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

Hi All,

After much research, advice from you, shopping, scrounging, pondering, trial, and error, I have a nice completed window farm!

The total set up

My happy tomato plant

Hello, I’ve attempted my first window farm this week as a prototype for class. It’s been a bit difficult to find proper supplies in Hong Kong due to language barriers. Challenges and questions I’ve come across while exercising my poor engineering skills. I will be using black socks to cover the bottom of the bottles.

1. My seedlings have already been attacked twice with aphids and fungus gnats in it’s growing plugs. I had to start a fresh batch. If the seedlings are already so sensitive to the  moisture and humidity, how soon will my window farm be attacked by these pest? Anyone have experience with handling this in a humid country?

2. My tubing is too stiff to direct it away from the seedling. I’ve seen some systems using a toothpick or wooden chopstick, but my result was a moldy chopstick. I ended up using a fishing wire just to hold it down and a tape to keep the tube in place. I obviously need to find a better alternative. 

3. Reservoir problem. Due to the limited space in HK, I don’t have the luxury to have a big bottle for reservoir so I attempted to use a ketchup bottle on the bottom. I found the tip was a good way to plug the tubing in (I still need to reinforce it with plumbers tape, but haven’t found it yet).

4. Cutting through plastic was the biggest challenge.  I am not a very handy person, but I attempted to use the drill to make some holes on the bottom of the bottles but the bottom is thicker than the rest of the bottle, so I am not able to cut through it. In the end, I made a big circle but the bottles don’t fit perfectly. Any suggestions? I thought about using sticks to reinforce it.

5.I wanted to try out using water beads instead of clay pellets. Anyone have any success in it?

Nothing much has happened yet, obviously, but I’m pleased that the pump/water is quieter than I expected. It took several crimping attempts before I got the tubing to cooperate and send the right amount of air up to the top, but it’s been running well for 3 hours now.

One question I didn’t find an answer to is about the nutrients. I got the CNS17 with the kit, and I gather that the solution I need would be 10ml per 4 liters of water. What’s not entirely clear to me is whether that’s the ratio for the water in the reservoir, or whether I need to create that solution separately, then add 5ml of the solution to the reservoir? That would be quite a different amount. I decided that I’m probably overthinking it and just added 5ml directly to the reservoir. I figure the reservoir is about 2 liters (I couldn’t find that detail anywhere), which would make the WF recommendation of 5ml equal to the solution recommended on the CNS17 bottle (10ml per 4 liters). I hope that was right. (-:

There’s a bit more splashing at the top of the reservoir than I would like, so I may search around in case anyone’s come up with a solution.

I hope my new little plants hang in there and recover from their journey–I’m looking forward to eating them.

This is my first time with my new windowfarm.

Based on weather in Chicago, I couldn’t buy any seedlings so I went for already decently sized (~5 in.) basil, lavender, sage and oregano.

How often do you set the timer to water these? I think they said every hour for 15 minutes, but not sure if that is correct? I’m pretty nervous that these won’t grow!

Also, does anyone suggest any type of nutrients? I’ve never grown anything ever and I want this to work out!

Please help. Thanks.

If my water tests around 7.5 on the PH scale, do I need to add nutrients? Suggestions on good plant food? I’m growing peppers, chives, micro greens, and mustard greens.

I started growing three tomato plants in my windowfarm using maxsea 16-16-16 plant food and started to notice that a portion of the stem is purple and the underside of the first two leaves are purple.  The new leaves on the top are perfectly green.  I read that this is evidence of a phosphorous deficiency.  I was a little conservative with the amount of plant food I was adding in the beginning but I’ve recently been using a 1 teaspoon/gallon of maxsea 16-16-16 in a purified water solution.  Is it wise to add a phosphorous supplement solution to my reservoir?!  I also have my pump watering non-stop.

Started to use a new nutrient this week, MaxiGro. It is in powder and you mix  5-10 grams per 4 liters of water (1-2 teaspoons per gallon of water). But since it’s first week that I use with this new nutrient I’ll give a little lower dose. Does anyone have experience with MaxiGro?

The one I´m using right now is for the growth phase, later when the tomatoes and chilies begin to set fruit I´ll need something to complement the flowering phase. But that will take som time. We’ll see if the plants like MaxiGro, you will get an update later on how it goes.

I bought the nutrient in New York when I was there last week. Was a bit scared that customs or security checks would stop me on the way back to Sweden

If you live in New York City I recommend a trip to the store with a very  friendly, knowledgeable and helpful shopkeeper:
New York City Hydroponics
495 9th Ave
(between 37th St & 38th St)

Update, March 3rd: Added some pictures and descriptions.

When I got this floor standing flower pot reservoir, I started off with a needle airlift. The needle turned out to be really unreliable and the result was also noisier than a T-airlift. Fortunately I found a “tap” that can be attached to any reservoir with a non-curved surface. It’s a tap made by AutoPot. I just drilled a hole in the side of the reservoir and attached the tap to the side of it. Careful when drilling. You’ll need a special tool or a huge drill bit to make a hole this big (25mm). The tap can take a 16mm hose if you stretch the hose a little, so I needed an adapter to 6mm. Fortunately, a local chili equipment store had an adapter for 16mm to 6mm hose with an additional filter in it.

My initial column had just a tiny reservoir. It was way too small and a bit ugly as well. Another setback was that I originally used aluminum pipes in the plumbing, and found out that aluminum (not healthy) might end up in the plants. Thanks for pointing that out, readers. What I’ve learned from this is that if you’re planning to make your own window farm and don’t want to use recycled bottles, prepare to spend the price of a factory made windowfarm. Of course, you might end up with something better that way

Here’s the final part list for those who aren’t familiar with my previous posts.

Part list

(total cost ~100 euros)

• 4 Plastic orchid pots. These are made of Polypropylene, which is (afaik) safe to use with food. The pots also have an inward dent in the bottom, so they will never drain completely. I don’t know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Be careful when drilling plastic. I managed to break one pot by using too much pressure. (2 euros/pot at Bauhaus)
• 1 Large floor flower pot. This is the same brand as the orchid pots so the color matches perfectly. The water volume is 10 liters, and the reservoir is in the bottom of this outer pot. (25 e at Bauhaus)
• 1 Inner pot. The inner pot is 22 cm tall, so below it lies my actual reservoir. (15e at Bauhaus)
• 1 meters of plastic pipe for the dripping, 8 mm diameter.
• Two meters of aluminum strip. Mine is about 12mm wide and 2mm thick. I wouldn’t go any thinner than 2mm, since the rigidity of the column would likely suffer. (4 euros/meter at Bauhaus)
• M3 Nuts, washers and screws (or bolts) for attaching the pots to the aluminum strip. (Less than 1e total)
• Sera Air 275R Plus air pump with adjustable air flow and two outlets. Came with two non-return valves. (28 euros at a local aquarium store)
• 6mm “colorless” hose for the air. (2 euros / meter at a local aquarium store)
• 6mm black hose for the water. Colorless hose gathers algae. (2 euros / meter at a local chili store)
• A Y-joint for the 6mm hose. Came with the pump.
• A check valve. Came with the pump.
• A tap from AutoPot.
• A 6mm adapter for the tap

Plants

So far I’ve planted some cherry tomato, 2 kinds of chilies, coriander, parsley, basil and strawberry. The tomato is growing like crazy. Tomato was germinated three weeks ago and the plants are already 15cm tall. Then I threw in another basil plant I got from a grocery store.

Nutrients & pH

I was recommended nutrients called Flora Mato and Flora Micro by GHE. I don’t know much about nutrients, so I just got both and I’m adding both every time I add water. I’m aiming at an EC number of 1.60mS/cm.

The tap water around here is pretty alkaline with a pH of around 8. I got some pH down powder and a pH tester. Before I add water I first add nutrients and then make sure the pH gets down to about 6. Only after that I pour it in the reservoir.

Photos

Hello all.

I have got my bottle columns up and running now.

And am doing some tests for waterproofing, timing and P.H readings.

I have added my nutrients, clay balls, the whole shooting match is ready for the plants now.

HOWEVER.

The P.H seems to keep rising into the 7′s. Not ideal. I was wondering if this may account for the high tide marks I am getting in my bottom reservoir.

It’s a sort of brownish stain.

Could it be;

A: Clay balls not washed off prperly before using?

B: The nutrients. A Rather dark liquid called “Boi-juice”. Or.

C: The very high P.H precipitating the iron out of the water and leaving a film on the reservoir?

D: Or is it plain old algea? I thought that would be green and nasty. This is brown and kind of like a dirty water mark.

I just wanted to get the whole water flow, P.H, plumbing and timing right before putting plants in

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

And I wil try to answer any questions of yours.

Thanks in advance.

Ciaran