The problem I am having is that the water and nutrient formula is adjusted to the correct pH in the reservoir but as it goes through my system it slowly increases. After going through the third bottle, the pH is already too high.

After doing research here and in other forums, I made the following adjustments.

1. Removed the rock wool cubes from the system completely and boiled the clay pellets. The plants are now growing in the baskets with only clay pellets. This adjustment seems to have made a slight impact on the severity of the pH increase through the system, but not enough to keep my plants alive.

2. I switched to distilled water and started to rinse the system and replace nutrient formula every other day. Again, this only made a slight impact on the pH levels. Now the pH doesn’t increase as fast, but after 10 minutes of the system running, the pH is back up above 7.5 in the reservoir.

Thankfully that I have been able to hold onto the remaining few plants by adding a few drops of lime juice to the tank every time I get a break from work (usually about 4 times during the day) but my plants are all less than 3 inches tall and the leaves are starting to turn brown on the very tips.

The remaining plants are beans (I think these could survive nuclear war they are so resilient), two tomatoes, two peppers and three basil that haven’t yet reached 2 inches tall. I lost all of the lettuce, two varieties of peppers, and my hybrid cherry tomatoes.

Anything you can suggest to help me out would be fantastic. I feel like I am taking care of a new puppy because I can’t leave my system alone for a day!

I have these two bottles of fertilizer, one for sprouts and leafy plants, and one for booming and fruiting plants. I know I’m supposed to start with one and later use the other. But do I switch entirely, start using both, or split them? What if I have tomatoes and peppers (the second bottle) in the same system as lettuce and chard (the first bottle)? I get the impression this is just the way hydroponic fertilizers come, so hopefully there is a standard answer.

What’s a decent place to order cheap seeds for plants I can’t find in stores? I am in the continental US. I could find a random place and try it, but I’m hoping one of you has actual experience.

How do I know if there’s something like salmonella in my system? You know, before anyone dies of it.

After several plant casualties, my windowfarm is recovering from its pH fever. The lettuce survived and started to grow again, as the nasturtium, three basils and most of the peas (these lasts started to flower, as a matter of fact. Beside a thorough clean-up,  the only thing I did for those survivors was to entirely change the composition of their nutrient solution.

So, right now, my upper reservoirs contain water from the tap (pH 7, has been sitting at least 24 hours to let chlorine evaporate before use) and an organic nutrient bought at the Hydroponic store : Iguana Juice Grow (it automatically gets the water pH down to 5,5 but smells like dead fish – really awful since it gets the room smelly at times). Take note that my system is working on gravitation, so I have to refill the reservoirs by hand, something I need to do about every four to eight days, usually, depending on the dripping flow. Therefore, the water doesn’t recirculates in the system unless I decide to reuse the contents of the bottom reservoir.

So, I started anew in one column, cleaning up everything, boiling the clay pellets, discarding the old rock wool and using fresh nutrient solution with Iguana Juice and my worm compost tea. Then I monitered the pH very closely.

Here is what I discovered :

1. My precious worm compost tea has a pH over 8,5 ! I never thought of testing it before my plants started to suffer very seriously. I always tested my pH after mixing in the nutrients and a few milliliters of vinegar to start with. Take note that within one column of my surviving plants, the pH would rise from 5,5 at the source up to 8,5+ in the bottom reservoir.

In the new column, the same phenomenom was observed, but to a much smaller extent (pH at 7 in the end). So, I stopped everything again and dumped the water solution to get rid of the worm tea.

Hypothesis : I use, from time to time, egg shells to protect my worm compost from too much acidity. Obviously, I overdid it. And I think that microscopic eggshell particles lodged themselves within the rock wool, very slowly dissolving into the dripping water flow, thus affecting its pH.

2. Even after my stopping from using worm compost tea, the pH in the reservoirs still has a tendency to slowly (within 4 days) go back up from 5,5 to 7 right inside the upper reservoirs (therefore, it does that without getting in contact with the plants or the wool rock, or eggshell particles).

Hypothesis : there could be in the city water a kind of pH stabilization agent that would slowly raise it back up. But I think that I can manage this imbalance by readjusting the pH every other day.

In the meanwhile, I isolated 50 of my worms in a new container to start a new compost farm. I will monitor its pH very closely to try to produce a worm tea with a pH of 6 or 6,5 at the most without any eggshells in it.

I intend to leave the two old columns as they are (with the old rock wool and the surviving plants), to see if the pH alteration effect wears off. The two other columns will receive new plants in new rock wool, and no worm tea will enter in my nutrient mixture until it has a more suitable pH reading !

All this thrilling mystery is fascinating and I have the feeling that I learn a little more everyday, although it was heartbreaking to see my plants die and quite panicking not to have a clue as why.

I’ll keep you posted.

I am new at window farming! I would like to ask what kind of organic nutritions I should use for tomato-pepper-eggplant-squash and also for Lecture-parsley-celery-anise.

Thank you!

I’m just starting my Windowfarm (one column) and the Airlift works fine now. Having started with a small amount of liquid nutrient solution I’ve stumbled upon a product entitled “Lewatit  HD 50″ by it’s manufacurer, (Lanxess, Germany, actually just around my corner). The product is also being sold unter different brand names.

The data-sheet promises that you can put this into your solution and afterwards don’t need to touch the system for 3-4 months because the granulate passes just the right amount of nutrients to the water during this time, until it’s depleted.

I haven’t ouched this stuff yet but consider using it for my windowfarm.

Has anyone around here operating experience with this kind of product?

Link to data-sheet in english:

http://lewatit.com/common/download.php?file=ea38c8a6a78e9fa1e75a8c0065843c52

Greetings

Markus

Thanks!!
Melissa

Any advice for this system? I’m going to go and cut a longer piece of tube and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks,

Melissa

-EDIT- (20 minutes later)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5378581924/

So the longer tube completely helped! There is no air escaping from the system at all. Now my poor tomato plant that was without water all night is getting some.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5377983157/

I purchased the white frame from ikea and it was around 20$. I plan on having 3 or 4 columns with a string of lights in between the columns. This frame will allow me to move the window farm around and close my blinds at night. I’m going to raise it up to window height once it’s all installed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5378580404/

Here is a short video of my airlift in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qER-HLCHcE

-EDIT- (Later that day…)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5378590143/

So my tomato is definately looking good! http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5379181542/in/photostream/
I have also transplanted a broccoli plant to the top of the column. http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5379182328/in/photostream/
My seedlings are starting to sprout! http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5378589329

I made another change to my system… I zip tied the coil of tube in the water so it is easier to remove and install. http://www.flickr.com/photos/58467192@N06/5379179122

Also, nutrients were added to the solution. I added part 1 and part 2 of the general nutrients, and I also added some “maximum plantroids” because it says:

“Plantroids Super-Vitamin Thrive Enhancer stimulates plant branching, increases photosynthesis and cell division. Plantroids also helps reduce stress as well as stimulates root growth”.

Just a warning about CFLs… I dropped one and it smashed into a million tiny shards. Took a while to make sure I got all the little pieces.

Can anyone give me advice on how to put pictures in my post, rather than just links? Thanks.

Roots bathed in liquid nutrients grow into compact hairy root networks, rather than long big roots you find in soil where plants are out searching for water below ground. The hairs  grab hold of droplets of the liquid nutrients and grow into the porous cavities of the clay pellets to find tasty little juice pockets waiting for them even when the pump is turned off.

Dandelion green roots growing around and into clay pellets

The clay pellets are a great match for drip irrigation because they hold just the right amount of this stuff around the plants’ roots. No killer sog because, like rocks or pebbles, they shed water. But way better than rocks because they hold just a little bit of moisture close by for the hairs to reeeeeach out and ahhhhha get a little sip when they need it.

Clay pellets provide no nutritional value for the plant; it all comes from the nutrient solution. However, they are not made of lava rock, which would react and change the chemical composition of the nutrient solution. They are “inert,” meaning they don’t react.

Clay pellets shed water like pebbles, but their porous interior pockets hold little droplets of liquid nutrients for plants' root hairs to find

I like them because they can be reused, so I don’t have to add to the landfill with every crop. You can clean them and dip them in boiling water between crops to sterilize them.

Nothing is ever sacred and in the spirit of R&D-I-Y, it would be great to find ways of replacing clay pellets with something that was not shipped all over the world from Germany.

However, if you are new to windowfarming, I don’t recommend that these be one of the first things you start experimenting with substituting out.  Wait until you get the hang of dealing with nutrient solution first– there are plenty of other variables to change out as you get to know the microclimate of your window.

This is why we include them in the kits for new windowfarmers.

-Britta

So, what’s the steal? Basically, I came up with a simple and effective way to provide nutrients to my plants.  How?  WORM POOP!  Ya, sounds gross I know, but it’s truly amazing, fully organic, and best of all FREE.

All you need is a net cup, a coffee filter, and worm poop (commonly called worm castings).  Yes, you can buy the worm poop, but I used freshly harvest worm poop from a small bin I have with a few worms.

You can buy worms online or get some from a friend.  There are only 2 or 3 species suited for home worm farms.  Worm castings are cheap to buy I think, but again I have my own because you can throw all your organic waste into the bin and they eat it like crazy!

OK OK pictures:

And here is a video clip of it in action:

Worm Poop Coffee

It’s as straightforward as it looks.

1) Fit the coffee filter into the 2″ net cup (or whatever size you use)

2) Secure the zip tie just below the neck of the net cup (you may not even need this but adds stability)

3) Pack in the worm poop into the coffee filter

4) Insert into one of your pods where the dripping water lands and filters through the nutrient rich worm poop

Active Contents – Component values of worm castings:

• PH 6 to 7
• Nitrogen 2% to 5%
• Phosphorus 1.25% to 5%
• Potassium 1.25% to 3.5%
• Organic matter 40% to 60%
• Organic Carbon 15% to 20%
• Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc – Trace Amounts

Quick Facts about Worm Castings:

• Contain over 150 micronutrients such as nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron. These nutrients found in worm castings are more readily available to plants than in synthetic fertilizers.
• Castings will not harm or burn your plants
• Contain 50% more humus than found in topsoil
• They have moisture retention properties and can result in less watering
• Non-toxic; safe for use around children and pets
• Known to eliminate odors
• Stimulate the organisms in plants that work as a natural repellant for insects
• Stimulate the organisms that prevent and retard fungal grown (an organic fungicide)

Example of a REAL soil analysis of pure worm castings: http://vermicomposting.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/h228.pdf

You could easily get worm castings with an N-P-K value of 5-5-5 if you know what you are doing.  Nitrogen is usually low because worms prefer the right nitrogen-to-carbon ratio in their food, but you could always mix a nitrogen rich liquid with the final product (such as sterile and organic ammonium or urea safe for consumption).

I may have to write an in-depth blog regarding the nutrient value of worm castings and organic (and free) ways of increasing the nutrient values for specific life cycles of the plants.  An easy way to increase the nutrients is to double up the worm poop you are using to leak nutrients into your solution.  In my case, I have a 3 Liter reservoir.  My store bought nutrient solution suggests I use 90 mL of it for this size tank.  That is about the same volume of worm poop I have in my filter.  Translation?  That means once all the nutrients have leached out of the poop it is equal to the store bought, inorganic, synthesized stuff…  Also, I can always put another round of worm poop in there after a few days or even put 2 of them at the same time…  Seriously, it’s better than synthetic fertilizers, safer, and organic.