I sprouted about a dozen plants in my two-column kit using grow plugs and placed them in the kit pots with the clay pellets.  Over the next month, all the seedlings have stopped growing and/or started to wilt and die.  At first I thought I was over-watering, so I changed the pump timer to reduce watering from 15 minutes per hour to 15 minutes every 2 hours.  That didn’t seem to help.  Otherwise, I followed Windowfarm instructions: placed seedlings in the system when they were about 2 inches high and added liquid plant food to the water in the reservoirs in the proportion in the food’s guidelines.  I planted tomatoes, zucchini, sweet peppers, parsley, and basil.  My window is a french door to my apartment balcony.  It faces S/SE and gets about 2-3 hours of direct sun per day.

Here are the possible problems–I’m hoping that between this list and my pictures, experienced windowfarmers can help me out:

-wrong crops: I chose crops that need more direct sun than they get through my window

-over/under watering: pump currently operating for 15 minutes every 2 hours.

-cold: I sometimes leave the door next to my growing window open to get frech air in my apartment, as it’s been a warm autumn so far.  I would estimate temperatures of no lower than 55 F

-mold: I observed mold growing on the surface of one of the grow plugs in the kit

Thanks for the help!  Photos of troubled zucchini, tomato, and basil seedlings (left to right) below:

This weekend I built two new columns to my windowfarm.

Unfortunately, I cut my left hand during the process. I’m not so clumsy, I’m something worse, a little lazy and impatient. Instead of taking it easy, do things slowly and getting good tools, I take what I have at home and then it might go like this (It is much deeper than it looks.) Be careful and use good tools.

A small update to my previous system is that I have found net pots that fit into my bottles. Or they fit once I cut away a bit. The seeds I planted less than a week ago has already begun to sprout. So it is high time to get the new columns ready.

Start to new seedlings and the school greenhouse!

This is what I have so far. I started from seed. They are sprouting well, except the cilantro which hasn’t yet. I just added the correct amount of nutrients to the reservoir for a gallon tank(this is after first week of constant water circulation). What do I do now? Do I keep the pump on? Should I look at a PH guide for these specific veggies? Even get a meter? I’m a newb. HELP! My windowfarm update 1.1.11

I’m new to Windowfarming and hydroponic gardening, but am falling fast, having been an outdoor organic fruit and herb and vegetable home gardener for years, but one who is now reading seed and gardening supply catalogs with Windowfarming also in mind.

One item I’ve noticed in a catalog that’s just turned up is a new hydroponic seed-starting reservoir system specifically designed for home gardeners, called “All-Roots Seed-Starting System” from Gardens Alive.

(Gardens Alive is a reputable organic supply company that I’ve used for over 20 years. I’ve no connection, I’m a home-gardener and just a long-time customer of their organic fertilizers and sticky traps and the like)

I’m wondering if anyone has tried this hydroponic reservoir system to start seeds, or, even better, devised his own version of it at home.

http://www.gardensalive.com/product.asp?pn=3684

The link is well-illustrated, which is my main reason for posting it, because the price isn’t as attractive – but it may give Windowfarmers ideas about how to make their own systems, without buying the kit at all.

If some Windowfarmers are already using this “All-Roots”reservoir system, or have built a comparable one of their own, it would be great to read about it.  (I’m wondering, from my own experience using a reservoir system to start non-hydroponic transplants – more info below – whether, if you did buy the kit, that instead of ordering refill plugs, you could simply pack the cells with loose potting medium that comes in bags.)

The reservoir system that I did use for years, called APS, was truly foolproof for healthy seed-starting, and it may be another system of interest to Windowfarmers, because you would simply need to use a hydroponic growing medium instead of a peat or soil based one.

http://www.gardeners.com/APS/APS_Cat,default,sc.html (again, no relation except as customer, and, also again, my main reason for posting is as an example of ways to suggest ideas for devising your own)

Using this system, and versions I made up, based on it, I raised thousands of very healthy, strong-rooted, seedlings under lights in my dirt basement and root cellar (think: jerry-rigged shop lights, timers, flourescent bulbs from the hardware store. You do not need expensive full-spectrum bulbs for raising seedlings, or even plants that aren’t going to flower or fruit.  And still some of my lathyrus odorata – sweet peas – did begin to flower under the cheaper lights. But this was a mistake of timing.  You don’t want seedlings to reach fruiting or flowering stage before transplant.  The goal is to keep the top green growth relatively short and stocky, and have most of the development going on in the root system. This is achieved by keeping your light source low, about 3-4″ above the growing tips of the plants, adjusting upwards as they get taller. )

The links for the APS seed-starting system on the Gardeners Supply website include some good illustrations of how the system works, and I think Windowfarmers could come up with their own home-made versions, if they haven’t already, by looking at it.

(In my instance, years ago when I was first learning,  I did buy some of the actual kits. They cost half as much at that time, and even less if you bought 3.  But once I saw how they worked – and how well they worked – I improvised my own versions, using various household items and recyclables, and only having to buy the capillary matting – link below.

So, if you’d like to investigate making your own reservoir system, this is the page you want.  It’s the page for APS replacement parts:  http://www.gardeners.com/APS-Parts/APS_Cat,11802,default,cp.html#

Below the main illustration, there are two smaller ones.  Click on the one on the right and you’ll see “How the APS System Works.”   It shows the individual components and how they fit together.  (I’d be happy to explain more in further posts)

Now, here’s the link on their site for a roll of capillary matting (which in the diagram has been cut to fit their plant tray) It’s $14.95 for 3 yards. You may be able to find it for less.

http://www.gardeners.com/Capillary-Matting/33-994,default,pd.html

Capillary matting was the only part of the system I had to buy, when I started making up my own version of the system.

I’d be glad to get more specific about this, but as this post is already so long, I’ll stop here, because some Windowfarmers may want to order a kit, or look at the links and invent their own versions, and I can offer more suggestions in a subsequent post.

Of course, there are now many variants of these “self-watering” reservoir systems, long windowsill trays as well as pots with wicks, that can save your seeds and seedlings from dying of thirst or by drowning – and perhaps free you as they did me from the sorry graveyard of dried up paper towels and dusty peat balls and green shoots that weren’t plants but colonies of mold at my house, when I first got started.

But there is an added virtue with using these reservoir systems that have individualized plant cells – at least there was for me, especially as a beginner with seedlings, in that you not only end up with evenly, consistently watered transplants, but with plants that have a very compact and easily handled and transplanted rootball.

This means you end up not only with very sturdy healthy seedlings, but with ones that will suffer less root disturbance, and the break-up of the potting medium in your hands, causing more root disturbance or breakage, as can often happen when “pricking out” seedlings from a flat or large pot.

(That said, small bathrom-dispenser sized wax paper cups, filled with potting medium and set on a reservoir system, can be a reasonable compromise between planting in large flats or small cells)

(Note: if you are thinking about buying one of these kits, it seems to me that growing cubes like Root Riot or Root Cubes would fit into the APS cells; or you could use a loose hydroponic growing medium that comes in bags to fill them.

The APS systems do not come with growing medium, and are designed for loose mixes. But by the time your seedlings are ready to be popped out of the cell for transplanting,  they’ve developed a very compact root ball that ends up virtually a solid “plug” that holds together for transplanting (if dampened before removing). This seems to be a reliable virtue of the way plants develop with these systems.

As for the “All-Roots” hydroponic system, I’m guessing that you could use a bagged potting medium instead of buying more “refill plugs” to start a second batch of seedlings.)

Well, I hope some of these suggestions from a dirt-gardener end up sparking better ones from Windowfarmers who are already experienced with seed-starting for their hydroponic systems.

I’d love to learn what others are already doing.

Donna MB

You can grow edible plants with 100 or 150 watt CFL bulbs. Even fruiting plants. I have done it successfully in several windowfarm systems. You must use CFLs with the proper color spectrum. The “daylight” bulbs you get at Home Depot in the blue package work. Arrange your plants so they are no more than a few inches from the light. You will need to move them frequently or they will grow into the light and singe themselves. I highly recommend putting them in a window so they are also getting at least some indirect natural light because I highly doubt that these CFLs really provide the complete spectrum of light that plants need. You can put them on a timer so that they are only on a few hours during the day to supplement natural light. This keeps them from blinding you at night.

Until plants reach the adult phase, they require more light. I generally supplemented seedlings light for 18 hours per day. Then, once they reached maturity, I decreased to 12 hours.