It has been awhile and I have been busy outside, but I did something interesting with my strawberries.  One of them put out a runner so I planted it.  I actually had runners last summer, but just cut them off at the time.  The original strawberries are getting old and I will replace one of them in the WF with this baby.  The three on the right have all been in the window farm for a year and a half.  The one on the left is the baby and the other three started off just like it and 1.5 years ago.   As you can see the crowns have really grown tall and have divided a number of times.

After deciding to plant it, my jalepenos and strawberries had to get cozy for a couple of weeks.  The runner was only about 18 inches long so they had to be really close.  I have a jalepeno growing in a three plant WF and the top two positions are empty so I planted it in a net pot in the middle position and waited for the roots to take hold.  I held it in place in the net pot with a paper clip.   So a few weeks later, we cut the cord on the new baby.

http://our.windowfarms.org/2011/07/23/jalapeno-spider-mites/

Baby Strawberry

http://our.windowfarms.org/2011/02/13/strawberries-11-monthes-still-flowering/

Well, it’s getting pretty close to a full year of my strawberries in my first WF and they are fruiting once again.   In my last strawberry update back in December I show the last red berry of that cycle.  The time line is something like this.  12/4/10 last berry picked.  1/16/11 Plants starting to flower again.  2/7/11 Fruit starting to turn red.  2/13/11 Pick and eat.  In general, they flower every 3 months or so.  This has been with a south window and no extra lighting and feeding with a blooming diet.

In the last cycle, I did not do any hand pollination and just had a fan blowing near them.  This produced some odd looking berries.  This time around I hand pollinated all the flowers with a q-tip and the berries are shaping up much better.

Strawberries Getting Ripe

 This picture is about a month ago, but it is a good shot of the crowns.  They now look nothing like the original crowns that I planted.  Take a look at my first link below.  They are slowly growing out of the net pots. 

Strawberry Crowns Out Of WF

Strawberry History

http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/03/18/transplanted-strawberries/

http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/04/05/strawberry-update/

http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/04/10/dark-strawberry-leaf-tips/

http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/04/21/strawberry-update-day38-first-fruit-eaten/

http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/08/01/strawberry-5-month-update-spidermites-other-bugs/

http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/12/04/strawberries-9-months-new-wf-first-snow-of-the-year/

I have been browsing many a seed catalogue, and I am sure that I’m going to buy a bajillion different kinds of seeds. Just to grow one plant of each variety… so…

Let’s swap seeds!!!

Is anyone else interested?

Here we are at the first snow the year and my strawberry Window Farm is still going.  The three strawberries in my original WF on the left are 9 months old.  To the right is a new window farm.  The resevoir on this is a recycled cat litter jug and holds about 2 gallons.  The peas on the bottom are 32 days old and the bib lettuce in the middle are 26 days old.  Nothing is on the top yet.

First Snow of 2010

 It’s interesting that during the summer, the gallon resevoir on the strawberries needed to be topped off ever few days.  In the course of a week I would use about an extra gallon of water to top it off.  Now with the change of season and less light, during the week only a pint is needed to keep it topped off.  I have no supplemental lighting yet.

With the new WF I went and bought a Petco 9904 air pump that has the 4 outlets so I can supply air to both units.  In the second WF I am using a variation on my original Tee air pump design.  The difference in this one is the 5″ of hose that is coming out of the bottom.  It is hard to see, but this short extension also has smaller hose shoved in it.  You can see the plumbers tape in the hose that is holding it in place.  With this restriction, I seem to get better nutrient flow up the hose and less air bubbling back through the bottom.   The Petco pump has a variable output and I get plenty of flow with it set to its minimum.

Variation on Tee Air Pump

Happy window farming!

Finally sufficiently done with our aquaponic windowfarm to post a youtube tour of our set-up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zq7T6QNrc4

It’s taken a bit of investment to get to this point, but I think I could pull one of these together for $40 (a bit more because of the fish aspect), and last weekend we gave one of these as a birthday gift to one of my pre-teen’s friends.

I’ve got two kids with good windows for this, so will post another video when I get the second windowfarm up and running.

Innovations:

1. Used an alternative method to perform the airlift, based on a post I saw here – my lift uses the ball inflation needles to inject water into the air hose instead of the other way around.
2. I use the “silencer” at the top of the drip line to support the weight of the assembly. It serves a decorative purpose (finial) and makes it crazy easy to support the whole assembly from a single near-vertical nail in the window casing. I don’t need to use any other supports given the exact 1″ hole I was able to drill into the bottom of each bottle.
3. I used double-sided velcro strips to fasten the tubing going up.
4. I used a 1/4″ OD tubing (short length, angle cut on exit) to control the drip. Don’t actually know if that’s a great idea, but I didn’t want the water splashing the windows and some plants supposedly don’t like getting watered “directly.”
5. I just use 1/4″ OD tubing from the lowest bottle to guide the return water back to the fish tank.
6. I use one of the variable control air splitters to ensure both the air lift and the air stone get enough air pressure.
7. I used a hole punch to round the corners of each “grow hole,” of which I cut 2 in each bottle. The “square” holes allowed me to get a jig into the bottles for a nice drilling support, so getting the 1″ holes drilled in the bottom of the bottles was a breeze.

We’ll see in a few weeks whether some of these “innovations” were really dumb ideas…

Here we are at 5 months since building my window farm and want to give a general update.   Strawberries are growing well and have been flowering and fruiting.   The plants are growing in rockwell cubes and lately I have the airpump timer running three times a day for about 3hours at a time.  The rockwool holds alot of moisture.  I have a small fan that runs when the airpump runs to help with pollination.  I had tried hand pollinating for awhile, but I do not want to spend the time.

This last month (July)  I have been having bug problems and want to get peoples opinions on how to solve them. The first I believe are spidermites. I can see the little white bugs and the little webs on the leaves. All I have been doing to control them is to take the plants outside and hose the leaves and roots off. However, a few weeks later they are back.

The second are little white larvae like bugs (1-2 mm long) that I see floating in the resevoir and have seen them on the roots. The photo below shows them and am not sure if they are related to the mites. They apeared around the same time, but I think they are unrelated. Maybe they are coming in with the rain water I am using.  I clean and refill the resevoir once a week and they still show up.

In one of the bottles, I had made a simple net cup out of a yogart cup with holes drilled in it. I think the cup is too small for the strawberries. The roots have grown out of the cup and circle in the bottle cap below.

In the other two bottles, I have regular net cups which are much larger than the yogart cup and the roots have never ventured beyond the cup itself.

This is a summary of our build and experience so far.

Our window frame measures 75” x 31” so we thought two columns with five rows (ten containers total) would work well. We decided to use the recommended 1.5 liter water bottles for the containers, but instead of cutting one outlet per bottle, we decided to cut two on opposite sides and have two plants in each container. Each column is attached to a single wire cable that hangs from its own plant hook, loops through the bottom container, and back up. Wood dowels are inserted through each bottle (except bottom bottle) and alligator clamps hot glued to the wood dowels attach to the wire cable. Duct tape covers the bottom of the bottles to prevent the roots from drying out and minimize algae and mold growth. Rather than filling the net pots with clay pellets and then inserting the pot into the bottle, we eliminated the net cups, filled each bottle with the clay pellets, and the plants go directly into the bottles.

After reading about other farms, we first decided to go with the upper and lower reservoir system utilizing a water pump. After getting our supplies, the next step was to set up the watering system. We soon realized that to pump water over six feet vertically was going to require a heavy duty and more expensive water pump. We returned to Home Depot to purchase a fountain pump capable of 400GPH at 1’ lift, with a maximum lift of 7.3’ at $40.00. We then realized that due to the size of the pump, it would have to sit outside of our bottom reservoir, meaning we were going to have to consider the sealing aspect of our system to prevent water leakage. Our other thoughts about the water pump were the noise of the pump, the power usage, and fear of running the pump dry, which would mean we would have to go to a clear bottom reservoir to know when the water level was getting low to shut the pump off. With all of this adding up, we decided to ditch the water pump system, and move to the air pump system.

We purchased a Top Fin Air Pump 4000 with two adjustable airflow outlets for use with up to 80 gallon aquariums. Without looking at any diagrams or suggestions for the air lift system, we started experimenting with different ways to get the system to work. After days and days of different setups, numerous trips to Home Depot and PetSmart purchasing and returning products, and frustration beyond belief, we finally broke down and read other posts on the setup. After reviewing the recommended airlift setup and combining what we had already learned, and a bit by accident, we came up with a new airlift setup that works incredibly well and reduces gurgling. See our diagram below. As others have mentioned, the depth of the water is the greatest factor in achieving lift. Our bottom reservoir is a glass cylinder measuring only 4” diameter, however, the container stands 13.5” tall. When this is filled to 9.5” the max lift we recorded was 5’ 4”. When filled full at 13.25” we achieve an 8’ 3” lift, though 7’ 3” appears to be the optimal level for this water depth. Also as others have stated, keeping the air lift tube as straight as possible, especially into the reservoir helps achieve better lift.

What is excellent about the air lift system (once working) over the water pump system is the reduced cost of the setup, simplistic design and setup eliminating the top reservoir and having to seal and water proof the system, virtually noise free (no loud water pump), not having to worry about running the pump dry and damaging the unit, and the reduced operational cost (water pump consumes 80.5Watts versus air pump at 3.5Watts). Not only this, but the water pump system also suggests using an air pump in addition to the water pump to aerate the water so it does not become stagnant and reduces mold/algae from standing water in the bottom reservoir.

Our Plants

We decided to grow strawberries in 8 of the 10 containers, and peas in the other 2.  Using clay pellets with no soil, we purchased organic plant nutrient (liquid form) that says it is designed for soil and soilless gardens. We mixed the recommended amount of nutrients to water and filled our reservoir. During the day we would leave the air pump running and the water/nutrient solution would trickle down through our plants, and turn the pump off at night. Everyday we added about ¾ cups water due to plant use and evaporation. After about 4 days our mixture had become clearer indicating a higher water base than nutrient. Though our peas are fine, the strawberries after about the fourth day began to show a little black on the ends of the leaves, and after six days, some of the leaves were yellowing. What is interesting is that the strawberries closer to the top of the window farm show little to no signs of the discoloration. This indicates that the problem might be from a lack of nutrients to the lower strawberries.

We found out several things and are currently correcting those to see if it makes any changes. First, although the nutrient mixture said it was for soilless systems, this apparently refers to mulch, and not hydroponics. It also contained only nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash, but no calcium or other minerals which we read can contribute to our problem. We have now switched over to a dedicated hydroponic nutrient formula containing calcium. We have also been told that consistent watering and then drying out can be harmful to the plants. We purchased a timer that turns the pump on 15 minutes of every hour during light, and 15 minutes every two hours when dark. We also purchased a pH tester, although we might also purchase a tester for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash.

Below is a table of our materials and costs.  This is an approximate estimate and you will see it is a bit more than the $30 mentioned on the window farm web site:)

This list only shows what we are currently using. It does not take into account extra tubing, needles, miscellaneous aquarium supplies, and the first nutrient solution, as these were items we tried but did not end up using. 

Structural and System Costs

Plant and Formula Costs

Total build cost = $165

Additional tools needed:

• Hot glue gun
• Drill with drill bits
• Exacto knife
• Scissors

Thanks for the fun adventure windowfarm.org

We will keep posting updates as our system grows!

Can any of you plant doctors diagnos this? 

Strawberry leaf w/Black tips

On just one of the plants a couple of the leaves have dark tips as I hope you can see in the picture.   I think they are some of the older leaves.  Is this a deficiency in a particular nutrient?  I hope it is not a disease as I did dug them up from the backyard.

I have been changing the solution every two weeks.  Today will be the third change so far with these plants.   If it is a deficiency maybe I chould change the solution sooner. 

I have been using a solution called David’s Grow from here http://www.altgarden.com/store/cart.php?m=product_list&c=40    The first solution I had used our tap water, but now that I have my rain barrel hooked back up I have used that water to top off the resevoir last week and this weeks water.

Strawberry with some leafs w/Black Tips

Here is the full plant.   The leaves in question are in the lower left corner.  As you can see it looks pretty health and has flowers and a couple of berries starting to grow which are still green in the bottom of the picture.

I hope the solution change will do the trick.  Any help or ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks

In my search for seeds and seedlings online (because nothing was available locally), I came across 2 companies that had excellent ratings and variety:

Burpee had the most robust and interesting varieties of herbs, vegetables and flowers; and I like the company’s storied history. Reasonably priced as well. They also deliver seedlings as well as seeds and sell excellent seed starting systems:

http://www.burpee.com/

Seeds of Change is an good certified organic option:

http://www.seedsofchange.com/