Here, I am going to highlight the nitty-gritty parts of the operation.

This is coming from a completely genuine place of curiosity.  Sorry if it’s been covered elsewhere, I couldn’t locate any threads on it since the search function on here is kind of clunky.

Does anyone know why the window farms system (diy version) uses an air lift system as opposed to a water pump system?

Is it energy consumption?

Availability?

Weight?

Price?

It seems like the air lift system over complicates the system – adding additional parts and experimenting.  Wouldn’t it be more simple to get a larger water source (E.G. 5 gallon bucket) and drop the water pump in and use the rest of the setup the same?   This would obviously require you to use non-recycled materials – but I think most people are just buying water bottles anyway for the system, and a 5 gallon bucket would last forever with adequate care.

Is the reason aesthetics?

I guess a bucket on the floor doesn’t look nearly as visually pleasing as the hanging bottle version, but there has to be some kind of work around for this.

Really interested to hear other builder’s thoughts on this.

I have mine currently set up with the air lift system and it seems to work out alright – but in the spirit of the project I am on the lookout for alternatives to make everyone’s lives easier.

I am doing a couple of vertical pallet planters and changed the airlift to suit the planters. In this case, the next planter will have 2 wooden legs in plastic buckets. The water will drip down the legs and back into the buckets. I usually use the t joint method outside the bucket but I also appreciate that not everyone has room for a u tube that is one ft lower than your T joint. I tried a few different methods and this one works.
This way uses all the depth of the bucket and you might get a little bubbling when it restarts for a few seconds but usually not. Note that once again, I got a few days where the tubes acted funny before they behaved themselves. Pretty sure it is whatever sheen or grease is on new tubes. I think all new tubes need to just sit low with nutrient running through them for about a day before you put them up in position. There is almost zero drainback in new tubes and that is what is causing the problem. Newbies are going to be very confused by this.
My pallet planter project is at instructables A very interesting aspect of this (for me) is that the air pump is 120 ft away from the planter. (It still works and pumps the air through 1/4 inch tubing all the way to the greenhouse). Brian

Starting from Scratch-ish

A few days ago I started building my first window farm.  Bottle plant holders are the only recycled part of this system – everything else I was able to gather from a local commercial center.

I generally followed the instructions to create a Version 2.0 Windowfarm.  It is a fairly simple process that filled me with new ideas for my next column.

Below is the windowfarm after the first afternoon.

Bottle tower and Reservoir-base

Airlift Issues

I ran into a problem with the airlift, which I understand is common so I’m posting my solution. The airpump was blowing bubbles back into the reservoir.  I had seen different recommendations on the airlift (t-joint, needle, each with variations) so I tested different models with no success, proving the airlift design wasn’t to blame.  Additionally, I found that I got the best results using the t-joint setup.

I began thinking of other potential causes… I had bought the recommended Petco air pump but without the adjustable dial, so maybe I was feeding too much air pressure into the system… I tested different air pressures by squeezing the hose and running the pump, all eventually bubbled back into the reservoir.

Solution

I was able to resolve the issue by attaching 1-way valves to both the air and water lines feeding into the airlift.  The non-adjustable pump works fine.

Additionally, the t-valve is positioned ~1.5 feet below the bottom of the reservoir to create pressure and feed water down the tubing.  Below is a picture of the exchange.

Water & Air exchange at the t-valve

It works quite well now.  After the initial gush of water, it pumps out ~2ml every 2-3 seconds, which seems enough by sight.

 

A Work in Progress

Finding solutions and innovations while building my window farm was one of the most rewarding and exciting parts of this project – always spurring on new ideas for my next column.

Currently, I am using the petco pump w/o knob to feed 4 planters.  I would suggest changing the recommendation for the pump type to be less specific..

I created a tube-in-cap drain for each planter by drilling a hole in the center of each cap using scissors.  Wrap the end of a 2-3 inch section of tubing in plumbers tape and twist it snug into the cap hole (the cap drains best when the tubing is nearly flush with the inside of the cap).  I then secured the outside cap/tube joint with duck tape and screwed it onto the bottom of the planter.

 

Cap-tube drain

I created a simple silencer by connecting a section of 1/4″ ID tubing to the end of the feed tube.

 Simple Silencer

Below are pictures of my first column now.

 

 

 Crash course column

After I completed the column, I grabbed some small plants I found at the park and unrooted a small vine that has been growing as a potted plant through fall and winter in the same window as the windowfarm now sits.  I know the vine grows in the micro-local limate of the windowsill already and anything in the dog park has to be pretty hardy.  I’m treating this column as a crash course of windowfarming to learn the basics and work out the kinks before I move on to something more serious.

 

Note on Syphons

 

I did not cut a hole in the bottom of my reservoir, instead opting to maintain the bottle structure and use a syphon to feed the water to the air-water exchange and up to the plants.  As I am sure ya’ll have experienced how unwieldy the tubing can be, which creates complications for maintaining water suction necessary for a syphon.  To solve this, I used a small binder clip and two screws to create an anchor for the tubing.  First I clipped the clip on to the end of the tubing going into the reservoir, then I placed a screw into each wire “butterfly wing” of the clip, and dropped them into the water.

Below is a picture of my raised anchor in the reservoir.

Syphon Anchor

Thanks for checking out my grow-op.

 

Please feel free to comment, I welcome your feedback, questions, and support.

Hi everybody,

I’ve just about finished construction on a 2-column windowfarm, and I am just waiting for my seedlings to get big enough to put them in.  I’ll post some pictures when it’s up and running.  Anyway, I have some comments and reflections on the “official” instructions and parts list.

So, I followed the instructions pretty closely except for on two points: first, my windowfarm is suspended from a free-standing frame on casters (which doesn’t really affect anything), and I used a t-joint for the airlift system.  The t-joint (a.k.a. t-valve) design is really simple and easy to install and use, whereas I found the method(s) outlined in the instructions to be really complicated and, frankly, intimidating.  The fact that the size of the check valve included with the air pump determines some of the other parts is pretty inconvenient.  Anyway, I hope the instructions are changed soon to include this more user-friendly design.

Speaking of the t-joint design, there are some issues that I ran into with parts.  Mainly, I bought a t-joint off the Petco shelf with all three openings the same small diameter.  It’s made for three of the standard 1/4″ OD tubes that come with the air pump.  The problem is that this makes a bottleneck for the flow of water.  At least I think it’s a problem.  Brian White say’s that the airlift tube should have an ID of 1/4″ for optimal performance, and he seems to have done his research.  I ran the 1/4″ OD aquarium tubing from the reservoir bottle to the t-joint, and from the t-joint up to the bottom of the 3/8” OD 1/4” ID rigid tubing from the parts list (McMaster.com #9245K17).  It works, but maybe it would be better if I had bought a wider t-joint and used wider tubing.

Speaking of things that could work better, there’s the Petco pump (#9902).  It’s not adjustable, as far as I can tell.  I guess I can add a little adjustable valve in the airline, but if I throttle it that way I’ll be wasting energy.  I think an adjustable pump should be recommended.

Then there’s the tubing.   Two kinds of tubing on the parts list reference McMaster part numbers, but the 3/8” ID flexible vinyl tubing for some reason does not.  Now, McMaster has a ridiculously extensive selection of tubing, so we should be able to find one that works.  I used #5103K36 (Chemical-resistant Clear Tygon Tubing, 3/8″ Id, 1/2″ Od, 1/16″ Wall Thk).  It was okay for joining the two long pieces of rigid tubing, but it was not flexible enough for the top, to curve down into the top bottle.  Technically speaking, the “bend radius” is too big.  Maybe #5231K185 (Clear PVC Tubing Chemical, 3/8″ ID, 1/2″ OD, 1/16″ Wall Thickness) would be better.

Chains.  I think the ball/bead chain is a good way to go, and McMaster was a convenient way to order it.  Weirdly, though, the part number on the parts list (#3606T16) turns out to be stainless steel chain, whereas in the instructions photos it looks like they’re using plastic.  It’s not important, but what’s up with that?  I also ordered the specified couplings (#3606T41).  They are listed in the McMaster catalog as being the same size as the chain, but for some reason the chain does not fit through the center hole.  I had to widen the hole.  I’m not sure what to suggest here.

I think that’s everything.  I don’t mean to complain; I think the design is great and I really appreciate having access to it, but I want to help make it better and easier for windowfarmers who come after me.  I hope this post is the right way to give this feedback.  Sorry it’s so long and boring!

 

Sincerely,

Bill

What’s the cheapest air pump and where can you buy it? Because I don’t really plan on spending $800 on a huge air pump…

Alice

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

A little while ago I answered a post on what to do with unused ports.  http://our.windowfarms.org/2012/01/14/can-i-use-a-petco-4-output-pump-for-a-2-column-farm/  I answered with what I did, but that got me thinking as to what should I do.  Now, I would say that the correct answer is that you should cover the ports.  Take a look at my video here.  http://youtu.be/6KvfJyWso8E

So what does this cost me?  Let’s say the pump runs at 1 watt.  This is 0.001 kilowatts.   The pump runs a total of 2 hours a day for me.  That’s 0.002 kilowatt-hours and I pay $0.10 a kilowatt-hr.  That is only $0.0002 per day or $0.073 per year.  That is insignificant!  I probably have wasted more power in writing this email than what it costs to run my windowfarm for the year.

So if you are very environmetally conscientious and I think most of us here are, I would say don’t worry about putting an air pump on your WF.  Look else where in your life to save energy.  The biggest energy consumers in my house in order are heating, hot water, clothes dryer, refrigerators, stove, computers.  These are the places to make a big difference.

Buy the way, the power monitor in the video is a Watts Up Pro and I got from Fry Electronics for $120.00.

Updated 1/23/2012

After doing the first video I decided to open it up and see how the pump works.  http://youtu.be/4JqaQV48KFk

 

My Skylight T-valve windowfarm.
Those version 3.0 designs are way too complicated. I wanted to make something as simple as I possibly could using minimal materials. This is what I have come up with:

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February 26th, 2013 Update
Moved, Settled in, Got windowfarm back up, new plants started, images and new stuff will come soon, as I finalize my new design…

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APRIL 5th, 2012 Update
Ghost chiles are fruiting!, and Jalapenos ready for stuffing and wrapping in bacon

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MARCH 8th, 2012 Update !

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COSTS TOOLS & WHATNOT one|two|three|four

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• The Jana water bottles seem to be perfect, it is a Croatian brand of spring water. I like the water, they are 1.99 a bottle, but you can find used arrowhead 1.5L bottles fairly easily.
  ($0-10[$40, for 4 columns]) Bottles can cost anywhere from free to $10/tower.
• ($0) Suspended with a hook and shoestrings, you can use anything, this doesn’t need to cost anything, spend here only if you feel like trying something fancy.
• ($10) Airline tubing is 10cents a foot. I bought a $10 Roll of it, plenty to spare.
• ($3.50) T valves are a 50 cents each x7
• ($2.00) flow valves are a 50 cents each x4
• ($10-20) the pump was pretty darn cheap, repurposed from fish tank… 3watt, super cheap, and costs about 20-80 cents a year to run on the timing i have.
• ($8.00) 3″ net pots were 50cents each x16
• ($30.00) 2x Timers were $15 each, 24 hours of 15min intervals for water.

TOTAL FOR SETUP: $113.50 for 4 towers
Additional costs(& ongoing expenses); nutrition, lights, paint if you don’t have it, electricity is about 25-75cents a year for the air pump, lights are costlier.

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Seeds I’ve Started (for windowfarms or my garden outside):
http://store.myorganicseeds.com/ <— Hot Peppers !
http://seedrack.com <–Cool and interesting plants

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Oregon Sugar Pod Peas – Pisum sativum
Green Onions

PEPPERS – Capsicum
SUPER HOTS 300,000 to 2million Schoville Heat Units
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion – Capsicum chinense
Sunrise Scorpion – Capsicum chinense
7 Pot, Barrackapore variety – Capsicum chinense
Habanero – Capsicum chinense
Bhut Jolokia – interspecific hybrid (mostly C. chinense with some C. frutescens genes)

Low – Medium Heats (6,000 – 100,000 SHU)
Marbles – Capsicum annuum
Black Pearl – Capsicum annuum
Jalapeno – Capsicum annuum

TOMATOES – Solanum lycopersicum
Roma
Brandywine
Yellow Pears
Green Zebra
Black Krim
Speckled Roman

Purple Tomatillos

Butternut Squash

GREENS
Rouge d’Hiver Lettuce –
Arugula –
Dwarf Blue Curled Kale – Brassica oleracea

HERBS
Purple Basil – Ocimum basilicum
Cilantro – Coriandrum sativum
Sage – Salvia officinalis
Oregano – Origanum vulgare
Thyme – Thymus vulgaris
Chamomile -Matricaria recutita
Chives
Catnip
Lemon Balm

Here are some recommendations that we have listed on the kit assembly guides page (http://www.windowfarms.org/kits-guides) that would be helpful for DIY folks.

1) Seat your tube. The base of the water tube needs to be about 1/2″ above the floor of the reservoir. You do not want the base of the water tube to be completely touching the bottom of the reservoir… doing so would not allow water to enter the tube!

2) Keep the water high – Keep the water level in your bottom reservoir high. As the water level drops in the bottom bottles, the pressure on the water column reduces. This situation increases the likelihood of air bubbles escaping from the base of the water tube instead of traveling up inside of it!

3) Adjust your pump – A proper air flow rate is critical to provide enough force to carry water up the water tubes. If the air flow rate is too low, the air flow will not be strong enough to overcome the weight of the water in the tube. In this case, and no water will travel up the tube and instead the bubbles will escape from the bottom of the water tube. To adjust the output rate of the air bubbles, use the knob on top of your pump. NOTE: There are factors that influence the required power setting of the pump, including the length of the airline tube running between the pump and the bottom bottle. Shorter lines are more efficient and will generally require a lower power setting. Avoid having significantly different lengths of airline running to the same pump.

4) Straighten your water tube – Maintaining a straight, vertical, plumb water tube is critical to efficient water flow up the tube. Use tape and/or the plant tape strips to straighten the tube.

5) Add a Tail of tube – Cut a 3″ length from the airline tube running to the pump. Attach the 3″ piece to the ‘free’ end of the black plastic T-valve at the base of the water tube. This will reduce the diameter of the entrance to the air tube, discouraging air from escaping through the end and bubbling back into the water.