Hi again, fa, Different water needs… Or sunlight needs. As I will have two windows, one facing south, the other facing west, I have a choice on this second regard. As for the water, you can adapt a valve on each vertical line (sold in pet stores – aquarium department), group your plants by water [...]

Hi, fa, Indeed, my plants sit directly in the pot, in the rock wool cubes and the hydroton pellets. Their roots never got out of the pots. In the original design of a Windowfarm, there is a hydro net container that is filled with hydroton. That is where the rock wool would sit as well. [...]

Thanks, Math Spaeth, the design still works well after a full year and I bought more pots to make a second windowfarm for next fall. I found out that my windowfarm is a lot more work in summertime, due to intense solar radiation and hot weather. It makes it complicated to rely on someone else [...]

Since pH levels are an issue for some of us, please keep us posted on your experience with sodium bicarbonate. For instance, will you be able to keep your pH stable using this product ? One thing worthwhile mentionning, I think. When I was myself struggling with pH levels way too high, I went to [...]

Hello ciaran ! You’re the second source mentionning this problem to my knowledge. In the beginning, I used the run off, but after a while, I switched to worm tea brewed from vermicast. Since you’re talking about pathogens, maybe harm was alreday done, though. As I understand it, soil can handle a lot of variations [...]

@Joe Hello, Joe ! It’s simple, really : I just made a very big knot (but it’s still small compared to the bottom hole). The knot gets jammed between the hydroton pellets and that’s enough to keep it there. I also managed to install the strings after my pots were filled and already hosting plants. [...]

Hi, Stephen, Usually, in a Window Farm, the advise is to group plants with similar needs so they can be fed by the same nutrient source, the main consideration being to give different nutrients to flowering plants than to leafing plants. If I understand well your point, you suggest that besides this, plants retaining different [...]

Hi, James, your information is right. We have to balance rock wool’s pH before using it. I always do it, simply following the instructions on the packaging. About half an hour is sufficient to soak the wool thoroughly and it’s done. I did it with lemon juice and also with white vinegar, as instructed. Rock [...]

Thank you so much, PHE, your post sounds logical and connects with the previous comments that I received. I will surely investigate, though it may take some time, since I’m very busy right now in other areas of my life. But you all give me a boost to keep on an find a solution. If [...]

Thanks to both of you, Allen and Robert. It helps to understand a little bit more what happened. Nowadays, my pH is very stable, but I didn’t dare yet to go back to worm tea !

Hi, Roland, it seems to me the rock wool or the glazed porcelain pots are not the culprits, since my pH problem is not existing anymore. I didn’t have an algae problem – at least that I was aware of. I changed everything in my pots, the old rock wool having retained something, as I [...]

Sorry for this interruption… So as I was saying, for me, I think the most problematic issue is how to retrieve information from previous posts and comments. I kind of like the categories and tags you have right now, except many members don’t use them (especially the newest members) and in that case, their post [...]

Hi again ! It would, I aggree, be very useful to have access to how a member’s system is constructed and working and what plants are in it. So the idea of a tag-able photo and/or a kind of abstract graph would be great. I also agree that you must allow extensive questions, comments or [...]

Hi, Windowfarming Team ! I stopped being active on the site in June because of my exterior garden and vacations, so I have a lot of updating to make. I like your presentation very much. I think it could save us time in writing and explaining and it would be clearer to to understand others’ [...]

@ Wai Kay : Hi ! It thinks it would work fine on the outside, but if light can enter on the inside, it could be reflected on the aluminum surface and maybe it wouldn’t be dark enough.
By the way, I did put two layers by folding the sock and it worked fine.

Seems it didn’t work ! Ah, well… Maybe next time.

Hi, Agro-gio, Hi ! Thanks a lot for your extended reply. I don’t know what motivated your taking time to answer, but it’s really appreciated. It makes things a lot more clear. For instance, the fact that even after transfering my worms in a new litter and carefully avoid to give them eggshells, I still [...]