My plants are showing “curling” at the tips. I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing wrong here.Both plants were transplanted from soil several weeks ago and appeared to be thriving for some time (growing quite a bit since then) so I don’t believe it’s shock from the transplant.

I have 2 separate systems. a 3-plant airlift system and a 2-plant airlift system with net cups and Hydroton pellets. I ensure that they’re both filled with water. I mix 7.5 – 10mL of Pure Blend Pro Grow (3-2-4) into a 1 Gallon milk container filled with water. I then use that to fill and top up the reservoirs as needed. I check the pH every few days and maintain between 6.5 and 7 (If it starts to get low/high I dump the reservoir and re-fill/re-check). The water drips slowly from the airlift tubes (I would estimate about 5ml every 20 seconds or so) and runs 30 minutes on/30 minutes off around the clock.

There is a heater below the window, so the area does get warm/dry (and is in my kitchen near the stove, but when I’m cooking I’ll usually open the window. I do have cilantro that has been thriving in soil for about a year on the window sill. I have been having difficulty with other herbs though (Dill, Thyme, Basil and Rosemary — sprout but die quickly, Parsley seems to be doing okay)

Any suggestions?

Green Beans – These started growing like wildfire… Doubled in size in like 1 week then kind of slowed and I notice the leave tips curling like they began on my Peas.

Peas – These guys were in the top bottle of the 3-bottle system, so I moved them down tonight to get more light.

I also have Jalepenos and Lettuce – Jalepenos starting to show curling and I think the Lettuce just got waterlogged as one seedling was “stuck” to the hydroton and soaked from the water dripping directly on it. It’s also not growing very fast.

UPDATE: After replacing my timer with a 46 minute cycle timer (1 min on, 22 off) the plants  have survived week 3. Previously they were dead by now:

We grew our cucumber plants from seed and they just took off, they covered the trellis we built and tried to climb the walls within the first few weeks! They were producing lots of male flowers but there wasn’t a female for what seemed like forever. We ended up getting tired of waiting and assumed that if we did finally get one, then we would have one (maybe two) cucumbers. Wheeeeee!! We wanted to make some pickles and after all that work, two pickles just weren’t going to cut it. So I had the hubby take some cuttings from the tomatoes he had growing at the shop and was planning on hucking the cucs & beans for some yummy heirlooms & herbs instead. In the meantime, I had stopped checking the plants for female flowers and after a few days, he noticed that there was a full blown cucumber growing! We had read that you have to hand pollenate them since the bees usually do it, so we were especially surprised to see that it had handled it all itself. Or there was a phantom insect that did the work!

Before we had the female flowers, we weren’t sure how obvious they would be. Now we see they are totally obvious and are just popping up all over the place!

So, I guess that means the cucs are going to hang around for awhile and we will replace the green beans with tomatoes. The beans seemed to be a one hit wonder for us. Wah wah wahhhh….

We’re glad that the cucs get to stick around since they’ve made such a great window cover and really bring that corner of the room to life!

Happy Growing!

-The Sanders

***By the way, you can check out an article in the May issue of Maximum Yield Magazine featuring our hydroponics store in California!

Update, March 3rd: Added some pictures and descriptions.

When I got this floor standing flower pot reservoir, I started off with a needle airlift. The needle turned out to be really unreliable and the result was also noisier than a T-airlift. Fortunately I found a “tap” that can be attached to any reservoir with a non-curved surface. It’s a tap made by AutoPot. I just drilled a hole in the side of the reservoir and attached the tap to the side of it. Careful when drilling. You’ll need a special tool or a huge drill bit to make a hole this big (25mm). The tap can take a 16mm hose if you stretch the hose a little, so I needed an adapter to 6mm. Fortunately, a local chili equipment store had an adapter for 16mm to 6mm hose with an additional filter in it.

My initial column had just a tiny reservoir. It was way too small and a bit ugly as well. Another setback was that I originally used aluminum pipes in the plumbing, and found out that aluminum (not healthy) might end up in the plants. Thanks for pointing that out, readers. What I’ve learned from this is that if you’re planning to make your own window farm and don’t want to use recycled bottles, prepare to spend the price of a factory made windowfarm. Of course, you might end up with something better that way

Here’s the final part list for those who aren’t familiar with my previous posts.

Part list

(total cost ~100 euros)

• 4 Plastic orchid pots. These are made of Polypropylene, which is (afaik) safe to use with food. The pots also have an inward dent in the bottom, so they will never drain completely. I don’t know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Be careful when drilling plastic. I managed to break one pot by using too much pressure. (2 euros/pot at Bauhaus)
• 1 Large floor flower pot. This is the same brand as the orchid pots so the color matches perfectly. The water volume is 10 liters, and the reservoir is in the bottom of this outer pot. (25 e at Bauhaus)
• 1 Inner pot. The inner pot is 22 cm tall, so below it lies my actual reservoir. (15e at Bauhaus)
• 1 meters of plastic pipe for the dripping, 8 mm diameter.
• Two meters of aluminum strip. Mine is about 12mm wide and 2mm thick. I wouldn’t go any thinner than 2mm, since the rigidity of the column would likely suffer. (4 euros/meter at Bauhaus)
• M3 Nuts, washers and screws (or bolts) for attaching the pots to the aluminum strip. (Less than 1e total)
• Sera Air 275R Plus air pump with adjustable air flow and two outlets. Came with two non-return valves. (28 euros at a local aquarium store)
• 6mm “colorless” hose for the air. (2 euros / meter at a local aquarium store)
• 6mm black hose for the water. Colorless hose gathers algae. (2 euros / meter at a local chili store)
• A Y-joint for the 6mm hose. Came with the pump.
• A check valve. Came with the pump.
• A tap from AutoPot.
• A 6mm adapter for the tap

Plants

So far I’ve planted some cherry tomato, 2 kinds of chilies, coriander, parsley, basil and strawberry. The tomato is growing like crazy. Tomato was germinated three weeks ago and the plants are already 15cm tall. Then I threw in another basil plant I got from a grocery store.

Nutrients & pH

I was recommended nutrients called Flora Mato and Flora Micro by GHE. I don’t know much about nutrients, so I just got both and I’m adding both every time I add water. I’m aiming at an EC number of 1.60mS/cm.

The tap water around here is pretty alkaline with a pH of around 8. I got some pH down powder and a pH tester. Before I add water I first add nutrients and then make sure the pH gets down to about 6. Only after that I pour it in the reservoir.

Photos

Hello! It’s been two weeks since I built my farm, so here’s some progress.

My basil is coming along, slowly but surely. The uploader keeps tilting this photo so it’s on its side.

Cherry tomatoes. They’re also soldiering on.

I’m worried about my lettuce, which is sort of scraggly and sad-seeming. I think it might be the constant temperature changes in the apartment, as the weather here in Alabama has been cycling between mild and cold. I added another cube with some snow peas in it. I think they might help provide some shade for when it warms up again and stays warm. Any advice would be very welcome.

The pattypan squash is my favorite. It’s vigorous and seems very happy.

Advice for my scraggly lettuce? The pump system still isn’t perfect. I really need waterproof tape, but I think it’s gotten better since I increased the size of my reservoir and cable-tied the intake tube to a rock to keep it at the bottom.

February 10, 2012

Hi all!

I was in desperate search of more information for Plants I could grow, and I found quite a measure of information. I will just post all the plants I found information on, but not all of them can be grown hydroponically (like root plants). I hope I will be able to add even more information in time (please help gather more information which I can add) and it would be great to add a section ‘tested by window farms’ or something to verify the information.

Hope you want to help and have fun researching and using this information.

1.      Electro-conductivity (EC) or Conductivity factor (cF) can be expressed as either millisiemens (mS), cF or parts per million (PPM) 1 mS(/cm?) = 10cF = 700ppm

2.      The pH and electro~conductivity values specified here are given as a broad range. It should be noted that specific plant requirements will vary according to regional climatic conditions, and from season to season within that region.

3.      As a general rule, plants will have a higher nutrient requirement during cooler months, and a lower requirement In the hottest months.  Therefore, a stronger nutrient solution should be maintained during winter, With a weaker solution during summer when plants take up and transpire more water than nutrients.

4.      KNOW YOUR CROP.     Plant EC or cF may vary according to the stage of growth. For example, cucumber prefer cF 20 when establishing, and cF 25 after the first harvest. Between and 7 weeks after first harvest, the optimum cF is 17.

5.      For easy growing reference, plants that share broad groupings of low (L), medium (M) or high (H) can be grown together using the same nutrient electro- conductivity, providing middle ground cF and ph are adopted.

6.      The nutrient solution should be discarded at regular intervals. Should there be a requirement to flush the growing bed, the system should be flushed with fresh nutrients (run-to-waste) rather than water to avoid starving or stressing the plant.

 
The Column ‘Light’ is for the Day- / Night ratio needed (or helpful) for flowering
‘Water’ should someday contain Tipps how much Water (preferred in drip her minute or something) or just low, medium and a general description of that range here.
‘Sun’ will say how much sun/ Shadow the Plant likes
‘Tested’ If tested by someone in the commentary and maybe how hard it is to do it (in planing)
‘Groups’ (L,M,H) as described above, ‘Nutritions needed’ would be a suggestion of Nutrition Solution and other Tipps
Something in brackets (9) means a maximum or minimum not the optimal, something in brackets (?) with a question mark means that the sources said different things or suggested  for example that they used the same EC as for the Strawberries. So it is not born out of a sure source.
 

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This isn’t our first hydro build, by far, but it is our first one to be hung in a window! It’s in an east facing window in our living room & we love how it brings the same esthetic as a houseplant, but the benefits of FOOD!

This was about a week after we set it up. We started the beans & cucumbers from seed in a little greenhouse on top of the fridge. The top two pots are cucumbers and the bottom has 4 green beans.

We hung the pots with some hemp we had in our craft surplus & made the trellis out of the hemp & bamboo stakes. I’ve even made a bow and arrow out of the bamboo!

This is how the middle & bottom pot get watered. There is a piece of bamboo shoved up there to keep the tubing straight.

Here’s the reservoir, made from a cereal tupperware we got at Target & some ducting tape to make it lightproof. We took the little hinged pour spout off of the lid and ran the watering and drainage tubing through the opening. You can also see the timer there, right now we run the water pump for 15 mins every 2 hours from 6am to 6pm. As the plants get bigger we might have to adjust the schedule, but for now it works out.

We use a water pump we had around the house and it works great until the water level in the res gets down to about 25%. It’s a good reminder that it’s time for a refill without having the pump run dry.

Our first sight of beans!

Beans, beans….

….and more BEANS!!

Okay, enough beans. Here’s our first cucumber flower!

We’re getting a lot of male flowers, just waiting for that female! Well, that’s what we have so far. If you have any specific questions on what we used or how we use it leave a comment or send a message & we’d love to share!

Happy Growing!

-The Sanders

Windowfarm Friends,

We plan on helping out spreading the WindowFarm idea through Colorado. By hopefully sometime be able to set up some time to traveling to elementary, middle, and high schools and presenting our WindowFarm project we made from scratch. Using tools that anyone can buy from a local store and such. In order to do this we have created a mobile WindowFarm system (as you can see in my profile picture) to help maneuver the WindowFarm around. Here are some other pictures as well of our just 1-3 bottle system we have set up for it.

Here as you can see are some microgreens and some zuchinni growing and yes we are switching out the zuchinni to a smaller plant. We also have the main tubing right in front as well.

Here you see the set up we have with the main air tube, we have the straws for covering the chains we used so they dont rust.

We have a ten gallon tub filled with liquid nutrients. And you can see the setup we have in the water of our siphening system.

Here is I say a rough draft of our mobile WindowFarm. We are looking to simplify it down a little bit but this is just a start for now. The mobile system main use is to use for traveling to school to school without having to carry everything. It can also be used to move from window to window if necessary and I’m sure many other reasons. But I’m hoping for everybody who see’s this to spread the word so we try and kick this mobile system off the ground.

If any questions please email me at fcchavez10@yahoo.com, or message me on my profile.

A shot from day one.

It’s the end of day two and I’m seeing some germination signs in my basil and lettuce. I think the squash is also getting started. I’m trying to leave the tomatoes alone, since I am trying to not be obsessive, but I think hope they’re starting to germinate.

It’s a four-bottle window farm, with a pump set up similar to that of V2.0. I think the needles are starting to rust already, and I need to buy replacements, as well as better tape for waterproofing.

I kind of like to just sit next to it and listen and watch. I’m already thinking about adding a second row, with snow peas and maybe strawberries.

January 19, 2012

As an addition to Brittas Light Blog-Post, I want to share with you what I researched.

This Blog is about Photoperiodism, an phenomenon which we can use to influence our Plants if we want to. But there exist many other means to influence Plants like Temperature, Color of the Light,  intesity of Light, Nutritions, Ph,…

Photoperiodism is about the length of the light and dark period in 24h.  With the length of uninterrupted darkness as a critical Part.

Short-day Plants (SD) need fewer than a certain number of hours of light in 24 hours to maintain or induce a special effect.

Long-day Plants (LD) need more than a certain number of hours of Light.

Intermediate-day Plants (ID) need more than … hours of light but less then … .

Day-neutral Plants (DN) are indifferent to the length of light for the effect you want.

Temperature can influence a Plants category. And some Plants need short days for a time before they become Long-day Plants (and the other way Round). Some need their special Light periode or they wont flower (or somthing)(absolute Effect) and some just benefit from their Light period and flower more (quantitative/qualitativ Effect).

We want to influence Flowering

For that effect I have found some Tables of Plants and their categories:

If nothing noteted behind they are probably absolute (or not) but it definitly has an effect. The Latin names are from the Book and the explanation is from wikipedia and can be falsly interpreted by me.

Short-day Plants

Allium cepa (lT<8° for sev. weeks otherwise DN, q?) – Onion – ger: Zwiebel

Amarantus caudatus/graecizans (q?) – Grain alternative, vegetable
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