I think I’m going to be spamming you guys up with lots of questions in the near future.

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.

Hello, I’m starting my first WF. But i have already some questions

1- i used this “how to” movie to make my WindowFarm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8shuvMGIvc. I planted my seeds ( tomatos and strawberries) in my bootles with coco coir but i dont know if i should keep the water pump on all day during the seedling or just some minutes?

2- in this first stage (seedling) should i add some nutrients, or use only water?

3- When the sprouts appear should i change the coco coir to clay peebles? or can i leave my window farm with the coco coir?

4-how can i know how much water pump speed should i use?

For now it’s all

Need some help.

Thanks.

P.S. Sorry for my english

Plants, just like people, do best in life when they get a good start. Growing from seed can be a second level challenge. It’s a good idea to start your windowfarm by transplanting semi-mature plants started in soil pots to get the hang of growing hydroponically. Then, you can take on the next level challenge of growing good seedlings for your system while you have adult plants still occupying your bottles.

For questions about what seeds to grow, go here and see the selection of my personal favorites in the seed store.

1) Pretreat seeds to help germination rates

You can help your little seeds along with a few old farmer’s tricks that help the seedlings break through the seed casing.

For smaller seeds, before planting, soak them for a few minutes in a ten percent solution of hydrogen peroxide. This increased our germination rates by about 70%.

For larger seeds, like squash or nasturtium seeds, put them in a small box with a piece of sandpaper and shake! This roughs up the outside of the larger seeds.

Always plant at least 2-3 times the number of seedlings for the slots you have available in your windowfarm. There will be casualties!

You can plant more than one seed per growplug. but when they mature you will need to thin them down to one or max two plants per plug, depending on the plant type.

2) Plant the seed in the growplug at the depth specified on seed packet

Dip the growplug in water (no nutrients! too strong for seeds!) and then squeeze out so that it is like a moist sponge, but is not soaking.

If the seeds are very small and a shallow planting depth is called for, cut the growplug in half vertically. Growplugs are great except when they hold too much water. Smaller plant root systems should have less growplug.

For bigger seeds, which will usually have bigger roots, use the whole growplug.

3) Place in an enclosed container in a good light conditions

I like to use the clear plastic egg containers to start and then move them to a seed tray with a taller cover.

For at least the first 24-48 hours, place them in a dark space. Once you see germination (seedling popping up), then move them to a spot where they get really good light.  Ideally, use a mini T5 growlight placed as close as possible to the seedlings but not close enough to burn them (follow instructions on package). Keep it on for 18 hours a day (you can use your pump timer for this). They do need some darkness as this is the period when they develop their roots.

You can get even better results if you use a germination warming pad which makes sure the seedlings stay at the ideal temperature. We are looking for an environmentally responsible source for these pads for the windowfarms store.

Do not over water and do not let them dry out. Keep that moist sponge condition. Watch for signs of mould or smells of mildew. As they get bigger, remove the top periodically and put them in a breezy window so they develop stronger stems.

Watch for stretching, stems should not be disproportionately long in comparison to early leaves. If so, seedlings are not getting enough light and they are unlikely to do well as mature plants.

4) Transfer the strongest seedlings to the windowfarm

Once seedlings hit about 3″ or 8 cm tall and their roots have emerged from growplugs, you can transfer them to the windowfarm.

Place the growplug gently against one wall inside the net cup. Fill the rest of the cup with clay pellets. Place the cup in the bottle, making sure the seedling is facing out of the hole. It is very important that the little seedling’s stem and the majority of the growplug is not directly under the drip from the bottle above. This will keep the growplug too moist and the force of drips splashing on the little leaves and stems will be torturous. This is the exciting part of caring for your young plants, positioning them well within your window’s microclimate and your windowfarm’s particular configuration for the best possible growing conditions. Watch the seedlings. Continue to look for any signs of flies, aphids, fungus, mildew, or stretching stems. Catching these conditions early is key. If develop a problem, come back to the site and search for that topic or make a new post with a picture and ask for help.

You can try putting two growplugs in opposite ends of a single bottle if you have cut holes on both sides of your bottle. The community has not yet done enough reporting on this and we have had mixed results.

Hi I’m Mickey and I’m building a window farm for my senior project. My kit came with butter crunch lettuce, romaine lettuce, basil, and rosemary seeds. I’m looking for an effective and easy way to germinate them before I put them in my window farm. I can find the instructions for constructing the whole window farm system but can’t locate the instructions for germinating the seeds. I remember something about putting them in a mixture of water and hydrogen-peroxide, but I can’t recall for how long. Thank you for your help.

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