Just getting started with slightly different pump design
March 10, 2010 in Getting Started, posts with pitcures! by Tony
- Free standing 3 2-liter bottles
- Air pump w/3/8″ tee
Ran across your site a while back and thought I would give it a try. Spring is almost here and I am iching to do some gardening. I made a free standing system since I have nothing to hang it from. I had most of the parts laying around like the pump from the kids old fish tank. They only things I bought so far has been the 3/8″ tubing and a 3/8″ tee. I wanted to share the pump design since it worked pretty good. The long 3/8″ tube goes in the top end of the tee. A short piece goes in the bottom end with half cut off so water will get in when on the bottom of the tank. A small piece of 3/8″ tube goes in the middle tee and then the 1/4″ tube from the air pump fits snug inside it.
I sprouted some seeds and put them in it, but they died. I think they died since the leaves were too small and stayed wet all the time and I do not have any hydroponic solutions yet as well. I enjoy the experimentation and will try again.


Big changes this week in Brooklyn and the windowfarm is beginning to feel like a stable viable thing in my home. Plants have grown a couple inches, timer, pump and valves working steady.
I’ve taken the plunge, set up a timer, got the water flowing, and have planted out my tiny tiny seedlings. Sorry plants are such babies that they’re barely visible in this photo but it’s mostly spearmint and thyme. As other things germinate I’ll plant out different herbs, hope to have oregano, spicy globe basil, marjoram, dill, and nasturtiums. The first generation of plants have been in the windowfarm for a couple days now and they seem to be happy.
I’ve got my windowfarm working manually, i.e. the main delay at this point is lack of a timer, so I’m close. Since I originally posted I’ve made a few changes. I cut the resevoir tubes down to 48″ to reduce weight, and have suspended them from separate pairs of hooks screwed into the drywall ceiling. Two columns of four bottles each are suspended with alligator clips and 1/8″ dowels from the baling wire supporting the bottom resevoir. This setup makes it possible to remove the resevoirs separately and seems to be working pretty well. Pump is inside the bottom resevoir and once realized which was the input and which the output is worked pretty well. In initial test I had 5′ of head and that was a bit too much but lowering the top resevoir by six inches made a difference and now pumping works well.


