seems like there are quite a few things i need to know B4 i start building the window farm…i could just go ahead and build it following the instructions but i wanna do some research first…

mainly on:

-Hydroponic systerms and its nutrient solutions

-Design and the nitty gritty details to customise it according to my window and the physics

PLANTS-its life! Therefore proper responsibility should be taken B4 i start up the farm

ima take my time with this….its gonna pay off for sure!!

I learned about this project through the feature on TED, and have just pledged for a four-column windowfarm through the kickstart page.  Now I want to spread the word.  Has anyone created a PDF or other poster or handout that can be used to let people know about this?  My mum would put one up in her flower shop (she’s very excited too, and is helping me to pay for my farm as my christmas present) and there are a few other stores I’d like to show them to — an organic cafe and a specialty kitchen shop come to mind immediately, and there are a few more.  It’s getting hard to pass on information to people who you only know in real life, and don’t have any e-mail contact information for!

If nothing exists yet, would it be okay for me to create a PDF, and share it here for other people to use?

I made another video and basically I ran out of pipe and ladder and because of that I couldn’t pump any higher but I am curious. How high can you go? I went 13 ft but there was no problem whatsoever pumping that high! So, maybe, if you have a 2 story house or an available high place you could find out how high it is possible to go? So the contest rules are in the picture below and in a video
(You might get some extra hints and ideas if you watch the video)
Basically you use your aquarium air pump, and a T joint set at 2 ft below your liquid reservoir height.

Contest rules for unbelievably high airlift powered by puny aquarium air pump

So the rest of the post is from a couple of days ago and has a little different version of the video. (I am too Lazy to write a new post)

I made a new video about the pulser pump and Eileen suggested that a “pulser pump nano” (a smaller version) might be useful. The pulser pump is my little “invention” from over 20 years ago. Anyway, I no longer live near a river so I cannot do a nano. But because of my involvement in windowfarms, I can at least test how high a tiny pulser pump can pump. Today I used the T-joint method and an extendable ladder to go pretty high. With an aquarium air pump and 22 inches of submergence, I pumped to 13 ft high today! I bet it can go a lot higher but thats it for me.
Here is the video (which may be of some use to windowfarmers)

If this is in the wrong space, let me know, and I’ll publish further steps of construction somewhere else.

I had a productive weekend, and things worked the way they should have.  I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked, but there you go.  That’s doing things for the first time for you.  You learn all sorts of stuff about unrealistic expectations. Read the rest of this entry →

One year and 3 months ago I started fishkeeping as a Phase 1 of trying to do home Aquaponics, inspired by the work of the people that did the Ark project out of (I think) Rhode Island (can’t find it now).

Of course, I thought I was real smart, and the only one to do this.

Then I saw the Windowfarms thing, and found this community and was a little dejected I wasn’t as smrt as I thought.

Regardless, I got into fishkeeping in a fairly big way, and have a number of beautiful tanks I just love watching.  I had totally forgotten about the aquaponics side of my plan until I heard about a science fair for adults (complete with category for best Volcano) coming in April.  So I quickly geared up to prepare an experiment for Aquaponics.  I’m just using the fish water for the hydroponic side, not looking to eat the fish, so I’m calling this AquaponicsLite.  I’ve got almost all of my equipment and materials, tonight I’ll be getting the last of the wood to set up the plant stand, and then I’ll be good to go.

The experiment is monitoring electrical usage to see how cost/energy efficient the process is.  I won’t be using sunlight because I’ll also be monitoring quality of growth given 3 variables.

• Control group of hydroponics, bagged to maintain humidity
• Hydroponics with CO2 supplementation
• Soil
• One unbagged to see effects of no humidity control.

So, I’ve gotten a few pictures, but I’ll get more once I’ve finished the set up and it’s all there in it’s magical glory.  I’m posting this here to get things started.

BTW: running a fish tank with heater, 2 t5HO lights and 2 HOB filters for a week  costs ~$1.50 at $0.0064/kwH.

I am teaching a summer day camp on the UMN campus for 12-15 yr olds on alternative growing methods. I’d like to show them one of these systems – especially using the recycled bottles – but am not sure which one would be the best choice. Advice?

Hi-  Myself and our school botany teacher are looking to purchase several kits for our students to put together and grow food over the winter.  I can’t find any pricing on the website.  Is there a contact to get this info or somewhere on the website to find this?

-Tina and Jen

I am a student teacher who would love to build a lesson plan or unit using the window farms.  i will be teaching hospitality and tourism and think this would work on so many levels.  i’m looking for some more imput on how to start the process.  thanks

HELLO

I am so excited to start this project at my school in New Jersey.

I went to college visit, saw this project, and fell in love with it.

My school is pretty good at students to be aware of environmental issues. We once had this competition of coming up with the ideas of conserving energies at school, etc.

Anyways, I am soo excited to start this project!!

Hello Out There!

I just purchased a kit for our classroom and was wondering if anyone has done this project with 2- 3 yr. olds of course with parents helping?