d.3 stands for D’Artagnon’s third system . . . in case people went looking for an “official” set of d.3 plans on the site.

Anyhoo . . .

Looking through the site and through the plans I felt I wanted another option for my containers other than plastic and another growth medium other than those provided. So, taking the basic theory I struck out with my shoelaces untied and the wind in my face.

First the bottles; I used 12 oz soda bottles for a mini herb garden. I found a cool method of slicing the bottoms of the bottles off that was clean and painless. I will post the extended directions in another post. So, bottoms off, edges smoothed then I added my medium.

 

Rockwool doesn’t breakdown and they are a onetime use product. Once the roots have taken over, then what? Where does that go? The pebbles and expanded clay can be reused often, but that seems a lot of maintenance and they come with plastic baskets. A while ago I saw a news segment about a man who went in to the doctor because he thought he might have lung cancer and through some tests found he had inhaled a pea, which started to sprout in his lung.

Creepy, but it gave me a great idea; luffah as a growth medium.

 

The early version of my system proved that the luffah stayed moist and allowed oxygen to flow through the root system. Best of all, it breaks down slowly. Not too fast so it supports the root system but it can be thrown into my compost and returned in an earth friendly way. Also, luffah easier to manage if soaked briefly in water.

 

The reservoir bottle is a salvaged wine bottle sealed with aquarium grade silicon in the neck. I inserted the pump needle directly into the silicon air tube and that tube sits next to a purge valve for easy drainage. I found a simpler check valve at PetSmart and inserted it further down the line for easier access.

The bottles are strung together using a bracelet knot. Well, really it’s a bunch of square knots tied over the bottles. Tension keeps things stable.

In the earlier version of the system having the airlift tube on the outside proved messy, so I had the tube running up inside the bottles. After having to do some maintenance and fret over root invasion I returned it to the outside. The white tube is 1/4 inch  (outside dimension) pex tube and the smaller is a 1/4 inch (outside dimension) ac tube.

 

A side note on the airlift system: If the water level is too low in your reservoir then the air won’t lift enough water. I kept the level about 1.5 inches from the top edge and I chose a long bottle for this specific purpose. Right now it’s a single column system so I only need a single pump.

Next is to transplant my sprouts and actually get food for the system. That’s going to be an exciting learning curve. Eventually I want to see if I can get a piece of bamboo for my airlift tube and be free from the plastic. Here’s hoping.

Let me know what you think and feel free to ask questions. Happy tinkering!

 

d’

Hi, I have usually just joined up old tubes to make my windowfarm airlift demo’s and I did not really understand why other people were having problems.  Then I did this experiment today pumping water to 18 ft high with a T joint and 2 ft of submergence.  (I did it). But there was the blocked tube problem over and over.  I had to put detergent in the tubes to help get off whatever grease or coating that new tubes have!  Finally it started working but was still stopping at times.

I think windowfarms need to issue an advisory about this.  So many people had a similar problem and after a day or 2 it went away.  Perhaps detergent is the answer, perhaps washing soda, perhaps dish soap.   A few quick experiments need to be done to find the best solution because it really seems to put new people off.   Thanks  Brian. The new video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_88_xUd5Zs

Hi – perhaps I’m missing something, but in attempting to build the version 2.0 airlift system, I’m a bit confused as to what length to make my tubing.  In the materials list, it calls for undetermined lengths of the 3 different kinds of tubes, and then in the actual instructions (particular step #8) it says to refer to the materials list to know how long the tubes must be.  The instructions are also somewhat confusing when describing which kind of tubing to use for which part of the system.

Can anyone clarify this for me please?

Thanks, James

Greetings all.

 

Just as I; I am sure many of you have had problems getting your setup up an running reliably.

I have done some testing with various types of tubing, pump settings, reservoir setups etc.

I attempted a type of pump set up called a “geyser hybrid” which is in my opinion a waterlift with a little more complexity.

 

                                                                                                                                                              I had some trouble getting this setup to work at all.Maybe with a little more head pressure it would but the end result I was trying to get was more water movement with less air.

Next I attempted the setup with the needles.This works but I am worried about the jury rigged connection at the needle juncture and it proved to be no more effective than replacing the needle with a “T” connector.

It seems to me the point of the needle”no pun intended” is to insert the air further up into the column of water and to reduce the chance that the air may back up and bubble into the reservoir.

As stated in some other articles and online at sites like U tube.Th more head pressure the better the result.Air has a springy quality and when you have sufficient head pressure you can sometimes see air backing up into the inlet tube but it slows and returns the the junction and feeds the output line.

I used a two liter bottle with a fitting in the lid and the bottom cut off.a short section of head(feed)tube.about a foot worth.

A “T” junction. and a discharge tube to the height of about 6 feet.All tubing is semi rigid.i think this works better as some energy can be lost to flexing.My “T” junction I may add was a 1/4 outside dia fitting with a short length of tubing attached to feed and discharge sides to enlarge it to the size of my rigid tubing.the air line is just the standard size purchased at pet stores.

I placed my reservoir at a height of about 18 inches above the floor.or that is with my water starting surface level at 18 inches above ground.This gives a head of 18 inches but I find I don’t need that full head space.It just works better.I may be able to eliminate this with a larger reservoir say maybe a 5 gallon bucket with a fitting in the bottom. In my tests putting the tubing into the reservoir like a dip tube is troublesome and unreliable.

In my future setup I am going to attempt to use compression fittings that snap on and off with ease and fit on the outside of the tubing to make use of the full diameter of the inside of the tubing.and since I am planning on using a larger reservoir I may fit a charcoal filter to keep water from stagnating.

I may add that I am planning on using this to water my orchids and I am concerned about stagnation.

More later….please feel free to give me your input and experiences.

Bye for now.

Phillip

I am wondering now if a larger reservoir may eliminate the need for more head tube.

 

 

 

I live in Tokyo, and this is my first attempt at windowfarming. I love the idea and it’s been a great project that I’ve enjoyed building with my children.

It was at first difficult to find the net pots and compatible bottles to use. I ordered a crate of bottled water online, which was probably a bad idea. I also had to order the net pots online.

Below is my first prototype. I had trouble getting the airlift to work, probably because I stubbornly refused to buy the rigid clear pipe that was on the manual, and instead opted for a much cheaper clear tubing method.

After much trial and error I created this simple solution which so far as been completely reliable and my one air pump can probably power eight airlifts like this, since I have to turn the power way down to slow down the water going up.

(when I made this, I didn’t read the other entries which described this very method. Would have saved me a heap of trouble if I had just looked here.)

A few friends who saw this for the first time became very interested and want to build their own now.

After success with my first model, I decided (at my wife’s request) that I wanted to make a new one that was more pleasing to the eye, (this is in my living room) and so I want to Daiso, which is Japan’s equivalent to a dollar store, and bought some plastic buckets and hooks and came up with this new design, which my wife likes much better.

It’s all based on the same concept and inside of each bucket is actually the upside-down top of a bottle screwed to the bottom.

The cone-shaped things hanging down were bought at Daiso and are actually made to screw on to bottles and stick into soil to nourish plants, so it worked out quite nicely.

There are two airlifts which both feed out of the same reservoir at the bottom, and both end up draining back into it.

A few practical advantages to this system:

• Because the pots are just hanging on hooks, you can very easily move the pots around for cleaning, light placement etc., without having to reconnect chains or other type of hanging systems.
• Two systems hanging on one column saves space.
• The staggered arrangement of the pots allow multiple columns to be placed close to each other.
• An open top may help the plants to not become too lopsided. (I’ve seen videos of this problem sometimes happening with previous models.) You can just flip the thing around to get it to grow the other way.

I would love to get feedback from other members and especially anybody in Japan who is also interested in windowfarming.

I will post more photos as I make more models and improvements to my systems.

Built my window farm in December in Hong Kong.  Though we live in the tropics, the temperature does drop below 15 degrees celsius in the winter so be prepared.  And your south-facing window is often blocked by another building in our concrete jungle so lights may be needed.  Good news is that Chinese made (and not inferior) LED’s and CFC’s are cheap to come by, and the Hong Kong government subsidizes some of the electricity.  Some specifics:

1) The pump I’m using.

2) One way valves from aquarium store.

3) My window farm, testing for leaks.

4) Substrate and fertilizer, from the organic grower store at the Flower Market in Prince Edward.

5) The seeds I used, also from the Flower Market in Prince Edward.  Bottom right ones are Japanese pumpkins I got from the organic store owner on Queen’s Road Central called Rice Plus.

Only two of my 3 bak choy survived after two weeks.  I think that 1) the fertilizer was too concentrated, 2) the bak choy was transplanted too early, 3) the solution burned the tender young leaves, 4) there was not enough light after the onset of winter.

Changes made: Diluted solution, planted my strongest cherry tomato plant, added lights, and added tubes to direct the solution straight to clay pellets.

That’s my first entry.  Hope to meet others in Hong Kong soon, because this is the perfect place for growing.

Has anyone an idea, whether a smal solar panel can run the air pump? I want to build up a absolut green windowfarm, so that the air pump didn`t use normal electricity, but with solar energy. How big has that panel to be? Has anyone tried it?

Greetz Matthias

My Skylight T-valve windowfarm.
Those version 3.0 designs are way too complicated. I wanted to make something as simple as I possibly could using minimal materials. This is what I have come up with:

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APRIL 5th, 2012 Update, and more to come….Ghost chiles are fruiting!, and Jalapenos ready for stuffing and wrapping in bacon

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MARCH 8th, 2012 Update !

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COSTS TOOLS & WHATNOT one|two|three|four

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• The Jana water bottles seem to be perfect, it is a Croatian brand of spring water. I like the water, they are 1.99 a bottle, but you can find used arrowhead 1.5L bottles fairly easily.
  ($0-10[$40, for 4 columns]) Bottles can cost anywhere from free to $10/tower.
• ($0) Suspended with a hook and shoestrings, you can use anything, this doesn’t need to cost anything, spend here only if you feel like trying something fancy.
• ($10) Airline tubing is 10cents a foot. I bought a $10 Roll of it, plenty to spare.
• ($3.50) T valves are a 50 cents each x7
• ($2.00) flow valves are a 50 cents each x4
• ($10-20) the pump was pretty darn cheap, repurposed from fish tank… 3watt, super cheap, and costs about 20-80 cents a year to run on the timing i have.
• ($8.00) 3″ net pots were 50cents each x16
• ($30.00) 2x Timers were $15 each, 24 hours of 15min intervals for water.

TOTAL FOR SETUP: $113.50 for 4 towers
Additional costs(& ongoing expenses); nutrition, lights, paint if you don’t have it, electricity is about 25-75cents a year for the air pump, lights are costlier.

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Seeds I’ve Started (for windowfarms or my garden outside):
http://store.myorganicseeds.com/ <— Hot Peppers !
http://seedrack.com <–Cool and interesting plants

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Oregon Sugar Pod Peas – Pisum sativum
Green Onions

PEPPERS – Capsicum
SUPER HOTS 300,000 to 2million Schoville Heat Units
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion – Capsicum chinense
Sunrise Scorpion – Capsicum chinense
7 Pot, Barrackapore variety – Capsicum chinense
Habanero – Capsicum chinense
Bhut Jolokia – interspecific hybrid (mostly C. chinense with some C. frutescens genes)

Low – Medium Heats (6,000 – 100,000 SHU)
Marbles – Capsicum annuum
Black Pearl – Capsicum annuum
Jalapeno – Capsicum annuum

TOMATOES – Solanum lycopersicum
Roma
Brandywine
Yellow Pears
Green Zebra
Black Krim
Speckled Roman

Purple Tomatillos

Butternut Squash

GREENS
Rouge d’Hiver Lettuce –
Arugula –
Dwarf Blue Curled Kale – Brassica oleracea

HERBS
Purple Basil – Ocimum basilicum
Cilantro – Coriandrum sativum
Sage – Salvia officinalis
Oregano – Origanum vulgare
Thyme – Thymus vulgaris
Chamomile -Matricaria recutita
Chives
Catnip

hi,

ive been trying to source all the materials needed and i am getting really confused where to buy alot of it from.

I live in london, uk, and i cannot find a place where i can buy the required tubing from. I also have absolutely no idea what type of air pump i need to buy, and what power/voltage/ blah i need.

also, can you use miracle grow as my nutrient??

This might be some really stupid questions, but any help would be much much appreciated. Atleast once i have got those things sorted, i can start on my own WF.

thanks guy

rekesh

Hey togehter,

today I just finished my first windowfarm with 2 times 3 plant bottles. I just bought Eheim Air Pump 200 for two farms-towers and two ventiles (water cannot flew in the airpump). I didn`t use that inflation needles, instead I used two screws, that I srewed in the Air hose, so that the water can get in the hose. Works even better that that needles. For calming the sound at the top, I also screwed in a screw a little bit. Works perfect! The cost were just at 35 Euros!

Thanks for that idea of window planting. Just waiting till my plants grow.

Matthias