Hi I’m trying to use the water of my tank to put it in my reservoir of windows farm. Does somebody do that? If yes, how often do you put new fishtank water? And do you put back the water of the farm in the fishtank or do you throw it away? I thought I can put it back as the plants should clean the water like in aquaponics system. But the difference is that the system is not turning all the day (i mean the water stay in the farm before going back in the tank so maybe it’s bad for the fish ) what do you think?

Sorry for my english
Thanks for all your help!

Hello, I discovered this website through TED, where I watched a talk by Britta Riley about window farming. As soon as I heard that window farmers have been able to grow strawberries that fruited for 9 months under low-light conditions, I was hooked. I am eager to get started on creating my own window farm.

I looked at the instructions for window farms 3.0, here, briefly. My first questions regard the use of plastic water bottles.

I did a quick search on the internet and found that plastic water bottles are typically made of Polyethylene terephthalate, commonly referred to as PETE or PET. Then, remembering hearing that plastic water bottles should not be reused, I did another quick search on what compounds are released when water is stored in plastic bottles for “too long” and what accelerates the rate of release of such compounds. The main thing I found was that dioxins are released by plastic water bottles, and doixins have been found to cause breast cancer in women, but I’m sure dioxins do not just affect women. I did another quick search on plant up-take of dioxins, and found that there is substantial literature regarding this issue as a health concern for humans. Not knowing the chemical structure of dioxins or their properties, I do not know what kinds of chemicals can be used to either chemically alter the dioxins into a safe form or to “sop up” the dioxins so plant up-take is reduced or eliminated.

My questions, then, are:

Is it safe to have plants growing in PETE bottles, with water constantly running through the bottles, extracting dioxins?

Is there a safer plastic to use than PETE, or another composition overall, for example glass?

Please do not hesitate to answer any of these questions (especially the last one) with something technically challenging (for example, using glass bottles would be difficult because cutting the glass would present a challenge). I will consider technical limitations at a later time.

Thank you!

I started growing three tomato plants in my windowfarm using maxsea 16-16-16 plant food and started to notice that a portion of the stem is purple and the underside of the first two leaves are purple.  The new leaves on the top are perfectly green.  I read that this is evidence of a phosphorous deficiency.  I was a little conservative with the amount of plant food I was adding in the beginning but I’ve recently been using a 1 teaspoon/gallon of maxsea 16-16-16 in a purified water solution.  Is it wise to add a phosphorous supplement solution to my reservoir?!  I also have my pump watering non-stop.

MANY THANKS, DAISY, for your inspiration.  Just after I took down my aquaponic system Daisy’s post came on.  This is how I worked it out for my window with the soil and the bottles I have available.  I do need it to make things easier for now.   After knee surgery I hope I can get my aquaponic setup back in place.  The red drinking cups, filled with soil, have holes drilled in them so that the water leaches up through the soil and into the roots.  The plants are low enough  so that water can be poured into the cut off pop bottles without stepping on a ladder.  The plants are spearmint - basil - a small aloe vera plant – thume – greek oregano and hot n’ spicy oregano.  It looks like this soil uses more water than my aquaponic system.  Interesting!!!   Happy windofarming.  Sylvia Indiana USA

Hi fellow window-gardeners!

this is my first post, as i always found my needed answers before, but now, it looks like, i really need help from more experienced gardeners if i want to save my babies.

so… and again, my plants are dying…! im starting to get a little frustrated, because im killing all my plants, and its always something new.

so here is quickly the information about my last failure if it helps: i had lemon grass, the chilli which is still there, and cherry tomatoes. although tomatoe seems to be a beginners-plant, it was my problem child from the beginning. it seemed to be growing, but as fast as it grew up, the lower leaves started to get brown and fall of. so in the end it was just a looooong weed looking stem, becoming thinner and thinner to the top, completely naked with only just a few new leaves at the top, already starting to decay as the new ones came.my lemon-grass was healthy and growing for about a month if not longer, untill it suddenly died! the leaves became brown all of a sudden and yesterday i found out the roots were completely mouldy. is this a result of overwatering? so only my chilli survived, and lives on happily, growing a lot of new leaves since ive transplanted it. there is no sign of fruits, but as far as i know, i could only expect them in autumn, but i dont care for the fruits this year, as long as it happily makes it through his first year…. i admit, that i never added any nutritions, and always just watered them with normal tap water.

so, now here is my new setup after the last ones didnt make it, from top to bottom row: (chocolate) mint, sorrel, (the old) chili and basil. all of these were transplanted by me yesterday with an exception of the chili of course. i washed the soil off (tryed to be as gentle as i can). and transplanted them into the clay pots.

i got 3 bio nutritions: grow, bloom and root. i use a 1,5 ml bottle as a tank, and added all nutritions together with the intention of a good, new start. basically, as the nutritions basically dont have any instructions and the seller told me to best just add a cap of each to my 1,5l tank… thats what i did. so i left my plants over night, and today in the morning – this! my mint is basically dying in front of my eyes, the sorrel isnt doing all to well either, and the basil (from the new plants) seems to be doing best, although i also cant say that its really happy nor healthy. only my chilli is as happy as it was before.

i did rinse the system now completely through with fresh water, but i fear every spare drop of water after what happened to my lemon-grass as i guess it comes from the over-watering. so now…. i dont know further! i so want to save my plants especially the mint and the sorrel, as i see them literarilly dying in front of my eyes, but i cant seem to do anything against it…. at least i dont know what to do! can it be that the nutrients were a shock to them? or should i have waited with the nutrients untill they have recovered from the transplanting?

also, i dont have any lights for now, as im a bit on a budget atm, and i dont have the money to buy the lighting system for the big amount of money that seems to be needed…. although its summer, and very hot atm, but they are always in the shade… (im planning to install lights anyways, just not at this very moment, but i dont think that has to do anything with the rapid dying… ) and yes, the ph-level of my water is very high of what i have tested. its ph 8 so i think i will have to buy a ph down today (although i wish i could add something natural(?)) as i now fear doing anything(!) that might do my plants ever worse!…

here are a few pictures, so you can make your own impression on what my plants look like at the moment.

i know i sound like a newbie (and i am), and im sorry for asking any “duh”-questions, its just that i have no sorts of experience with gardening what-so ever, and before my window farm, i could barely even keep a pot-plant alive… so this is really something new for me, and i see them as my children, but i have no parenting experience at all… )) and i would be very greatful to get answers to my questions, as now i see that seeking for help is the only thing that can now help me keep my plants alive (if there is any chance of that at all… especially for the mint)

mint

sorrel

basil

chili

the nutritions i used…

thanks in advance

Hello All,

I have been using the nutrients that came with the kit- Botanicare Pure Blend ProGrow 2-3-5.  My plants were doing great and growing well. They all just kinda of stopped now.  Not doing bad (yet), just haven’t grown much more.  My green beans produced, my pepper plant has been flowering but nothing has been growing, and my greens seem to be stagnant.

Anyways…do I need to switch or add different nutrients? I don’t really know much about them, and ideally I’m looking for something that I could just order online. Any recommendations on what nutrients to use would be appreciated!

Laura

Tomato plant was doing great in new window garden (version one) for about 2-3 weeks – but then small brown spots started appearing in the central part of a couple of leaves. The brown spots, although still quite small and only appearing on less than 20% of leaves –  seem to be rotting straight through – perforating the leaf. The veins in the leaves also seem to stand out more in the affected ones.

Has anyone seen this issue before or have any ideas?

Thanks!

So my prototype window farm is up and running. It has two separate water lines: one straight, three plant column that has transplanted mint of different types on the right, and one three-two staggered chain with red cabbage started in the system from seed. I’m using this prototype chain to do a dry run on the nutrient solution I’ll be using for my later systems. Mint is a relatively hardy plant that can live in partial shade, plus it makes great tea. ^_^ The red cabbage is to make a pH indicator, and to see how leafy plants do.

The system is set up off of one 2watt 3.2L/min air pump that cost me about $8 US, with a one gal (~4L) reservoir for each line.  The only thing right now that bothers me is that I can only run one water line at a time. The path of least resistance seems to dictate that only one line will have air bubbling through it, and the other will stay stagnant when they’re both hooked up to the same pressure source. I’m sure this can be fixed with something small and simple, I just can’t seem to think of anything yet besides using a separate pressure source. =/ Check valves are expensive too! I only need one, other than that I’ve gotten away with CHEAP t-valves (One for each water/air mix, one for a bleed line on each, plus one for the air hose split) and on-off valves (One for each air line and bleed line). They cost less than 50 cents a piece.

The top left line is the lift, the line to the right of it is coming from the reservoir, leading into the coil, and ends at the mix point in the bottom t. The valve at the bottom is air pressure, and the valve resting in the coil is the bleed line to correct flow problems and take water samples.

The line itself can be a bit more expensive depending on what type you get. Vinyl is the cheapest, but I use clear 1/4 in (~6.5 mm) f-pvc line even though it may grow algae because I can spot clogs and see the color of the liquid as it goes from plant to plant. The coil is to stop it from bubbling back into the reservoir. It’s 10 ft long and wrapped around the lift line for organization; that gives time to see the backflow and correct the system, and also provides a sizable resistance to direct the lift. I think the biggest thing if you’re going to use a coil for your resistance is to make sure it’s longer than the lift line is. Imagine if you lay the tubing out on the ground, it would make a big “Y” or “T” with the air pressure coming from the bottom. If there’s water in both lines and one end is longer than the other, which one is the air going to go to? This seems to all be about least resistance.

I ran water through the system for a few days before putting anything in it to clear the system out and make sure it worked, and then again for two days after the plants had been started to hydrate them and see how long it took to run a gallon through. The reservoirs are not connected directly to the drain either. I have a separate “waste” containers for each line that I pour periodically back into their respective reservoir. This way I can dose the actual volume of liquid I’m putting through the system rather than having to base it on time. I can also see how much the plants absorb this way, and check nutrient differences.

The nutrients I’m trying out consist of a liquid dirt I’ve called “compost tea.” It’s made by bubbling air in a filter containing preferably de-chlorinated water, a couple big scoops of dirt from my worm farm, a few cups of a concentrate made from boiling seaweed water down to a dark liquid (though the boiling may have killed the reason I added the kelp in the first place), and then something sweet (un-sulfured molasses or honey) to promote growth, but in principle I think you could adapt this process for brewing all kinds of “liquid dirt.”

I’ve gone this route because I can make it from my kitchen scraps without spending a dime, and I’ve heard and read ridiculous praise about it everywhere I turn. My particular setup for the “tea” used a 5 gal (~20L) bucket, the same kind of air pump I use for the window farm with a bubble stone, and a filter sack for paint. Cost me ~$20 US for the setup, and although the worm farm may take a bit of work, you could probably just use well fertilized dirt and be fine. The filter is used to take out the solids after the mix gets frothy.

This seems to be able to make enough for a whole bucket of really saturated stuff off of one week’s worth of kitchen scraps and worm digestion. I dilute this down a bit, and try to bubble air through it every few days to keep things alive. I’ve forgotten recently, and I’m worried what I’ve done =/ Keep it covered as well or else it’ll grow algea from the light.

Now this does involve having a running worm farm, and that has turned into a bit of an adventure.  I have a large corner just outside the kitchen for my composting setup, but let me tell you what, I have loads of healthy dirt thanks to it. =)

I’ve been planting things in the used dirt mixed with some vermiculite and pearlite, and it seems to make things grow pretty well. The sun in Houston is really hard to fight though, so I have some indoors and some outdoors to see what can tolerate the different conditions.

I think I need to pay more attention to the nutrients in the dirt I use for the tea, but so far so good, and no sticking, or any signs of clogging at all. I do have some transplant shock going on though. The mint on the top is citrus, the second in line is the sweet mint, and the last one is a chocolate mint.

The citrus mint has had the worst of it. One of it’s runners won’t stay in the soil, so I’m losing over half of it. There are some parts of it that are looking hardy again though.

The sweet mint has developed small dark spots around almost all of the leaves, but other than that it looks fine. I have no idea what they are. We’ll see what happens, might snoop around the net a bit.

The chocolate mint on the other hand is healthy as a mule. Going strong with no visible issues so far. I think the upper plants may be acting as filters for it. Maybe that means I need to dilute the solution some more.

They all seem to be turning toward the window now and stiffening up again at least. The cabbage has sprouted and is reaching for the light too.

I water the plants 2-3 times a day, where I cycle half a reservoir or so, which is about half a gallon/2 liters. It takes about an hour to cycle that much water. Once after I wake up, once at midday, and once before I crash at night.

I’ll post a how-to for the whole thing once the next system is up and running. I’m designing a “column-farm” where the plants grow around a central freestanding column. It’s going to be cheap and easy, the column is built out of three 1x4s using hand tools, and the rest is basically a four column streamlined version of this.

Here’s a playlist on some nutrient stuff in the meantime:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL65A97AE205A27FDE

More to come =)

morning all,

i’ve finished my window farm (see video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TvAkpSl1pE&feature=plcp ) and it’s working a treat, i’ve planted some micro tomatoes in each of the pots and a small black truffle tomato plant at the top, which i don’t hold out hope for to be honest.

the question is am i doing something wrong? i left a couple of tomato seeds growing in soil and they seem to be doing infinitely better than my hydroponic ones. i’ve got the system timed so it turns on every half an hour and i’ve put nutrients in the water. should i have put the shoots in some kind of growing medium rather than just surrounding them with clay pebbles?

also the airpump goes mental sometimes and bubbles in the reservoir rather than up the tube, i’ve managed to wrap florists tape around the tube and a small rock to weigh it down but it’s as if there is too much water in the tube and it spits it out at the top rather than slowly dripping it out.

any advice is more than welcome, thank you for your time in advance

regards

Kris

windowfarmer

Hi!

Ive been having problems with my water flow lately. I started my (home-made) window farm a few weeks ago with just one bottle on top of my water reservoir, and the water flow was excellent, a real continuous flow of water pouring down. Yesterday, I decided to add two more bottles to my system. Now with the added height, the pump does not seem able to send enough air pressure and the water never reaches the top: it simply spurts up up up, and then back down again, just before reaching the curve in the tube that would send it trickling back down. I am using a “Marina” air pump, model #75, which has a 50-100 L tank capacity. There does not seem to be an air escapement from anywhere. There is only occasionally very little bubbling in the reservoir. I don’t understand what is causing this problem.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Also, we have recently switched from using a conventional, all-purpose plant fertilizer to using an organic one from fish and seaweed. Do these fertilizers provide enough nutrition to my plants? (basil, coriander, parsley, hot chilies). Is there any downfall to using these? I noticed quite a deposit of it sticking to the tubing, and am worried that it might clog up somewhere eventually. Does anyone have any experience with these natural fertilizers?

Thank you so much!