Here is the starter pack of nutrients I was reccomended by the hydroponic store. So far, I am rather happy with how this is going. As a control, my hydroponic cumcombers inside have done much better than my traditionally planted cucombers growing outside. This stuff definitely works! The same can be said for my tomatoes, and peppers. The only species that is doing significantly better in a garden is the swiss chard. Is anyone else growing swiss chard?

In addition to the nutrient pack, I needed to buy “pH up” and “pH down.” I have found that I use the pH up way more than the pH down. Over time, my nutrient solution seems to get more acidic. Rarely does it ever increase in pH.

pH adjuster and nutrient solution

I have just started noticing that my peas and cucumber plants have leaves that are beginning to brown around the edges.  They are growing quite well, especially the peas, but even some of the older leaves are starting to curl and die.  Does anyone know how I can stop this? The lettuce, arugula, and kale all appear to be doing okay.

This isn’t our first hydro build, by far, but it is our first one to be hung in a window! It’s in an east facing window in our living room & we love how it brings the same esthetic as a houseplant, but the benefits of FOOD!

This was about a week after we set it up. We started the beans & cucumbers from seed in a little greenhouse on top of the fridge. The top two pots are cucumbers and the bottom has 4 green beans.

We hung the pots with some hemp we had in our craft surplus & made the trellis out of the hemp & bamboo stakes. I’ve even made a bow and arrow out of the bamboo!

This is how the middle & bottom pot get watered. There is a piece of bamboo shoved up there to keep the tubing straight.

Here’s the reservoir, made from a cereal tupperware we got at Target & some ducting tape to make it lightproof. We took the little hinged pour spout off of the lid and ran the watering and drainage tubing through the opening. You can also see the timer there, right now we run the water pump for 15 mins every 2 hours from 6am to 6pm. As the plants get bigger we might have to adjust the schedule, but for now it works out.

We use a water pump we had around the house and it works great until the water level in the res gets down to about 25%. It’s a good reminder that it’s time for a refill without having the pump run dry.

Our first sight of beans!

Beans, beans….

….and more BEANS!!

Okay, enough beans. Here’s our first cucumber flower!

We’re getting a lot of male flowers, just waiting for that female! Well, that’s what we have so far. If you have any specific questions on what we used or how we use it leave a comment or send a message & we’d love to share!

Happy Growing!

-The Sanders

Hi there!

It’sstillmy first season and the plants seem to be happy.With one exception: The cucumber leafs show small white to transparent spots almost since the beginning.

While the plants grew (and the still do) that was no real concern to me but yesterday a saw that one of the older leafs starts to fade from the edge, see  second picture..

I see no bugs or anything like that.

It doesn’t appear to be a kind of fungus but I may be mislead here.

Image 1: http://aquaponik-forum.de/attachment.php?aid=480

Image 2: http://aquaponik-forum.de/attachment.php?aid=484

Any help or hint is appreciated

Thanx, Markus

Hi !

Eight weeks ago, I presented you what I now call my sailboat windowfarm. Seven weeks ago I was presenting you my clay pot windowfarm.

Then, I explained in detail my pH imbalance adventure, telling you that I lost several plants in the process. Now, I’d like to show you the survivors. Here they are. First photo : My sailboat windowfarm suffered a much smaller scale pH imbalance. Its growth was interrupted and one of the pole beans lost two leaves to it, that’s all. On the first storey : 2 pole beans, second storey : 2 nasturtiums, third storey : 2 cherry tomatoes.

Second photo : a close-up of the biggest leaves on the pole beans.

Third photo : my clay pot windowfarm is still half empty and the spinach and thyme will get out soon. The two center columns are connected to their own reservoir. They are designated home for all flowering plants and may receive a special blooming nutrients formula. The two outer columns are designated for leaf crops only.

Following photos : watercress started from cuttings, surviving lettuce, blooming peas and baby cucumber.

I have been browsing many a seed catalogue, and I am sure that I’m going to buy a bajillion different kinds of seeds. Just to grow one plant of each variety… so…

Let’s swap seeds!!!

Is anyone else interested?

I seem to be a little impatient. I can’t believe the system’s been running hardly more than a week, with the pump arriving two days ago.

So, here we go:

The pump will need a proper cover against the sunlight, but I haven’t figured out an elegant way to make one yet. If only I had black aluminium foil lying around …

The mini cucumber has decided to rear its head, after careful deliberation.

wild tomatoes

The yellow wild tomato is well ahead of her red cousin in the background, but for a week I think the height they’ve reached without artificial lighting and in a window facing east is acceptable.

butterwort

And to finish off, my watchdog. No real dog – I leave that to Lorne – but a butterwort, charged with devouring fungus gnats, mosquitoes et al.

Cheers for now.

In my search for seeds and seedlings online (because nothing was available locally), I came across 2 companies that had excellent ratings and variety:

Burpee had the most robust and interesting varieties of herbs, vegetables and flowers; and I like the company’s storied history. Reasonably priced as well. They also deliver seedlings as well as seeds and sell excellent seed starting systems:

http://www.burpee.com/

Seeds of Change is an good certified organic option:

http://www.seedsofchange.com/

Moveable hanging windowfarm we made for demos

These plants were all started from seed in February. The lettuce loved the cool early spring. Look at how bushy that blackseeded simpson got (mid left). There are also cucumber (the yellow flowers at top left), okra (maple-looking leaves mid right) , green beans (top right) kale (bottom right) and cherry tomatoes (bottom left), jalepenos, and Japanese Eggplant (bottom right big leaves) in this system. The cherry tomatoes,  jalepenos, and okra are just now ripe in early August. Beans keep coming- super tasty, crunchy, and sweet. The lettuce went to seed and started tasting better about after about 2 months of churning out georgeous new leaves constantly when we picked them.  Aphids and a weekend when I left the pump off (OOPS!) killed the eggplant. The cucumbers were a real mystery. Like Marilyn and James Dean, they died a young tragic death after a short, but full life. Read their sad story here. Someone else please try cucumbers!

The cucumbers were a real mystery. Like Marilyn and James Dean, they have thus far all died a tragic death after a short, but full life.

We had about 10 of these georgeous exciting northern cucumbers. It was a little unrealistic to think we could grow such a big fruit in a windowfarm, but we figured we’d try and just find a way of supporting them when they got big. And they did get big. We had them trelliced around some cross-wires made of string.

They all produced a lot of flowers and after we pollinated them with a paintbrush, we had tons of 1″ long baby cucs.  The plants themselves all looked very healthy. 

But then all of the sudden the plants would die when the fruits were cornichon-sized. We think maybe we didn’t have our fruiting/flowering nutrient solution mix right (??). 

Someone else please try cucumbers, get it right, and let us know how to do it! I’m drooling at the thought of some homegrown apartment cornichons!