our.windowfarms.org

We are almost there on kits, Folks. We would love your input on a couple of things.

For more about why we are making kits, read this.

Here’s how kits are looking.

You will choose between a 2-column or 4-column windowfarm. You WILL have to be able to screw at least 4 screws into your upper window sill. The bottom bottle of each strand will be the reservoir.
We will probably produce the first batch by hand ourselves here in the Brooklyn shop but the next batches may be handled by an awesome little organization that hires the disabled just North of the city.

Get a sneak peek of the one we have in Brooklyn headquarters here.

Major points up for debate:
1) To give you the bottles or ask you to supply your own. If you supply your own, you need to drill through the tough end very precisely and this can be a dangerous task with a drill or a red hot cylinder. However, sourcing the bottles and getting them to you is very expensive on our end. What do you say? Would you be willing to pay a premium to not have to find, drill, cut, and paint your own bottles?

2) To include the pump or not. The petco pump is the best one we have found and it comes with air valves. However, some people have found that their pumps are duds. Having to deal with Petco’s duds will be a big burden on us that will take away from our mission work. We’d prefer to simply have a button while you are buying you kit that you press to order your pump from Petco separately. Is this a deal killer?

3) Lights. Almost everyone really needs them but no one ever wants to get lights. That is, until after they start raising their little baby plants and the plants come out looking leggy/scrawny. You can pump them full of nutrients but if they don’t have enough light to process the nutrients through photosynthesis, it is very sad =<. Anyway, I'm thinking we will sell lights as a separate kit. You would buy individual strands. Sound good?

Also, if you have a great business mind, experience with this kind of production setup, and some time to volunteer, we would love to hear from you. Send me a message by finding Britta under members.

Another suggestion for an income stream to support the Windowfarms Project mission that would simultaneously provide local jobs and green collar training is a mobile installation crew.

I have gotten messages from at least ten individuals- including one senior citizen in Manhattan- requesting such a service.

We already have one awesome local highschool kid on the windowfarms core team, Roy.

I would love to give Roy and other kids like him a job going around the city on bikes with baskets to come help you install your windowfarm properly and to make sure you are set up well to maintain it.

Perhaps you would buy a kit and then choose to add on the additional service of an installation.

Do you know how we could fund the startup costs for this new piece of the venture and train a bunch of kids ASAP? If so, please shoot me a message.

What pricing seems reasonable to you guys? Should we price it similarly to a visit by a plumber?

So, here’s the thing about collective R&D. It isn’t pretty. Just like science, a lot of times, things don’t work out right at first and sometimes they never do. But you learn a lot as you try to fix them. We are all working through this together and these things will be awesome and foolproof one day, but you are an early adopter. You have my promise that these #%#$%@ things can work, have worked, do work. We just need to find the problem with yours. Deep breath.

It is so much easier to SEE what should be adjusted. If after following these instructions you are still having problems, PLEASE CREATE A NEW POST AND UPLOAD PICTURES OF THE PARTS YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, TAG IT AIRLIFT TROUBLESHOOTING, & THEN JUST LINK TO YOUR POST in the comments below.

1) Please make sure you have the latest version of the how-to for the airlift system. Updates (like software updates) have been made to the instructions. The updates were made to correct issues that we found people were running into. The file should be called “3plantairliftHOWTO_3_4_10.pdf”.

2) Pump- Get the PETCO Air Pump 2-Way For 13-106 gallon Aquariums Model 9903 http://www.petco.com/product/109838/PETCO-Air-Pump.aspx

3) Tubing-
Get it at Canal Rubber.
x1 3/8″ OUTSIDE DIAMETER 1/4″ Inside Diameter Reinforced Kuritec Tubing at 4′6″ long
X2 1/4″ O.D. 1/8″ I.D. Vinyl tubing at 2′6″ long
x1 3/8″ O.D. 1/4″ ID Vinyl tubing at 6′ long

4) One-way air valves-You need these. Trust me. If you get the Petco pump, these come with it for free! Otherwise, you need to go to an aquarium store and tell them you want one way check valves for an air pump. They will cost about $3 each. You need to insert these in the line between the pump and your windowfarm. Be sure they are facing the right way (blow thru them to test) and turn on the pump with your valves inserted before you insert the tubing in water. Otherwise, your air tubes might fill with water and your system will not pump as high.

5) Bottom reservoir- You want your airlift tube submerged under the tallest possible column of water. That’s just how to physics work. So, if you use the 1 Gallon Poland Springs bottle, fill it up as high as possible. If you use something else, make sure you have picked a container that is going to create a tall column. By the same token, if your tube is curling so that it is effectively not submerged under a tall column, zip tie it to something rigid to straighten it out and create the max submersion height.

6) Angled bottom to tube- Cut your water intake tube (the Reinforced 3/8″ OUTSIDE DIAMETER 1/4″ Inside Diameter) at an angle at the bottom so that it does not just suck on the bottom of your reservoir.

7) More teflon plumber’s tape at the joints- you may have a leak somewhere.

Bad air valve? We have had a quality control issue with the air valves on occasion. Take the out. Blow through them. Is one harder to blow through than the other? If so, replace or try cleaning/soaking in alcohol.

9) Smoother interior walls for your tube and rigidity- If you’ve tried all of these things and they don’t work, go to canal plastics and get some rigid acrylic tube with a 1/4″ inside diameter and 3/8″ outside diameter. Go to canal rubber and get some vinyl tubing with a 3/8″ inside diameter (for a curved u back into the column at the top). Replace the reinforced tubing with this more rigid and smoother walled tube. It is what we are using for the next generation windowfarms . . . coming soon in kits.

I’d like to grow a variety of flowers for cutting in my window garden, but I’m not sure which fare best. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Hi Windowfarmers,

In addition to an aspiring home food grower, I’m a grad student at the New School doing research on participatory media and sustainable everyday practices. My primary case study deals with local food systems and closing the waste loop. I’ve created a brief survey here (bit.ly/bAXPxQ), and I’d greatly appreciate it if you would consider spending a few minutes to take it! I’m also looking for respondents to participate in brief interviews about their use of technology (both “low” and “high”) in relation to their food growing, food sourcing, and/or waste minimization practices and aspirations. There is an area in the survey to indicate whether you would be interested in participating in an interview–or you could feel free to contact me here!

Thanks again for your time!

James Wilcox

Hello,

I am a student at Columbia College Chicago and I did a report asking to bring the Windowfarming system somewhere in Chicago. I have gotten a great response from this and just had a meeting with the Garfield Park Conservatory regarding getting a windowfarm installed there. They have agreed to provide space and materials. However, we need to have someone who has completed a Windowfarm in Chicago to help us with putting this plan into action. This is a VERY ecxiting opportunity to get the word out about Windowfarming!

Is there anyone here in the CHICAGO area who has completed a windowfarm?

Or, is there a way I can find members who are in Chicago, either would help.

Let me know!

Has anyone experimented with a float switch as a way or triggering a pump instead of using a timer? A friend suggested this to me and it looks like the switches are really cheap compared to timers. The idea is like the float in a toilet tank, but instead of turning off the water when the resevoir reaches a certain level, a circuit closes inside the switch when water reaches a level and turns power to pump on or off. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

http://www.aquahub.com/store/ifloatfloatswitch.html

I am working with 3rd-5th graders on growing plants hydroponically in their classrooms.  Before attempting the full windowfarm structure, I worked with my students to build individual hydroponic systems using the hand-pump and water-wicking system.  While the hand-pumps we built seem to be working, our yarn-wicks are not wicking any water up…

Any suggestions on materials (other than yarn) that works well for a wick system?

I’m considering making my bottom reservoir with an assembly of old soy milk cartons. (I have a window sill that it can sit on.) However, one of the soy milk cartons I’m using wasn’t cleaned out properly, and had some mold growing on it. I was able to scrub most of it off, but I’m afraid trace amounts of mold are left. I could use some sort of cleaner (vinegar would probably be my choice) to get rid of it, but I’m not sure if introducing that (would it leave trace amounts?) would be any better than the mold in the first place.

So my question is: how sensitive are the plants to what the water may be in contact with? Is there something I should do to minimize any risk, or should I just abandon this idea?

I was lucky enough to inherit one of the windowfarm systems that was used in the Whitney museum installation. It is essentially a suspended, 4-plant version of the basic 3-plant system, with the bottom container used as the reservoir.

I got it up and running today, with two plants (so far). The pump is doing fine getting the water through the system, but the airlift seems to be gurgling quite loudly, with corresponding bubbles escaping from the tube into the bottom of the reservoir.

Any troubleshooting advice for making the system a little quieter by reducing the gurgling sounds? Or if this is the level of noise that I should expect, has anyone come up with timer solutions that would allow me to reduce or turn off the pumps (especially when I’m trying to go to sleep)? I saw the Arduino-controlled timer, but don’t have Arduino skills myself…

Thanks!