As pleased as i was with myself about constructing the window farm ;->, i’m starting to really worry about the next part: getting these plants to survive!! I looked for help in some stores in the neighbourhood, but nobody has any idea…! There’s some growshops for less legal plants, but they’re never open… very strange ;->

So here are some pictures and some of  my concerns. I don’t even have specific questions, just this basic plea for help: HELP!! (-:

- First pic: These are Chives that weren’t doing terrible (just bad ;->) in a big plastic box with soil. I left it outside on the balcony in the summer, kind of gave up on it and then came across windowyfarming. I transplanted a piece that looked good with as much roots as i could into the windowfarm. The’ve been there for about a week now. I’m not sure they’re growing on reserves or windowfarm nutrients.

- The parsley i transplanted from the same box as the chives doesn’t look to good either. Yellowy leaves, but they could still be recovering from the transplantation. They have quite a big root, and i have no idea if they’re surviving on reserves or actually adapting.

- I’ve got some small seedlings of turnip tops and i think they stopped growing when i put them in the windowfarm (2nd picture left has one, it’s knocked over by a nearby drop of water) . Am i using the right nutrients at all? How can i check? The bottle of the nutrients says “NPK 5-5-6″  (among stuff that looks less important to me – the rest is in Dutch). I don’t really trust the hydroponic judgement of the guy who sold it to me, but he told me to use about 1/10th the dosage on the bottle.

- The pH of our drinking water is almost 8. I use natural white vinegar to get it down to around 6, but every few hours when i check, it’s going back up. It takes about two to three shotglasses of vinegar per day. Not only does this require a lot of attention, it also gives me the unconvenient feeling something’s not right here.

- There’s bubbles in the top net cup from where the water sprouts out of the dripping tube. The dripping rate is pretty high. It’s a fast drip, maybe even two drips per second per side (i can check this if it’s of any importance).

-After a week i changed the water for the first time. There was some white stuff floating on top (bacteria? fungi?). I rinsed the system very thouroughly but the new water started look like this in a day.

More pictures are here.

So I’m chopping dovetails for the frame to my worm farm. Made of 6ft 1x4s chopped down into 12 and 18 inch sections. Dovetails are 1/2 in with an 1/8 th in deviation.

Going to have four layers once it’s said and done. Yes, I know my dovetails suck, I’m doing everything freehand and I’m a bit rusty. I’m also using a chair sitting at an angle as a sawhorse for now =| Have a 6ft Live Oak log I’m going to turn into a sturdy one once it dries out. (Maybe a week left now)

Need to get some more wood for a lid, and something for collecting excess water from the bottom. A watertight container with a spigot the layers can sit on should do, maybe a filter to prevent clogs. I’m going to probably just end up making those from wood too and seal the gaps with wax to waterproof it.

Going to tack nails along the bottom edge of the frames to support 2 crisscrossed layers of 1/2in screen. Bought at local hardware store, kind you use to keep birds out of your tomatoes. When it’s double layered it should hold back the dirt but have holes large enough for the worms to crawl through.

More pics to come =)

Here’s the rest of the process: Completed Worm Farm

Hi All,

I was thinking about creating a windowfarm and add Paul Stamets’s mycelium to the equation (see: http://www.fungi.com/mycogrow/index.html and the TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html for more info)

so my question is: has anybody tried this? and if so, what are the results?

Above was my initial question which I’ll be answering my self in the next few months

first of all, I’ve finished my first two collums of windowfarm!

My first Window farm!

my airlift system consists of a T junction connected to a check valve as a water inlet submerged in two 16 liter  buckets of water with fetilizer (realy simple and I don’t have to water them every week, Jeej! I can go on vacation without my plants dying)

I’ve ordered MycoGrow™ Soluble to test in one of these collums which are otherwise as similar as I could make them (same nutrition, plants etc.) The following is a discription of the product their website:

The term mycorrhizal comes from the Greek words mykes, meaning fungus, and rhiza, meaning root. Mycorrhizal fungi are fungi that have developed a symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationship with the root systems of living plants, from garden vegetables all the way up to the trees of the Old Growth forests. Networks of mycorrhizal filaments envelop the seedling’s root structure, supporting the plant’s own ability to utilize water and nutrients in the soil. This relationship encourages healthy, vigorous growth—naturally.

Fungi Perfecti’s MycoGrow™ products are designed for everyone from the home gardener/landscaper to the professional forestry manager, promoting faster growth, speeding transplant recovery and reducing the need for fertilizers and other additives. A number of different formulations are available, for all methods of plant cultivation.

MycoGrow™ is a mixture of 12 species of endo- and ectomycorrhizal fungi, Plant Revolution™ Plant Success™ Tabs are designed to help the gardener or home landscaper promote fast plant and root growth, increase nutrient and water uptake and reduce fertilizer use. Exceptionally helpful for those who use commercial potting soils, which are sterilized and therefore devoid of beneficial microorganisms.b

So that’s their discription. I will wait to see if my seeds actually start growing and then ad the fungi and Keep on posting the results here

I completed my first window farm column about a month ago. I had started the seeds about two months ago but I have lost the majority of the plants I started already. I started my seeds in rockwool cubes and when they were about an inch tall I transferred them to my window farm. I left them in the rockwool cube and set the cube in a plastic grow basket with clay pellets around the cube. Up until this week I was using tap water combined with Liquid Karma by Botanicare.

The problem I am having is that the water and nutrient formula is adjusted to the correct pH in the reservoir but as it goes through my system it slowly increases. After going through the third bottle, the pH is already too high.

After doing research here and in other forums, I made the following adjustments.

1. Removed the rock wool cubes from the system completely and boiled the clay pellets. The plants are now growing in the baskets with only clay pellets. This adjustment seems to have made a slight impact on the severity of the pH increase through the system, but not enough to keep my plants alive.

2. I switched to distilled water and started to rinse the system and replace nutrient formula every other day. Again, this only made a slight impact on the pH levels. Now the pH doesn’t increase as fast, but after 10 minutes of the system running, the pH is back up above 7.5 in the reservoir.

Thankfully that I have been able to hold onto the remaining few plants by adding a few drops of lime juice to the tank every time I get a break from work (usually about 4 times during the day) but my plants are all less than 3 inches tall and the leaves are starting to turn brown on the very tips.

The remaining plants are beans (I think these could survive nuclear war they are so resilient), two tomatoes, two peppers and three basil that haven’t yet reached 2 inches tall. I lost all of the lettuce, two varieties of peppers, and my hybrid cherry tomatoes.

Anything you can suggest to help me out would be fantastic. I feel like I am taking care of a new puppy because I can’t leave my system alone for a day!

I work at a grocery store here in florida, and i noticed that the produce deartment throws away a massive amount of decent fruits and vegetables just because they have been on the shelf for to long. my question is, would it b worth it to try and recycle all that waste and try and turn it into nutrition for the window farm system. Honestly im new to all this kind of stuff so i dont know if there are any problems with acidity and such. I just think that there has to b something to do about it, because this is just 1 store, and i imagine that it is the same for most if not all of the other grocery stores. Also i talked to the manager and they would almost always be willing to give it away for free. They just have to get approval b/c of health and potential legal stuff.

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?

Hey everyone!

We’re pretty much finished with our giant windowfarm build and it’s come out super nice! We made a short video showing how we plant our seedlings in the system and what medium and nutrition we use.

Please enjoy the video for now and we’ll be back next week with pictures and vids of the finished farm!

Hello to everybody!

I am new at window farming! I would like to ask what kind of organic nutritions I should use for tomato-pepper-eggplant-squash and also for Lecture-parsley-celery-anise.

Thank you!

Hello folks!

I’m just starting my Windowfarm (one column) and the Airlift works fine now. Having started with a small amount of liquid nutrient solution I’ve stumbled upon a product entitled “Lewatit  HD 50″ by it’s manufacurer, (Lanxess, Germany, actually just around my corner). The product is also being sold unter different brand names.

The data-sheet promises that you can put this into your solution and afterwards don’t need to touch the system for 3-4 months because the granulate passes just the right amount of nutrients to the water during this time, until it’s depleted.

I haven’t ouched this stuff yet but consider using it for my windowfarm.

Has anyone around here operating experience with this kind of product?

Link to data-sheet in english:

http://lewatit.com/common/download.php?file=ea38c8a6a78e9fa1e75a8c0065843c52

Greetings

Markus

I have set up the 4 bottles, and now I’m working on my airlift. I’m trying to do the T version instead of the air needles. But I’m having trouble getting the air to lift the water and not escape through what should be the water intake tube.

Any advice for this system? I’m going to go and cut a longer piece of tube and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks,

Melissa

-EDIT- (20 minutes later)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5378581924/

So the longer tube completely helped! There is no air escaping from the system at all. Now my poor tomato plant that was without water all night is getting some.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5377983157/

I purchased the white frame from ikea and it was around 20$. I plan on having 3 or 4 columns with a string of lights in between the columns. This frame will allow me to move the window farm around and close my blinds at night. I’m going to raise it up to window height once it’s all installed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5378580404/

Here is a short video of my airlift in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qER-HLCHcE

-EDIT- (Later that day…)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5378590143/

So my tomato is definately looking good! http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5379181542/in/photostream/
I have also transplanted a broccoli plant to the top of the column. http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5379182328/in/photostream/
My seedlings are starting to sprout! http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5378589329

I made another change to my system… I zip tied the coil of tube in the water so it is easier to remove and install. http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5379179122

Also, nutrients were added to the solution. I added part 1 and part 2 of the general nutrients, and I also added some “maximum plantroids” because it says:

“Plantroids Super-Vitamin Thrive Enhancer stimulates plant branching, increases photosynthesis and cell division. Plantroids also helps reduce stress as well as stimulates root growth”.

Just a warning about CFLs… I dropped one and it smashed into a million tiny shards. Took a while to make sure I got all the little pieces.

Can anyone give me advice on how to put pictures in my post, rather than just links? Thanks.