Having read this, I was wondering whether one couldn’t build a compact WF-AWTS using a (large) bottle.

I think it’ll be quite easy to do one in my farm setup, but may be more difficult in the normal configuration.

I was thinking of a bottle with the bottom cut off, turned around, with some lid that lets air through, wrapped in insulating material, preferably placed the shade.

After the bottle is placed upside down, a coarse sponge filter is not too tightly showed into the bottom end,  and it is placed so that the end of the sponge (hanging out) is in contact with the reservoir (or a part that is regularly flushed).

Worms, substrate and starter food are added. The coarse filter will ensure the worm farm doesn’t get too wet, and it’ll let the worm tea produced pass through little by little, eliminating odour.

Thoughts ?

Edit – here it is in all its GIMPish glory:

From bottom to top we have:

Wick, sponge, worms in soil, kitchen scraps – and the bottle, obviously.

How about this:
Use regular clay pots for the plants, tie moss/succulents/whateveryoulike to their outside, and do the rest by the book.
The moisture seeping through will feed the ”living pots”, any excess would simply drop below.
Should look nice.

Trygve Henriksen

I’m not certain that the clay will let much nutrients seep through.
(But feel free to try. Would probably look nice if it did work.)

samenrahmen

No worries there – just look at the calcification on older pots.

Trygve Henriksen

Can’t say that I have that many clay pots… A couple of glazed ones(and we know that nothing seeps through on those),

but mostly it’s plastic ’self-watering’ pots… (Only way that I can keep plants alive, it seems… )

samenrahmen

If you hung the pots up in net bags, you’d get free trellisses – the handles.

Hardware Junkie

You should be able to drill through clay pots of your careful enough. Quick google search is giving how to results.

One small hole should be enough to allow nutrients through, and the plants could sit in the clay pot with hydroton

samenrahmen

Or one could use felt around them, with a thick piece hanging down and acting as a wick to guide the water down to the next pot.

Which would eliminate the need for any tubing which might get clogged, and at the same time ensure the moisture supply.

Here’s something made of felt:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/karenmackay/sets/72157622612880600/

• quieter
• easier to set up
• more elegant, but still do-able with all recycled water bottles
• more plants for less electrical input (up to 32 plants on one air pump if you do Rama’s double plant mod)
• modular, meaning you can supply proper nutrients to vegetative, fruiting, and flowering plants all in one system.

No more airlift issues with the new tubes. And we have finally achieved some serious height!! Achieving height means you can grow more plants with the same pump so it is way more efficient in terms of the amount of nutritional calories per fossil fuel calorie used in powering the pump. This design described in the free how to is basically the same as the new Classic kit.

If you are a total beginner and not the handiest person in town, we suggest you start with the Version 2.0 airlift system, or consider buying a kit (kit cost comes out about the same as buying all the materials yourself anyway, but we source just the right parts responsibly and the little margin between supports the cost to run the project!!).

We decided to release this as a participatory web guide that captures ideas, questions, sketches, discussion, & issues for R&D-I-Y while you build. This new functionality is still in it’s “beta” testing phase & we are working on integrating it with this site still.

Thank you to all contributors to the our.windowfarms.org site & BIG PROPS to @ramajames, @Hardwarejunkie,  @samenrahmen, and other users who have contributed so much to the art of windowfarming.

Follow this link to the new instructions (you will need to register first so that we can make sure you have accepted the community’s open source terms of service.

So I hate plastic, specifically plastic coming in contact with my food. I was thinking of other recyclable materials to build a window farm out of, any ideas? I have access to a large amount of 16 oz aluminum cans, can anyone think of a really good way to use cans? Any feedback is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

Also, I was thinking of trying to use wine bottles, I have a plan on what to do with them, I will post pictures once I have a tower assembled!

If the video doesn’t show up (the preview certainly isn’t showing it), then you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4xkUsAlM_0

Sorry that it isn’t directly on here, if I could, I would.

  This was a valve I purchased at Loews and used I believe a 1/8″ tube to allow the water to be dispensed at the top of the system

Because I was working with a window that was extremely tall I had to get a water pump that was more pricey then the air pumps.  This one may have been a bit overkill but they really jump in size and I didn’t have a lot of time to order online so this was purchased at Loews and pumps 12′.  I think it was around $44

In Savannah a majority of buildings are historic so I was unable to screw, glue, or do anything of the sort to support my window farm.  What I had to do was build a frame to support it.

The initial version used stainless steel tumblers, mesh strainers, sisal rope, metal rope and crimps, a glass reservoir, natural rubber tubing, and organic nutrients (mostly bat guano). The only plastic part is the air pump.

Here are some modifications to the design:

• Replaced the smaller glass reservoir, which wasn’t tall enough to push the water up, with a 12″ high stainless steel container.
• Replaced the mesh screens, which didn’t leave enough room for the roots, with sink strainers.
• Replaced the bat guano nutrients, which got really slimy after a week or so, with fish emulsion.

And here’s a new image of the window farm and its gourd-based companion, currently in-progress.
More images and video can be found @ jennaspevack.com/windowfarm

Window Farm (Plastic-Free)