

The wife said it looks alright. I might even get a permission to build a second column Stay tuned. The next step is building the airlift.

I think this project is fantastic, although I’m finding the site a little difficult to navigate (that could be due to the spammers trying to sell me coats and headphones though )

Has anybody given any though to the potential contamination from the plastic bottles (BPA, PET etc)?  The water bottles (in the UK) say that they shouldn’t be refilled, this isn’t just a cunning ploy by the water companies to sell more product, it’s also because the chemicals from the plastic leech into the water.  I ‘imagine’ that will the plastic bottles sitting in direct sunlight, some of those chemicals would also leech into the plants.

This is my only concern with this otherwise impressive system.

Is anybody using any alternatives to plastic bottles?

Has anyone tried using RGB LED Light strips as a grow light for their plants? I’m wondering if this would provide the right spectrums of light? With the right controller, you can have incredibly precise control over the color of the light, plus they are available with a waterproof feature.

I’d like some input from people that have greater understanding than I on the subject before I drop the $300 or so this particular system will cost me to build, please!

Here is the strip: http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&category=BARS&Page2Disp=%2Fspecs%2FFLS-RGB.htm

The controller: http://www.superbrightleds.com/pdfs/LDK-RGB3.pdf

Update:

I was just reading on a website that plants get the best use of light in the violet/ blue and then red range, with the interceding green/orange/yellow range pretty much not doing much of anything. If I just set these to produce strong violet/blue colors, that’s pretty much the same thing, right?

Did anybody try using .5L bottles instead of the 1.5L Bottles? From what i’ve read, i would expect that space is an issue for only some plants.

If the vertical space is the first problem, i could cut off the top of the bottle and space them further appart, put the plant higher in the bottle, so their effective root space is just as big as in the 1.5L bottle.

The advantages would be space, taking less sight in the window, and less weight.

The disadvantages, i don’t really know, there could be many, but i would assume they’re all space-related.

I’d like to think this would make a kick-ass mini-window-farm for maxing out cress and other really tiny plants.

I cut off the white part of one of these sports caps (the one you can open with your teeth). I’ve got some tube that i bought as 6mm inner diamater and 8mm outer…  The tube fits exactly in the hole, but after testing it, it’s not water-tight. I looked through my stuff and found three things with approximately 6mm diameter: a metal cylinder, a plastic piece of junk (i think it’s for making those glow-in-the-dark bracelets) and a 6 mm wall plug. I’ve tested putting them inside the tube before putting the tube into the cap.

Two out of three gave me a watertight connection (at least for a couple of minutes).  (-: They fit inside the tube, the tube then fits more neatly in the bottlecap, the point being to make it watertight.

The wall plug (the only of the 3 items labelled to actually _be_ 6mm)  measured only at 5.7mm. Being optimistic about the four little “flaps” it has, i tried it first with only the first 5 mm of the plug, then later sacrificed another whole plug to find out that even that didn’t work. I think putting a couple of layers of tape (or anything else) on the plug first could make the plug large enough as well, but i didn’t test it (yet). The tape doesn’t have to be watertight, just extend the plug, so the plug presses the tube out to make a watertight connection with the cap.

The tube:  is labelled “Cristallo Extra, Hi-Fitt 2007/19/EC a-b-c Made in EC”

Look mommy! Cheap, not too messy, easy to connect/disconnect and watertight!

How on earth do you get the inflation needle to stay onto the check valve!?

I have average petco check valves (the ones recommended in the online WF set up) and basketball inflation needles. The two will not stay together and after an hour of functioning they come apart. It’s so sad and such a tease, adivce would be greatly greatly appreaciated!

Ciao ciao

Hi all

So, I’m new here, but highly experienced in hydroponics generally. Here are a few very basic improvements/suggestions to the WF system that I would consider beneficial. forgive my waffling in advance as this is all top of my head (but useful never-the-less)

1. use BLACK SPRAY PAINT, not white. here’s why;

a) black paint will definately prevent ANY light getting to the root zone, as compared to white which, as I have found in my own DIY systems, is less efficient at this (algae formation as visual evidence)

b) root zone temp. As a basic principle, the warmer the root zone the faster the root growth and so, plant growth (up to an optimum temperature, above which becomes detrimental). So, black paint in sunlight has better heat absorption properties than the reflective white paint. In theory, black paint would assist the root growth more than white by keeping a warmer root zone.

2. a possible UPGRADE?

adding a water heater to the reservoir (set at 18-20 celcius) would also promote root growth for WF in the colder windows of winter in which the water temp may drop to a point of plant growth inhibition.

3. increase the RESERVOIR SIZE.

a)The smaller the reservoir, the quicker the P.H can shift. a very important aspect of hydro growing, if this shifts too much (and it will if not checked) the PH will go beyond the zone of nutrient absorption and lock-out nutrients to the plants… which stresses and ultimately reduces efficiency of the plant. increasing the reservoir will add an extra buffer zone for human error (forgetting to check p.h) and makes the hydro system a little more forgiving. for example. in a DIY dripper system I constructed, the 4L reservoir (feeding 4 plants) went beyond the p.h absorption parameters within 24 hours, due to the plants using far more Nitrogen than other nutrients in the solution. Upon upgrading to a 10l reservoir the plants now maintain a stady p.h for a number of days.

b) the smaller the reservoir, the quicker the E.C (or T.D.S [total dissolved solids]) will increase. Plants use far more water than nutrient so in a small reservoir in which far more water is being used than nutrient, after a period of even a few hours (if the WF is full of plants) the water could have dramatically reduced whilst nutrient has only minimally reduced. So, the relative concentration of nutrient (E.C) has increased. This is not good for control.

4. buy an E.C meter. NOT ESSENTIAL BUT RECOMMENDED FOR OPTIMUM CONTROL AND GROWTH

Now, I will state that I do not know to which degree readers of this post will be acquainted with E.C etc so I will quickly, and rather superficially, explain it in basic terms.

E.C (electro-conductivity)  is the concentrations of ions or nutrient in a solution (dissolved nutrient strength). As a basic rule, the higher the E.C the stronger the nutrient concentration, the benefit of an E.C meter is that it gives you control over the feed strength BEYOND knowing what you put in at first. So, if say, you carefully measure 10ml of nutrient feed into 10L of pure water, and the E.C meter (digital reading) reads an E.C of say 1.0 as a rough example(note this is purely for exemplary purposes), which is fine for your plants age and stage etc. you add this to your reservoir and begin the feed regime. After a  few days, the plants may have used 2l of water, yet only 0.5ml of nutrient along with it, so now, your carefully calculated nutrient strength is out the window because you now have 8l of water with 9.5ml of feed…

so; from 10l-10ml= 1ml/l (a balanced strength)

to 8l-9.5ml = 1.18ml/l (now stronger)…

So, now you know, to bring equilibrium back to the nutrient strength, you must add water until the E.C drops to 1 again. without this meter, it is very difficult to know how much of what has been used by the plant.

so,  just a few basic ideas, this is my first contribution (actually currently procrastinating from studying for an exam)and I hope to add more in depth ideas and suggestions when I have the time to write them up after my exam period next week.

any questions or whatever really, please don’t hesitate… I love talking hydro!

I have a couple of nice windows in my house that are about 10 feet tall and 4 feet wide. I think they’d support a lot of veggies and they face south, so they get a lot of sun the way my house is situated.

The windows are in the living room. I hesitate to mount the system using the wall for support. I’d like to use a ladder, but I’d have to purchase one. I have seen the PVC anchored in a bucket of concrete idea, but my wife vetoed it very quickly.

Any other ideas I should be looking at?