After reviewing the instructions, and attempting to sort out the differences between the kits sold and the instructions, it seems the lighting portion is missing from the kits. After viewing Rama’s double, it appears s/he is not using lights either.  So, this is a bit confusing to sort out.  Also, no mention of the washers ($25 for 5 on amazon.com -ouch!).  I plan to start big (per usual) and am getting enough supplies for at least 4 columns.  At Petco, I purchased the following two items:

I found an online hydroponics.net store and bought the following materials (Pargro Rockwool is for sprouting seeds):

From Amazon, I ordered a  few remaining supplies that were listed in Rama’s double mod.  More tubing as I wasn’t sure if I had enough – better too much than not enough – my son may get in on this too – who knows!:

Still missing the  3/8″ OD 1/4″ rigid tubing. All online places are either too expensive or have short pipes.  Still working on that.  No worries, I still have to hunt down the water bottles…  Anyone have tips or comments?

I like Rama’s cable wire over the bead chain and the double openings for the plants.  Am I missing anything aside from the rigid tubing and water bottles?

I’m new to the window farming world and wanted to know if there were any good books available on the subject matter? The books could be as detailed as the biological processes at play in hydro/aeroponics, to a simple DIY step-by-step exemplar photo book. I know this content area is a somewhat new development but I’m looking for as much info currently published. I have read Despommier’s “Vertical Farm” which is a fantastic macro-level look at potential/necessary future farming practices but it does not go near the DIY topic area of urban window farming. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and hopefully we can fill this up with a great list.

Hi I’m Mickey and I’m building a window farm for my senior project. My kit came with butter crunch lettuce, romaine lettuce, basil, and rosemary seeds. I’m looking for an effective and easy way to germinate them before I put them in my window farm. I can find the instructions for constructing the whole window farm system but can’t locate the instructions for germinating the seeds. I remember something about putting them in a mixture of water and hydrogen-peroxide, but I can’t recall for how long. Thank you for your help.

I’m new to this site, and can’t wait to start with the 3-tier system. I’m a novice with farming and trying to earn my green thumb. I just started my own herb garden (basil, cilantro, & parsley) and within the first week, I have baby greens sprouting away. Needless to say, I feel pretty confident I can start window farming.

However, in browsing around the site, I haven’t been able to find a clear list of plants that work well with a beginner hydroponic farmer.

To the experts: what 3 vegetables can I start with? My boyfriend wants to try strawberries – is this possible?

By the way, I live in St. Louis City, heard about this experiment on NPR. If anyone else is reading this from the St. Louis area, maybe we can start a group and coach each other through the process.