I built my window farm in march of 2010. since then, I’ve learned a lot, and I thought I would share my

experience with you guys.

First of all, mine is a 24 plant reservoir system. The air lift system had already been adopted as the superior system by the WF community when I began my WF, but I just wasn’t on board. I didn’t like the gurgling sound, the limited number of plants, the fact that it had to be turned on for so long. I’m not criticizing the air lift system, but it just wasn’t for me. The reservoir system, in my opinion, is beautiful, the number of plants it can support is seemingly endless, the water pump is completely silent, it only runs for two minutes every four hours, and the sound is like a soothing rain.  My system has been tweaked just a bit to fit my preferences, and I’ll describe the details of my system at the end of this post.

Getting Started

So, I started by garden from seed using peat pellets. I’m no gardener by any stretch of the imagination, I don’t know how to prune, harvest, or tinker with nutrients. So I just tried a little bit of everything- lettuce, cucumber, peppers, green beans, cherry tomatoes, okra, spinach, and a few herbs that I didn’t start from seed, but bought planted. I washed the dirt from the roots when the little guys were big enough to transplant into the WF, which seemed like it would be really traumatic, but none died, not one.

Everything was off to a good start, it was looking beautiful. Visions of serving coffee to curious neighbors who stopped by to ask about my awesome garden danced in my head. But the cold hard reality was a lease violation from my apartment complex. They didn’t like my “display” and insisted that I take it down immediately or be evicted. Not to be deterred, I simply lowered my blinds, and opened them facing upwards so they could get light, but people from the ground floor couldn’t see in. This worked fine, and provided trellis for the okra and cherry tomatoes. I moved to a different apartment four months later, one with south facing windows that didn’t mind if I had a WF.

The lighting system was always a concern for me. Something about repeating columns of dripping water and electricity just didn’t sit well with me. I wouldn’t leave the lights on when I wasn’t there, and eventually I just took them down. The garden didn’t seem to mind too much, some of the veggies got a little leggy, but overall, I think it was alright.

Results of the first Crop

Some veggies did better then others,  the cherry tomato plants got HUGE. Like, four feet tall.  If I had known more about gardening, I would have had a better yield. The lettuce did really well, not the spinach. I didn’t get very many veggies, a few cucumbers and okra, maybe one green bean and a couple cherry tomatoes.  I’ll do some more research before planting a bunch of veggies again.  The  Basil and sage, however, were wonderful! they stayed nice and bushy around their respective bottles, perfect.

Second Crop

It was fall and I didn’t have the gardening bug like I do in spring. I wanted something simple and pretty to look at through the winter. So I picked up some rockwool and a package of flower seeds. I think they were marigolds. Just a package that was at the grocery store. I dropped a couple seeds into the rockwool and put those into the WF. Not long after that, I had a wall of pretty flowers to look at during the dreary months of winter. Unfortunately, I didn’t even think to take a picture for you guys.  Sorry.

Third crop

Spring approaches again, and I want an herb garden. It’s been nearly a year, and I need to clean the WF before planting (can we call it planting?) the next crop. The modular nature of the system made it pretty easy. Fresh hydroton, I ran the net cups through the dishwasher, rinsed the bottles, and scrubbed out the reservoirs. The tubes were lined with algae, which I knew better than to buy clear tubing, but it hadn’t clogged the tubes or anything, so it wasn’t a big deal. Pipe cleaners woulda worked, I’m sure, but we used a metal coat hanger and put a bit of cotton on the tip, the tubes were like new.

I really liked the herbs from last spring, so I pick out a bunch of herbs that were already planted in the gardening section of any store at this time of year. Lets see- I got cilantro, dill, sage, thyme, tarragon, basil, mint, and a few peppers for the husband. Each plant was in a disposable pot, and actually had three plants in each pot. I know it seems traumatizing, but it worked for me: I take the plants out of the pot, and gently but firmly shake as much dirt off as possible. Then I ran it under water to get the rest of the dirt off and try to untangle the roots as best as I can. Some of the roots simply will not come untangled, and some roots do get broken. I tried to minimize this, but it’s unavoidable. The plants were just fine, though. Not one died, even though they were probably quite shocked.

And that’s my garden right now.

System

My system is a six column 24 plant system.  The window it’s in now is bigger than my last, so I may add another row on the bottom for a 30 plant system.  My top reservoir is a  four inch diameter, six foot long pvc pipe, with drippers I found from HomeDepot. I keep the top reservoir hidden behind a valence.   Here’s a picture of my drippers. They come with six on this head, but the drippers just pop right off.

At the end of each column, I have a tube which drains the water into a 1 inch pipe, which is angled so the water drains into the bottom reservoir. My bottom reservoir is a plastic box with lid that I picked up at walmart, but I spray painted it to prevent algae from growing in my reservoir. The bottom reservoir holds the water pump, which is for fountains pumping water 8 feet high, I found this pump for 40 bucks at home depot. Something like this: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=100083846&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_sku=100083846&ci_src=14110944&cm_mmc=shopping-_-googlebase-_-D28X-_-100083846&locStoreNum=589

Beckett 3/64 HP Submersible Fountain Pump

Model # M400HD

Internet # 100083846

I tried finding the hydroponic materials locally, but most places just look at me funny if I ask for hydroponic supplies. Eventually I found hydroton, nutrients, rockwool, and net cups (for .25 each!) at a local head shop. Which is always kinda fun.

My WF did end up costing a lot more than an air lift system, my water pump alone cost $40. but I like it.

A few problems that I ran across: my system drips into a pipe that drains into the bottom reservoir, the tubes fell out a few times. Tape didn’t work, and I didn’t want to glue it in place, so I sewed it in place. I ran a needle and thread through the tube and around the drain pipe and tied it off. I can cut it off if I need to but it’s strong enough to keep it from falling off.  I haven’t had many leaks, I used gorilla glue around the drippers, so it expanded and stopped any potential leaks.

I originally drilled little holes in the caps and kept them on the bottles, but they clogged really easily. If a hydroton pebble fell out of the basket, if roots grew down into the cap, if dust or dirt accumulated in the cap. So I’ve thrown away all the caps and just leave the bottles open.

Finally

So, ultimately, I love my Window Farm. All of my friends and family think it’s cool, it’s like a conversation piece. Everyone is really interested and curious, plus the fresh herbs are so handy. While Everyone I know seems really intrigued, no one else has made one. Which kinda surprised me, I thought everyone I knew would want to have a window farm.  Maybe it’s because my husband and I are such avid DIYers?

The main factors to consider when deciding what to use as containers:

They should be made out of material that is lightweight, waterproof, easy to suspend, easy to cut holes in.

The containers need to be designed to position water flow so the roots of the plant are always exposed to the water/nutrient solution. This does not mean that there always needs to be water dripping or flowing around the roots – some growing mediums can retain the water for some time.

If you’re using net cups in your system, the container will need to fit them. There are various sized net cups. Concievably you could skip the net cups and grow your plant directly in something rockwool. Remember, however, that the roots need room to breathe, and so the container should have space around the growing medium so the roots.

The containers should be opaque or have an opaque cover on them so the plant roots are not exposed to light. The water bottle on the left is not yet covered. We’re working on designing paper covers. We’re considering fabric as well, but it may let in too much light.

The suspension system you use will depend on the containers. We used heavy-duty fishing wire for our prototype but a rigid suspension system might work better, especially when the plants get heavy. Perhaps steel rods, aluminum pipes or wood.

• The fishing line is hung from hooks drilled into the top of the window sill. Ian suggested using a chin up bar to suspend everything from at the top of the window instead of drilling into the wood. Gabriel points out that a cheaper alternative to a chin-up bar might be some threaded pipe from the hardware store. They sell metal pipe cut to length and threaded on the ends, which screws into plates that are screwed onto the window frame. So some holes in window frame, but only in two places vs. a series as with hooks. Very strong.

Aesthetics: Clearly this window farm will become a pretty major feature in the room, and you’ll want something you’ll love to look at. The containers could be modernist white plastic, bottles covered with wood veneer or paper with handmade drawn patterns, ….

We used water bottles as containers, with net cups inside holding the clay pellets and plants. The water bottles (Poland Spring or Deer Park 1.5 liter “eco-shape” bottles) are inverted, with holes cut out of them using a box cutter, so the net cup can be slid inside, where it rests in that indented part of the bottle.

Many hydroponics systems use PVC pipe in round or square shapes. In a window farm, you could suspend these pipes at angles and have the water consistently pumped through and trickling from one level to the next. The photo at the right shows a setup with what looks like 4″ PVC. There’s an instructable on how to make it here.

Square PVC pipes are also possible. These types of systems, with long pipes, are called NFT (Nutrient Film Technique). The water flows through the pipes constantly (if you’re using clay pellets or another medium that doesn’t retain much water), or periodically if you’re using something like rockwool for your plants.

Check out instructables for other people’s DIY hydroponics designs. Not many are vertical, but they may give you ideas for materials.

I love this sculpture by Ken Rinaldo. Transparent glass in a window farm would mean too much algae growth, but blown glass like this with elegant root covers inside the glass itself could be gorgeous.

Anyone have any brainy notions on where we can all get 1.5 liter poland springs or Deer Park bottles that have been discarded?