our.windowfarms.org

The answer is generally, yes, you probably do need to supplement the light coming into your window in order to grow light-loving vegetable plants.

Testing light in my window with a foot candle light meter. Good light, but not enough of it long enough.

If these plants are going to be nutrient packed enough to be worth your while growing them and investing all this time, you should give them the light they need to photosynthesize and process the nutrients you are feeding them.

Lots of stem on this leggy arugula plant

Plants that do not get enough light grow “leggy”– they are all stems and the leaves look like they are perpetually reaching out for mooooore liiiiiiiiiight pleeeeeeease. Even my South facing unobstructed windows are not really getting enough light this winter and my arugula is getting looooooooong in the leaves.

Most of the information on lights we have been working with comes from the rather prolific specifications in

Gardening Indoors with Soil and Hydroponics by George F. Van Patten.

Windowfarms Light Policy
We have decided to use CFLs (and LEDs soon, as they become more affordable) because the big grow lights used in greenhouses and by pot farmers are simply not viable to live with in city apartments and frankly just use too much electricity.

Instead the windowfarms project has been focused on making the most efficient possible use of consumer grade CFLs. We are not using just any old CFLs. We have found the ones that are only recently available on the market most likely to grow vegetable plants through all stages of their lifecycle.

Lighting for plant growth is a complicated science and I will not burden you with understanding anything more than the fact that 4 factors are important for growing with CFLs under these conditions:
1) The Kelvin color temperature of the lights- The color of light produced by the sun changes over the course of the year and plants are tuned into these changes. Light color triggers them to enter different stages of growth, so we want to be careful about light color. Consumer brands use lots of different names like soft white, bright white, daylight, full spectrum. Don’t go by the term alone. Find out the color temperature (marked with a K). We have been using 6500 K bulbs and have produced healthy flowers and fruits in several species. Between the natural light coming in your windows and the artificial light, we’ve probably got a pretty good spectrum.

2) Wattage- This boils down to the strength of the lights. We want them to be strong. Thus far, we have produced good results using 27 Watt actual/100 Watt incandescent equivalent bulbs. We may find that we can go down to 75 watt equivalents (19 actual watts) or below depending on the array and proximity. This needs to be tested!

3) Proximity to plant- Van Patten claims, ”
Light from CFLs fades fast and must be placed close to plants. The bulb produces very little heat and can be mounted about 2 inches(5 cm) away from foliage to achieve best results.” So, we have tried to make the lighting moveable so that as plants grow, they are always within this distance from the bulb. We add in fishing wire as trellicing so that we can movethe branches if they try to grow too close to the light and start burning themselves (Plant thinks- yay! i have fnally arrived at the sun. Ouch!! It’s hot!).

4) Duration at each life stage- Just like teen humans need more sleep, adolescent plants need more light than adult plants do. Think about how plants are young in the spring when the days are longer and then the days get shorter again in the fall during harvest season. We use timers to control the lights, sometimes leaving the lights on longer than the sun is out. For more, read Van Patten’s Photoperiod section on page 88. You need to learn a little bit about the kind of plants you are growing and their natural best growing conditions, which you will then mimic with your setup.

Here are the specs on the bulbs we use. We have been using them because they are available all over the country at Home Depot and they fit our requirements. However, please feel free to find similar brands and post them here for others.
Blue package marked 100 Watt at Home Depot
N:Vision brand
SKU 599-526
27 Watts (Package says equivalent to a 100 Watt incandescent bulb)
Kelvin color temperature= 6500K (according to customer support) but marked 5500 K
120 V 60Hz 0.450 A

Supposedly these are available with globe covers but I have never found them. That would be rad because it would keep plants from singeing themselves.

Check out this little video of the latest windowfarm design on our Youtube channel.

Kits will be a lot like this.

I want to try growing a Windowfarm of edible flowers, and here are some links I’m coming up with.  Would welcome recommendations from Windowfarmers who are already doing this.

In the meantime, here are some links to the edible flower variety lists and information that I’ve found.  I can’t vouch for the reliability of every single recommendation here, but have selected sites that appear to me reliable, based on my having grown edible flowers like nasturtium, violas (Hearts-Ease of Johnny Jump Up), borage, and several others, and the fact that these sites are detailed in their recommendations and warnings.

This site lists a tremendous number of varieties, and a lot of useful information, as well as live links:

http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm

Here is another: http://www.containerseeds.com/products/flowerpage.html

Of course, general seed catalogs all now carry sections with “edible flowers” among the offerings, even when they do not have a separate section categorized as such.  Individually, they will mention whether a flower (nasturtium, calendula, etc) or herb (chives, borage, etc.) or vegetable (think zucchini flowers), has edible flowers.

And strawberry plant flowers are charming, too, even if you have to wait for the berry stage to eat them.

Some seed companies with great selections I favor are:

Fedco Seeds:  http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds.htm  (all untreated and some organic as well)

Johnny’s Seeds:  http://www.johnnyseeds.com/default.aspx (both regular and organic)

The Cook’s Garden: http://www.cooksgarden.com/index.cfm (both regular and organic)

http://www.reneesgarden.com/ (untreated, many heirloom)

And “Local Harvest” for a collection of smaller organic and untreated seed growers and seed exchanges:

http://www.localharvest.org/store/seeds.jsp

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I’m a novice Windowfarmer, just beginning with hydroponic gardening, after years of organic home-gardening outdoors, and about to start seeds for some lettuce and greens and micro-greens.

After reading here about Windowfarmers’ success growing varieties like Buttercrunch, it seemed to me that other perhaps more interesting varieties of lettuces and greens and micro greens would grow just as well – though I’m depending on hearing from experienced Windowfarmers if anything I’m surmising at this point needs adjusting.

In the meantime, hoping that my reading about hydroponics here and elsewhere online has got me pretty much on track, I thought I’d pass along some names of seeds companies where the selection of lettuces and greens and cresses and shoots is now phenomenal, and some thoughts.

First, starting out with Windowfarming growing lettuce and greens, rather than, say, tomatoes or other fruiting vegetables, seems to make sense to me as a beginner, because lettuces and greens and annual herbs are relatively undemanding plants to grow.

The seeds germinate quickly, generally do well in the same ph range, and are not intense feeders.

Lettuces and other leafy greens and shoots also grow to usable size quickly, so you can start harvesting salad ingredients in about 4-6 weeks.

Lettuces generally take 7-10 days to germinate, and then need about 3-4 weeks further to grow to harvestable leaf size, sometimes a bit less.  Given what I’m reading here and online about the productivity of hydrofarming, I can imagine the time frame and yield is optimal.

And, as far as microgreens: Dr Howard Lesh, who wrote “Hydroponic Home Food Gardens” says that microgreens germinate in 2-3 days and are ready to start harvesting 6-10 days later.

http://www.howardresh.com/microgreens-june-2009.html

(His website has many valuable articles, especially ones with individual topics for hydroponic lettuce growing, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc.  with photos of the various stages of growth.  This link will take you to a page that lists these on the right, as well as get you to his homepage.  He is very specific in his recommendations and examples)

Another valuable resource for seed and growing information, though not expressly for hydroponics, is Cornell University’s “Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners: A Citizens Science Project” – an interactive, collaborative, website for plant scientists and home gardeners to exchange information and sources for seeds, as well as reviews of their experiences growing them.

The site also has a terrific search engine built in, so that if you search for “lettuce” for example, you will come up with this long list.  http://vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu/mainSearch/showAll.php?searchCriteria=lettuce&sortBy=overallrating&order=DESC&searchIn=0&sideSearch=Search

From here, if you click on the name of a variety you are interested in, you come up with another search link that ends up with a Google list, and thus probably every supplier of that particular lettuce going.

Also extremely helpful is that each vegetable has all its cultivation info listed – so if you need to find out how deep to plant a lettuce seed, for example – it’s here.  And much more.  This site should come with a warning, it’s so fascinating and endless:

http://vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu/index.php

But back to ordering seeds directly from some companies I’ve depended on for years for my outdoor gardens, who are all now selling a fascinating and delicious array of salad greens -  selections of Asian, mustard, baby, micro and others, as well as cresses and herbs and shoots and sprouts. (They also sell every other kind of flower and vegetable garden seed, and supplies.)

Here are the links:

Fedco Seeds:  http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds.htm  (all untreated and some organic as well)

Johnny’s Seeds:  http://www.johnnyseeds.com/default.aspx (both regular and organic)

The Cook’s Garden: http://www.cooksgarden.com/index.cfm (both regular and organic)

http://www.reneesgarden.com/ (untreated, many heirloom)

Additionally, “Local Harvest” has a page on its website that acts as a market site for many fine small seed growers and seed exchanges – The Southern Exposure Seed Exchange is one very old and well known cooperative, and they’re here along with many others:  http://www.localharvest.org/store/seeds.jsp

This is another site that should come with a warning, I think!  It’s set up so that you can order directly online from these small farmers and exchanges.

With the first 4 companies listed above, and probably many of the others you find on the general sites here, you can buy single seed packets that are custom blends of several lettuce or greens varieties, called “mixes” or “collections,” or buy individual packets of single varieties.

Mesclun mixes by now are very well known, though all growers make up their own unique recipe of seeds, and all now offer several kinds.  There are spicy mesclun mixes, heirloom mixes, braising mixes, stir-fry mixes, Nicoise mixes, etc.

But now there are also packets of “Asian greens” and “Mustard Greens” and “micro greens” – on and on – that include vegetables like beets and chard and kale and radish and many more, that are only meant to be grown and harvested after a few weeks’ growth.

Buying these speciality greens as mixes is an efficient and economical way to enjoy a large selection of greens.

The mixes generally have between 6 and a dozen kinds of plants, and the catalog listing tells you what they are individually.

Basically, whatever specialty lettuces and greens and shoots you’ve seen for sale by the ounce at farmers markets, you can now easily find in these catalogs, and grow, yourself.

But, if you like, you can now also customize what you grow – almost leaf by leaf, the seed offerings have gotten so vast and specific.  And you can buy the varieties singly.

The choices can seem overwhelming.  Johnny’s Seeds, for example, has 12 print catalog pages devoted solely to lettuces and greens.  Then there are two pages listing shoots and sprouts.

But what’s great is that there is a photo for each kind of lettuce or green, and a good deal of information about its taste, as well as how to grow it.  So you can also choose to customize your own mix.

For example, if you go to this link on Johnny’s Seeds site: http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-1-vegetables.aspx   you can look under “greens” or under “lettuces” and then click separate sub-categories to end up with a list of choices even more singularly tuned.  Here’s a link for arugula/Roquette, for example: http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-617-salad.aspx And for Asian greens: http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-358-asian.aspx

Here’s a link to their “Micro Mix” page, with further links to individual varieties, and links to download detailed growing information, and price charts.  http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-48-micro-mix.aspx

(Johnny divides its extensive micro green collection into two groups, fast growing and slow growing, which can help you plan your own succession crop planting)

But Fedco and The Cook’s Garden and Renee’s Seeds also all offer variations on offerings like Johnny’s Seeds.

Here is an example of what you would get were you to order the organic “Greens Mix” from Fedco:

2993GO Greens Mix OG Versatile companion to Lettuc Mix#2981. At least five varieties, certified organic seed, chosen from among beets, chard, arugula, mustards, orachs, purslane, chervil and kales suitable for mesclun or braising. Exact components will vary according to availability. For a fully organic salad, from seed to table.  A=1g  $1.10  B=2g  $2.00 C=4g  $3.50

The Cook’s Garden offers 9 kinds of mesclun, including traditional Provencal and Nicoise and Italian blends based on heirloom proportions.  http://www.cooksgarden.com/mesclun-seeds/

But these are just examples of some of the fantastic range these companies offer.

One last thought: while I order all my seeds online, ordering the free print catalog from these companies can be worth it, as they are great hands-on reference as well as garden-dreaming manuals, and will survive a little spilled water or potting mix or being dropped far better than a laptop or iPhone.  (But both online and in print, these companies offer a tremendous wealth of information, even for those who just want to be arm-chair gardeners – or savvy farmers market shoppers – this season)

P.S. As far as my own seed order so far:  I’ve bought the micro greens collection, and a separate packet of pea shoots, from The Cook’s Garden.

And from Fedco Seed, individual packets of Claytonia, Bronze Fennel, Garlic Chives, Lemondrop French Marigold, Verte de Cambrai Mache, Borage, Empress of India Nasturtium, Helen Mount Johnny Jump Ups and, out of curiosity, two kinds of breadseed poppies. (I intend to share seed with friends.  And, by the way, Fedco will offer group discounts to people who want to get together to create a large joint order.  They do request one person collect the money and send in only one order.  There is info on their site and in the print catalog)

These are all salad components I’ve raised indoors from seed and grown successfully outdoors in the past, but have yet to try as a Windowfarmer.

It would be great to hear from experienced Windowfarmers, if anything I’ve said about seeds here, ends up not applying to hydroponics.  I realize the next step, once I transplant seedlings into the Windowfarms system, is going to see me with more questions than suggestions.

So, thank you.

Donna MB

Fedco Seeds:  http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds.htm  (all untreated and some organic as well)

Johnny’s Seeds:  http://www.johnnyseeds.com/default.aspx (both regular and organic)

The Cook’s Garden: http://www.cooksgarden.com/index.cfm (both regular and organic)

http://www.reneesgarden.com/ (untreated, many heirloom)

I’m new to Windowfarming and hydroponic gardening, but am falling fast, having been an outdoor organic fruit and herb and vegetable home gardener for years, but one who is now reading seed and gardening supply catalogs with Windowfarming also in mind.

One item I’ve noticed in a catalog that’s just turned up is a new hydroponic seed-starting reservoir system specifically designed for home gardeners, called “All-Roots Seed-Starting System” from Gardens Alive.

(Gardens Alive is a reputable organic supply company that I’ve used for over 20 years. I’ve no connection, I’m a home-gardener and just a long-time customer of their organic fertilizers and sticky traps and the like)

I’m wondering if anyone has tried this hydroponic reservoir system to start seeds, or, even better, devised his own version of it at home.

http://www.gardensalive.com/product.asp?pn=3684

The link is well-illustrated, which is my main reason for posting it, because the price isn’t as attractive – but it may give Windowfarmers ideas about how to make their own systems, without buying the kit at all.

If some Windowfarmers are already using this “All-Roots”reservoir system, or have built a comparable one of their own, it would be great to read about it.  (I’m wondering, from my own experience using a reservoir system to start non-hydroponic transplants – more info below – whether, if you did buy the kit, that instead of ordering refill plugs, you could simply pack the cells with loose potting medium that comes in bags.)

The reservoir system that I did use for years, called APS, was truly foolproof for healthy seed-starting, and it may be another system of interest to Windowfarmers, because you would simply need to use a hydroponic growing medium instead of a peat or soil based one.

http://www.gardeners.com/APS/APS_Cat,default,sc.html (again, no relation except as customer, and, also again, my main reason for posting is as an example of ways to suggest ideas for devising your own)

Using this system, and versions I made up, based on it, I raised thousands of very healthy, strong-rooted, seedlings under lights in my dirt basement and root cellar (think: jerry-rigged shop lights, timers, flourescent bulbs from the hardware store. You do not need expensive full-spectrum bulbs for raising seedlings, or even plants that aren’t going to flower or fruit.  And still some of my lathyrus odorata – sweet peas – did begin to flower under the cheaper lights. But this was a mistake of timing.  You don’t want seedlings to reach fruiting or flowering stage before transplant.  The goal is to keep the top green growth relatively short and stocky, and have most of the development going on in the root system. This is achieved by keeping your light source low, about 3-4″ above the growing tips of the plants, adjusting upwards as they get taller. )

The links for the APS seed-starting system on the Gardeners Supply website include some good illustrations of how the system works, and I think Windowfarmers could come up with their own home-made versions, if they haven’t already, by looking at it.

(In my instance, years ago when I was first learning,  I did buy some of the actual kits. They cost half as much at that time, and even less if you bought 3.  But once I saw how they worked – and how well they worked – I improvised my own versions, using various household items and recyclables, and only having to buy the capillary matting – link below.

So, if you’d like to investigate making your own reservoir system, this is the page you want.  It’s the page for APS replacement parts:  http://www.gardeners.com/APS-Parts/APS_Cat,11802,default,cp.html#

Below the main illustration, there are two smaller ones.  Click on the one on the right and you’ll see “How the APS System Works.”   It shows the individual components and how they fit together.  (I’d be happy to explain more in further posts)

Now, here’s the link on their site for a roll of capillary matting (which in the diagram has been cut to fit their plant tray) It’s $14.95 for 3 yards. You may be able to find it for less.

http://www.gardeners.com/Capillary-Matting/33-994,default,pd.html

Capillary matting was the only part of the system I had to buy, when I started making up my own version of the system.

I’d be glad to get more specific about this, but as this post is already so long, I’ll stop here, because some Windowfarmers may want to order a kit, or look at the links and invent their own versions, and I can offer more suggestions in a subsequent post.

Of course, there are now many variants of these “self-watering” reservoir systems, long windowsill trays as well as pots with wicks, that can save your seeds and seedlings from dying of thirst or by drowning – and perhaps free you as they did me from the sorry graveyard of dried up paper towels and dusty peat balls and green shoots that weren’t plants but colonies of mold at my house, when I first got started.

But there is an added virtue with using these reservoir systems that have individualized plant cells – at least there was for me, especially as a beginner with seedlings, in that you not only end up with evenly, consistently watered transplants, but with plants that have a very compact and easily handled and transplanted rootball.

This means you end up not only with very sturdy healthy seedlings, but with ones that will suffer less root disturbance, and the break-up of the potting medium in your hands, causing more root disturbance or breakage, as can often happen when “pricking out” seedlings from a flat or large pot.

(That said, small bathrom-dispenser sized wax paper cups, filled with potting medium and set on a reservoir system, can be a reasonable compromise between planting in large flats or small cells)

(Note: if you are thinking about buying one of these kits, it seems to me that growing cubes like Root Riot or Root Cubes would fit into the APS cells; or you could use a loose hydroponic growing medium that comes in bags to fill them.

The APS systems do not come with growing medium, and are designed for loose mixes. But by the time your seedlings are ready to be popped out of the cell for transplanting,  they’ve developed a very compact root ball that ends up virtually a solid “plug” that holds together for transplanting (if dampened before removing). This seems to be a reliable virtue of the way plants develop with these systems.

As for the “All-Roots” hydroponic system, I’m guessing that you could use a bagged potting medium instead of buying more “refill plugs” to start a second batch of seedlings.)

Well, I hope some of these suggestions from a dirt-gardener end up sparking better ones from Windowfarmers who are already experienced with seed-starting for their hydroponic systems.

I’d love to learn what others are already doing.

Donna MB

Derek Stobbard wrote me an email with this idea for nutrients:

“Here’s an idea for natural nutrients: Keep fresh water fish – goldfish, for instance. Once a week empty one fifth, to one third of the water from your fish tank and replace it with new water (preferably water that has sat in a bucket for a day – to get rid of the chlorine). Empty the water you took out of the fish tank into your watering reservoir. This water will be rich in nitrates from your fish’s “waste” which plants love, and if you feed your fish sustainable and organic food, so much the better. As long as you are doing this regularly, your fish water should not smell. Beware of algae, keep your fish tank out of direct sunlight, as algae will consume the nutrients and the oxygen from the water.

If you grow anything other than green leafy plants you may need to add very small amounts of calcium, iron and potassium from time to time (once a month). However, you may get away without it since you use clay pellets as a solid medium in your pots, and this has trace amounts of these necessary elements. Also, depending on the food you give your fish, some of these may already be present in the uneaten food, and will make their way into the water. ”

I love the idea and generally love the idea of aquaponics (fish + plant system). I continue to remain skeptical about incorporating fish into the windowfarm because forcing symbiosis between two different ecosystems is pretty complicated stuff and the balances can get out of wack really quickly meaning you could end up with a bunch of dead plants and fish really fast.

I like that he proposes simply using the fish water as a nutrient source and moving that water to the windowfarm after a simple filtration process. Anyone want to try it out? We would need a control group as well. Build two airlift systems- one using fish waste and the other using the recommended (Sugar Peak Organic Hydroponic Vegetative Nutrients) commercial nutrients? That would be rad, guys.

Remember everyone, creating nutrients is a pretty sophisticated biochemistry application so you gotta be ready to be super experimental. You probably will lose a lot of plants along the way. If you just want beautiful veggies you can eat asap, start by experimenting with existing hydroponic nutrients and only make slight modifications to start with.

Just getting inspired… I live in Brooklyn and am about to start a window farm.  What are people’s favorite things to grow?  What grows best?  I am very new at this and need some ideas!  Herbs… lettuce… can I do cucumbers?  Just curious what people have had success with and also what tends to fail.  Thanks!

I’m looking to grow herbs in a fairly small windowfarm using 2″ net cups. How much space do people recommend for the growth and for the roots? Also: will the herb stop growing when it meets the capacity of the cup, or I am going to run into problems?

I eat a lot of roots; carrots, potatoes, and onions.  I’m wondering if there’s a way to grow these in a window farm, as I’d like to be able to grow the majority of my own food in a window farm.  Can I use a two liter soda bottle and nearly fill it up with dirt?

Thanks for any help.

You can grow edible plants with 100 or 150 watt CFL bulbs. Even fruiting plants. I have done it successfully in several windowfarm systems. You must use CFLs with the proper color spectrum. The “daylight” bulbs you get at Home Depot in the blue package work. Arrange your plants so they are no more than a few inches from the light. You will need to move them frequently or they will grow into the light and singe themselves. I highly recommend putting them in a window so they are also getting at least some indirect natural light because I highly doubt that these CFLs really provide the complete spectrum of light that plants need. You can put them on a timer so that they are only on a few hours during the day to supplement natural light. This keeps them from blinding you at night.

Until plants reach the adult phase, they require more light. I generally supplemented seedlings light for 18 hours per day. Then, once they reached maturity, I decreased to 12 hours.