Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone has experience using ph buffers in there windowfarm? , see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_solution

I know of a nutrient solution which uses ph buffer micro particles to stabelize the ph level but that one is fine tuned to grow weed, so it only has instructions for flowering plants and not for fruiting plants (the thing we are working on of course)

so the question is, has anyone used ph buffers and if so, how usefull was it?

kind regards,

Bram

Whenever the air pump restarts it ALWAYS sends it into my 2.5 gallon reservoir and refuses to pump any water until I blow all the water out of the uptake tube. I’m using the t-valve method. Any tips on how to make it work without a check valve?

Hello All!

I’m getting ready to construct my first window farm, and am wondering if I will have success just water-feeding my plants? (Instead of adding nutrients.) Also, can I put putting soil in the net cups, or will it only work if I use the clay pellets? I will be using seeds.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Sarah

Hey everyone,

I assembled my window farm, but then left it for a week while I started my seeds. When I went back to my system the air needles inserted into the airlift tube had rusted considerably.  Has anyone else dealt with this?

Thanks,

Danielle

Hello,

I don’t really know how this site works yet,
but the windowfarms project made my day today and so I had to share it. (And I have some questions)

I’m from Belgium, Europe and I live in Antwerp.
Trying to help the environment, I spend a lot of time in our garden, growing vegetables etc.
In the winter, I have always been improvising in ways to bring as much garden as possible inside the house.
I hung up bottles with plants in it, but never came up with the idea of doing it hydropincally. Until I saw the video on TED.
And so -like a lot of you, I suppose- I printed the instructions and started to build my first windowfarm….but I still haven’t finished it.

Now comes the great part: This year is my last year in highschool. It’s just a normal school, but, according to me, it surpasses a lot of other schools by giving every student a chance to improve the schools organisation. I’ve been waiting for the bimonthly forum, where we can give our opinions, for a while now, but yesterday I finally went there.
It took me until the end before I pushed my self to tell them my idea. We have these huge windows at school, through wich a large ammount of light falls in, and they would be simply perfect for windowfarms.
I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to convince them, because in Belgium, there are berely any signs of windowfarms yet.
But I might have changed that today, because my school was really enthousiastic, in a way I couldn’t have hoped for better. They basically said ’we have no other choice but to build one’

Is there any advice I can get before I tell my entire school about this?
And what type of farm will probably best suit my plan?

This made my day.

Hi folks,

I’m wondering how long to leave on my supplement lighting to give my 1 week old plants the best start.
The windowfarm hangs in Amsterdam and minimal sunlight shines from +/- 8.00 am until 17.00 pm

I have purchased a large Philips CFL Daylight bulb (200watts output –> 45 watt usage)
It live about 2 meters from the window farm and I’ve made an aluminium-foil reflector.
There is a timer attached to the light.

Any advice on lighting intervals and what time of day to light is very welcome.

Regards,

Andrew

Hello all.

I have got my bottle columns up and running now.

And am doing some tests for waterproofing, timing and P.H readings.

I have added my nutrients, clay balls, the whole shooting match is ready for the plants now.

HOWEVER.

The P.H seems to keep rising into the 7′s. Not ideal. I was wondering if this may account for the high tide marks I am getting in my bottom reservoir.

It’s a sort of brownish stain.

Could it be;

A: Clay balls not washed off prperly before using?

B: The nutrients. A Rather dark liquid called “Boi-juice”. Or.

C: The very high P.H precipitating the iron out of the water and leaving a film on the reservoir?

D: Or is it plain old algea? I thought that would be green and nasty. This is brown and kind of like a dirty water mark.

I just wanted to get the whole water flow, P.H, plumbing and timing right before putting plants in

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

And I wil try to answer any questions of yours.

Thanks in advance.

Ciaran

Hey there!

I’ve got a east facing window in the Sunset district of San Francisco and I just started growing Oregano, Freckled Lettuce and Peas! I’m very excited and thankful to this whole community for helping me get up and going. I’ve posted a picture below (pre-planting of lettuce and peas).

I just purchased a timer for my air pump and I’m trying to figure out, well… the timing. Right now I have 3 starter plants, 3L of water to 3.75mL of FloraNova7-4-10 nutrient, a pH right around 7.0 and blues eyes and blonde… oh sorry, wrong forum. I have been watering on a 1 hr on/30min off cycle which, as far as I can tell, has not caused any serious natural disasters. My timer has 20 on/off settings.

So first question, how long can I let these guys dry out for? I’ve heard some people turn their pump off overnight (such as my anti-bubbling couchsurfers yesterday). I know this can vary a lot, but anyone have any advice?

Second, how often do I need to change out my water/nutrient solution? When it evaporates? Every full moon?

Thanks again everyone, what an awesome resource you have created!

Eric

Hello wonderful windowfarming community,

Thanks to everyone’s advice, experiments, and idea-sharing, I have completed my first system (version 2.0 airlift)! But I have a few questions:

1. When I watch YouTube videos of other folk’s systems, the water seems to be really flowing. I get a drip every few seconds, but the airlift tube is definitely mostly air, pushing up the occasional bead of water. The tubes in the videos seem to be mostly water, with the occasional bubble of air. I have incorporated the suggestions from other similar troubleshooting posts and comments, but I still feel like I have a suction problem. Below is a photo including design notes. I would really appreciate any thoughts (or directions to earlier posts which address this).

2. My pump is very quiet but the tube gurgling sound is obnoxiously loud. I inserted the top tube into a small bottle with holes per the “silencer” instructions, but this only seemed to magnify the echo noise. Has this happened to anyone? Is there an alternative to the silencer bottle?

Thank you all for your help and support! Sincerely,

Mark

Bloomington, Indiana

Hi all, and especially people in the Netherlands,

I have a question, do any of you know where to get the net pots? I’ve tried the boeren bond, gamma, praxis and even the growsjop and a specialist in hydrophonics nearby (according to the hydrophonics specialist the net pots are outdated) so if any of you know a place to get net pots I’d be realy glad to hear!

Bram

(Ps, I know a place that sels them online but the shipping cost is like 20 euro’s)