Just recently I came across the idea of using some osrt of mosquito net and a string (rubber band?) to provide plants with a fexible environment of grow medium: if the plant has grown some inches already, simple use fabric material to wrap around the medium and root ball, pulling it together gently aroung the bottom of the plant and secure it with a string or rubber band.

Sounds OK i guess, if the plant is strong enough already.

The Upside would be: complete freedom in of the issue of finding matching bottles & pots.

The Downside, i could imagine, would be loss of stability for larger plants?

What do you guys think? maybe someone has already tried that out?

Does anyone out there in the windowfarms world have had any experiences with using florist foam, sponge, or similiar materials as grow medium?

I was hoping to eventually get rid of the net-pot, but still be able to “pull the plant out of the bottle without hassle”.

Maybe also something “more technical”/ futuristic/pop-art looking would be interesting, turning the indowfarm into a more stylish item. Any experiences with… water beads anyone?

I would be happy if anyone who has treid would share his/her experiences.

Hello, I’ve attempted my first window farm this week as a prototype for class. It’s been a bit difficult to find proper supplies in Hong Kong due to language barriers. Challenges and questions I’ve come across while exercising my poor engineering skills. I will be using black socks to cover the bottom of the bottles.

1. My seedlings have already been attacked twice with aphids and fungus gnats in it’s growing plugs. I had to start a fresh batch. If the seedlings are already so sensitive to the  moisture and humidity, how soon will my window farm be attacked by these pest? Anyone have experience with handling this in a humid country?

2. My tubing is too stiff to direct it away from the seedling. I’ve seen some systems using a toothpick or wooden chopstick, but my result was a moldy chopstick. I ended up using a fishing wire just to hold it down and a tape to keep the tube in place. I obviously need to find a better alternative. 

3. Reservoir problem. Due to the limited space in HK, I don’t have the luxury to have a big bottle for reservoir so I attempted to use a ketchup bottle on the bottom. I found the tip was a good way to plug the tubing in (I still need to reinforce it with plumbers tape, but haven’t found it yet).

4. Cutting through plastic was the biggest challenge.  I am not a very handy person, but I attempted to use the drill to make some holes on the bottom of the bottles but the bottom is thicker than the rest of the bottle, so I am not able to cut through it. In the end, I made a big circle but the bottles don’t fit perfectly. Any suggestions? I thought about using sticks to reinforce it.

5.I wanted to try out using water beads instead of clay pellets. Anyone have any success in it?

Greetings Everyone!

I am an education coordinator working with a group of awesome teens that are constructing the Version 2.0 airlift system window-farm.  We have an aquarium pump suitable for a 13-gallon tank with just one valve.  The pump we are using is from Petco (Link provided for the visual)  http://www.petco.com/product/119290/Petco-Air-Pump-for-Freshwater-And-Marine-Aquariums.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch.

Will this pump work for the 2.0 airlift version?  Should we return the pumps and get two valve aquarium pumps?

We will finish constructing our 2.0 airlift system window-farm this weekend.  We are having a blast learning and constructing the window-farms, in addition to contributing our discoveries through the window-farm.org forum.  Here are a few pics of the initial setup.  I will post our complete setup soon.

I picked up an air pump today, and it didn’t come with check valves. Surprisingly, the check valves cost as much as the pump did. Instead, I built a bottom cap assembly using an old air valve from a bicycle, and so it ended up costing me nothing, and getting me a really nice looking bottom cap assembly at the same time.

Assembled bottom cap

I wrote a description of how to modify the high-pressure check valve in the bike valve to a low-pressure one that suits our needs, on my blog.

http://jakewins.com/2013/03/check-valves-for-fun-and-5-profit/

Hopefully this will benefit someone else

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

This is a  step by step process of how I built my window farm. It has only been running for a few days so I am not certain that all of the kinks have been cleared from the system but so far it seems to hold up. I took inspiration largely from Rama’s build http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/04/26/our-hydroponic-window-farm-experience/#comment-4112#comment-4112

I had to make some specific adjustments due to my specific needs and also I am based in Australia so some of the materials mentioned in the different instructions are not available here or are a bit different. I have currently started off with a 2 column set up however I believe my set up can easily be increased to any size. I fact once I test this one out for about a Month or so I will likely add a few more columns.

Materials

• 6mm (internal size) Vinyl tubing enough to go from the lowest point to the higest point of your set up with a bit to play with and multiplied by the number of columns you want to make, in my case 2
• 4mm internal 6mm external size (has to fit snuggly inside the above vinyl tubing. Air tubing I got around 5m and still have some left over for future use.
• Fairly thin chain around 6m (needs to be built so that you can undo and reassemble the links)
• 27L container in my case a white plastic rubbish bin
• Infinity AP-750 Air pump this has 2 speeds and 2 outlets. I think the one recommended by the site would be better but wasn’t able to find at the time, but have since found it so will use that next time.
• HPM  D817 7 Day timer for setting the on off times of the pump
• Transparent plastic bottles in my case 10, with this build i suspect any container of that approximate size would work.
• masking tape
• white spray paint any colour would do I assume.
• Clay pellets
• Net cups to match the size of the bottles
• Flairform Green Dream 1 Hydroponic mixture from local hydroponics store

Other materials

Glue Gun, Drill with 6mm and one larger drill bit to match the size of your chain, and sharp hobby knife kits or similar sharp tools.

Steps

Step 1. Take 1.5 L bottles of water in this case they are some random bottles I found in a discount store that cost me $1 each. drill 6mm holes in the bottom of the bottle and in the lid. Drill holes the appropriate size for the cain at the base about 2cm from the bottom of the bottle and again near the cap approximately 2.5cm from the ledge of the cap. Don’t drill holes near the cap for the bottom bottle of each column.

Step 2.Cut opening on both sides of the bottle both starting approximately 2 cm from the centre line of the bottle leaving 2 uncut parts approximately 4-5 cm thick on both sides.

Step 4. Cover bottom half the bottle in masking tape and paint the top half with spray paint, give it 2 coats.

Step 5. Once the bottles are dry string the chain through the holes of the top bottle and hanging from a pole while each of the other string through the bottom of the previous bottle into the base of the next bottle as show in the pictures.

Step 6. pass the vinyl tubing along the chain and tie it onto it using cable ties or thin wire.

Step 7. Follow Rama’s suggestion. Which is poke a ball pump tip into the vinyl tubing about 3-5 cm from the end and thread the thinner airline tubing into it up to the point where the ball pump tip is. Also attach about 3-5cm of airline tubing to the back of the ball pump tip. I had some problem with air bubbling out of the ball pump tip but i found if i had the back of the tip facing down in the water as show in Rama’s diagram it stopped bubbling.

Step 8. At the top of the set up thread some airline tubing into the Vinyl tubing and poke it into the top of first bottle all the way down to approximately where the mesh pot will sit.

Step 9. Unscrew the bottle caps which have a 6mm hole in the top of them cut pieces of airline tubing to run from the cap of the previous bottle to the mesh cup in the next bottle. Thread about 1/2cm of the airline tubing into the cap and use the glue gun to stick it in place (don’t cover the hole). The glue gun doesn’t hold it in place perfectly but so far I have not had much problem with them popping out or leaking. The last tube should be long enough to go back into the bottom container.

Step 10. Put the plants in the pots without any soil and hold them in with the clay pellets. Then put them in the bottles

Final Step. Hook everything up to the air pump plug the air pump into the timer which I set for 2 hours on 2 hours off during day light ours and off during the night. Fill the tank with water and add nutrients check the PH which according to the company making the fertiliser should be around 5-6.5.

Questions and issues.

Here are a few issues and questions I have.

How much on/off time should I have? I have set it to 2 hours on 2 hours off during day light hours but I have no idea if this is too much too little etc.

I have a strange gurgling sound in one of my columns and have no idea where it is coming from I can hear it somewhere near the top of the set up but have no idea what is causing it not sure if anyone has an answer for this. Kinda annoying too.

• Just answered my own question on that one. I found a small piece of dirt lodged in the entry point of one of my tubes. I.e. on the inside of one of the bottle caps.

How often will the nutrients have to be added and will the water have to be changed in my current position changing the water will be a major hassle.

Anyway hope this is useful to someone and hope to get some feedback on some of the issues I’m having or on how I could improve this set up.

Cheers.

Materials Needed:

3  Glass Bottles (or 3 similar plant holding vesicles)

Wire Cutters

From Home Depot

• 10 Foot Double Loop Chain ($5)
• 1 – 1/8″ Quick Link ($2.24)
• 2 – 1/8″ ‘S’ Hooks ($1.18 4 pack)
• 18 Gage Wire ($3)
• 5 Gallon Pot, with no holes in bottom ($10)

From SD Hydro

• 1  Eco 132 Submersible Pump ($11.79)
• 5 Foot- 3/8″ Poly Tubing ($1.30)
• 3″ – 1/4″ Poly Tubing ($0.13)
• 1 – 1/4″ Vari Flow Valve ($.50)
• 3 – 3″ Net Cups ($1.26)
• Growstones ($28, or since you only need about 3 cups of stones, ask your local hydro store for samples. Most of the time they will be more than willing to give you some from their store-use supply).

Directions:

1. For the first step you will need your 10 foot chain, wire, wire cutters, and the bottles.

2.  Fold the chain in the middle, so that there are two 5 foot lengths.

3. Cut a 2 1/2 foot piece of wire. Take one your bottles and have someone hold it at the desired height. Remember that you will have three bottles. Wrap the cut piece of wire around the neck of the bottle and through the chains (See picture to the right).  Be sure to t I wrapped the wire around about 4 times, to make sure the bottle would be secure.

4. Next, cut 3 foot piece of wire. Wrap the wire around the top of the bottle in the same fashion as you did with the bottom (See picture below).

5. Repeat with the other two bottles, working down the chain. I left about 5 inches of space in between the bottles.

6. Now that all the bottles are attached to the chain, its time to start working on the pump. Gather the reservoir, the tubing, the pump and the valve for the next steps.

7. Attach the 1/4″ piece of tubing to the vari flow valve. This is going to be your drip system.  Attach the drip system to one end of the 3/8″ tubing. Then, Attach the open end of the 3/8″ tubing to the submersible pump.

8. Fill up your reservoir with water. Attach submersible pump to side at highest possible point. The tubing should go up the back of the bottles. The end of the tubing should stop about two inches above the top bottle. You may need to work with the tubing a bit to make the drip system hang stay in place.

9. At this point, you can plug in your pump. Make sure the bottles are all lined up so water is dripping from the top bottle, through the bottom two, and into the reservoir. If this is all working well, it is time to add your plants!

10. Place a net cup in each of the bottles. Take your plants (we made cutting of plants we had in the store and rooted them in our EZ Clone) and place inside the net cups. Fill in the excess space with Growstone.

11. At this point, your system should be up and running. Let it run for a couple day before adding any nutrients or intense lighting, as the plants need time to recover from the transplanting process. After a couple days, you will need to add some hydroponic nutrients to your system to ensure your plants survive.

Hi,

I’ve just recently found out about windowfarms and I want to get started building one as well. I have three huge windows,  all together about 5m wide and 1,8m high, the only problem is that I don’t have any direct sunlight and I can’t find any place to buy the right CFL bulbs. I’ve read on the website that I need bulbs with a light temp of >5500 K but when I google this I can’t find a single website that sells them. And are there any other requirements? Like wattage maybe?
So does anyone know a website or a store, preferably in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where I can get some of the right lightbulbs?

Many thanks in advance!

Tom

I am doing a couple of vertical pallet planters and changed the airlift to suit the planters. In this case, the next planter will have 2 wooden legs in plastic buckets. The water will drip down the legs and back into the buckets. I usually use the t joint method outside the bucket but I also appreciate that not everyone has room for a u tube that is one ft lower than your T joint. I tried a few different methods and this one works.
This way uses all the depth of the bucket and you might get a little bubbling when it restarts for a few seconds but usually not. Note that once again, I got a few days where the tubes acted funny before they behaved themselves. Pretty sure it is whatever sheen or grease is on new tubes. I think all new tubes need to just sit low with nutrient running through them for about a day before you put them up in position. There is almost zero drainback in new tubes and that is what is causing the problem. Newbies are going to be very confused by this.
My pallet planter project is at instructables A very interesting aspect of this (for me) is that the air pump is 120 ft away from the planter. (It still works and pumps the air through 1/4 inch tubing all the way to the greenhouse). Brian