I see… All I can advise was that for me personally, when I was at your sticking point: 1. I thought it would be a major pain to switch to a new system from the ‘needle’ system that I had been working on 2. I spent a good amount of time trying to resolve my [...]

My original problem was solved completely once I switched to the T-valve airlift system as referenced in the comments above. Are you having problems with that system? This http://our.windowfarms.org/2011/11/16/t-valve-airlift/ system solved my issue (I was using an ‘older’ technique to try and create water flow. Let me know what kind of problem you are having [...]

Thanks for the basil info!

bump to see if anyone has any thoughts, otherwise I’ll just experiment.

Basil. I have grown basil in a earthbox outdoors and now in my windowfarm indoors and is always grows quickly, easily, and out of control with lots of leaves!!! I love it, non-stop pesto!!!

@Britta I just stumbled upon this comment thread’s growth since a month ago. I think economically sustainable is a very important issue and sounds like you are doing a great job trying to balance a variety of principles and goals. Keep up the hard work! We all appreciate you (and your team’s) efforts. I do think [...]

Hmm, maybe things are fine as they are in my system. I started the seeds in growplugs from the windowfarm kit and they look very similar to the rockwool grow cubes you mention. Perhaps I am over-estimating the need to remove ‘all’ the soil…so far none has gotten into the reservoir. I was mostly worried [...]

Marc, you mean the PDF from here: http://our.windowfarms.org/2009/07/29/3-plant-air-lift-window-farm/

This file: http://www.windowfarms.org/howto/3plantairliftHOWTO_3_4_10.pdf

?

Message me your email and I can send it to you

@Hardware Junkie Do you (or anyone really) have any good advice for ‘washing’ growplug dirt off the roots? I’m quite worried about my root systems and my plants have a hell of a root network gripping the soil. I gather one should try to get as close to zero soil as possible? (i.e. 100% roots [...]

Thanks for the teflon tape tip. I always worry about long term stability for the 100% silicone adhesive I used for the tube/sports cap seal.

Great list of ideas. I don’t quite follow #1 but I believe it’s because we probably designed our bottle connections differently. I’ve had plastic-spring based check valves fail on me right away also. Whatever brand of check valves windowfarms.org included in their kit work wonderful though, but I still mount my pump high as you [...]

Thanks Hardware Junkie

I am having the same questions if anyone can clarify. I saw in the instructions here : http://our.windowfarms.org/2011/05/12/starting-seeds-in-growplugs/ (you might want to check that out BK) and here: http://our.windowfarms.org/instructions_dev/?language=2&section=8 a good amount of info. But I would appreciate clarity about how much dirt to remove (and when) and whether we should go down to only [...]

Because it is discussed above, I thought I would add my experiences. I recommend both a quality check valve and a pump that is higher then the reservoir. The check valves that came with my windowfarm kit are GREAT (hopefully the brand is listed somewhere)! However the cheap ‘spring’ based check valves I bought at [...]

Update: Airlift system is better thanks to on T-valves instead of needles into the bottom of the reservoir, etc. However, I was still getting ‘water pockets’ for hours when I didn’t have the airflow from the pump at about pretty decent speed (higher then I feel like it should need, but we’ll see)….hopefully this pump [...]

Thanks Brian, maybe its our water ‘softness’ here. I definitely get the little dribble of water at times, but eventually that process halts. Maybe the tubing sat in storage too long. Anyway, seeing your great work on t-valves I’m going to attempt that solution. Thanks for all your help and all the testing you have [...]

This post: http://our.windowfarms.org/2011/11/16/t-valve-airlift/ seems to be what I am going to do. The poster had inconsistency with the needle in bottom of reservoir plans and everyone here seems to be using t-valves from what I can tell. So if anyone sees this thread, my experience would be to look into T-valves and ditch what is [...]

Actually, My reservoir is different then you are suggesting (if I understand you correctly). I don’t have a T-valve setup (though I would tell everyone to do that since I am having such problems with my setup). I have a setup like this: http://our.windowfarms.org/instructions_dev/ The upside down hanging bottle reservoirs with the air needle inserted [...]