For my windowarm project at school, I wanted to avoid spray painting the plastic bottles. But  sewing some covers wasn’t an alternative option, my students having motor skill deficiencies.

An old black sock that I was about to throw away did the trick. I cut it in two, removing the heel part, and put both remaining parts one over the other to make the room darker for the roots.

A co-worker and I set up a system at work at my cubicle. We used 1.5 liter plastic Coca-Cola bottles. They were first wrapped with black electrical tape and then aluminum ducting tape to keep the light from the roots.

As far as the air lift system, I purchased a $6 air pump from Walmart. The  air line setup that we came up with does not need any special parts or fittings other than a “T” and a valve.

All of these items I had lying around and so far have only spent $6! I will update later on the progress and what else we used/added.

Our other co-workers have stopped by to look at our setup and have wondered what it is. We’ll keep them guessing.

Video of setup

we didn’t have paint and tape on hand, but we have a lot of beautiful fabric to protect the roots!

It occurred to me the other day that terracotta pots would be a good container for a window farm for the following reasons:

1. They already have a wide top opening and a center hole in the bottom.
2. Terracotta is a tough material that won’t degrade when exposed to sunlight or water.
3. They are opaque which will discourage algae growth.

The disadvantages are:

1. They are heavy, unless you use plastic flower pots.
2. They reduce the amount of recycled material used in construction.
3. Terracotta can chip, crack, or break, which would cause leaks.

Hi Folks,

Ryan here, new in Window Farmer town.

This community caught my eye because I am a beginner urban gardener and also a consumer of a large amount of these type of containers:

http://www.fnnfoods.com/images/sg_NutriSoy.jpg

It is my intention to attempt to build a window garden to keep them out of landfill as the place where I’m living at the moment doesn’t have a recycling program for them.  I suggest that they might be an improved container for the Window Farmer system as they would not require seperate root covering. The downside is they are not as pretty and minimalist looking as clear water bottles!

Hope everyone is having success with their projects, and I look forward to sharing knowledge with you all.

RyanNutri Soy containers

Marielle says of this spiraling root cover design she and her Terrefarm classmates implemented in their windowfarm at Terreform One in Brooklyn: “we ended up using strips of canvas wrapped and twisted around the bottles to create the root coverings so each row of plants requires only one continuous strip.“

Here is a sneak peak of the Window Farmer’s Preparation for the Benefit and Mixer at Eyebeam.

You’ll see that we have approximately 75 water bottles drying after being painted to cover the roots of the plants.

The installation will be approximately 15′ x 15′ and will hang in the large gallery window.

Enjoy!

The person in the image working on the water bottles is Julius — a pioneer!

To see more images check out our Flickr

Root covers are still an issue. We are big fans of Ian’s silver balloons but so far (you can see one in our Window Gallery installation at Eyebeam in the photo below) , it takes a lot of work to get the 24″ers on the bottles. We are going to order some of the balloons that are the next size up, 36″ specialty latex balloons. 
Any other elegant root cover ideas for the 1.5 liter ecoshape water bottles?

Here are some root cover ideas for the 1.5 liter water bottles – paper shapes and silver balloons. The paper shapes could be cut out of any material.