In an effort to build a pump-free system, we put together a wicking system that can fit in a window. Yay no electricity! (At least until I add lights). We’re new to hydroponic gardening (pretty new to growing anything anywhere actually), so we’re making it up as we go, but this is what we’ve got…

Basically it is a couple of PVC pipes sealed at the ends, with a bunch of holes in them for the plants. You can kind of see on the top one that we cut a hole in the end and put in clear plastic so we can see the water level. There is a drain in each pipe which you can see is attached to piping making it easier to drain when its time to switch out the water. It will also make it easier to convert to some kind of flow system if this bombs. There is about an inch of standing water in the pipes. So far, only the top pipe has nutrients as those are already sprouted.

The materials cost about $70 without doing any shopping around (not including the stuff from the hydroponics store…nutrients and the grow medium). I’m pretty sure that’s cheaper than most everything else I’ve seen on here. Right now it will hold 17 plants. The top has 11 spots for things like herbs and greens and the bottom holds 6 for things that need more room, like peas. Adding up to 22 more should be easy…just waiting to see if it will work before I spring for the investment! We made sure to space them so that the holes line up with the one above, so if we need to go with a drip system later it will be an easy fix.

The seeds are sitting in yogurt cups with this stuff we got at the hydroponic store. No idea what it is. The guy who worked there said it would work and shouldn’t decompose and throw off my water. We found these silly Trix yogurts are actually a really great size and don’t have a glued on label, so I’m eating neon colored yogurt now. I put nylon rope into the material, cut a hole in the bottom of the cup, and the rope hangs into the water. The wicking works beautifully. The top of the spongy material stuff is always damp. Two weeks in and there’s some growth.

Arugula is shown. It took off after about a week even in my chilly sunroom (it rarely tops 60 degrees, low to mid 50′s are more normal.) I’m also seeing signs of life in the sugar snap peas I put in about 8 days ago, but pretty much just huge roots. They haven’t popped above the surface yet. Other things seem like they will need to wait for warmer weather (i.e. the basil, and the tomato).

SO, my question to you experienced folks is this: what to do about lights?? I want to stay very inexpensive because I don’t even know if this wicking business is going to work. Despite my south facing window, I know I need something because it IS January, and I DO live in Minnesota (our days are sunny and getting longer every day, but its still only about 9 hours of daylight). My boyfriend thinks we can do a string of LED Christmas lights and tuck them into a smaller PVC pipe cut in half and lined with foil. Thoughts? Ideas?

Did I miss something else that is going to make me fall on my face here?

First post! We (me, roommate, and boyfriend)  just started our “research and design phase” of this little project. Perhaps foolishly, we’re kind of running off track of the community. We want to use piping (PVC for lack of a better idea) to hold the water and plants. I see this isn’t a totally new idea to the community, BUT what we want to do is integrate wicks. We’re hoping that by using some standing water which the plants can use optionally, we can do away with a pump altogether and simply water it twice a day when we feed the dog and cat. If that worked it would be AWESOME to not use any energy at all (though this is MN, I suppose we’ll need lights in winter).

Here’s what we are thinking (eventually this would be 4 levels):

SO, here’s a few things we considered or haven’t decided yet:

1) Hopefully this will allow the plants to access the water settling in the area below the pot without growing crazy root systems. We can trim roots to avoid them growing into the water too much and blocking water. Haven’t decided if the bottom of the pots should be submerged at the highest water level.

2) We’re thinking that at each watering it will actually get watered twice. Once to flush the system and give em a good drink, and once to refill again (if needed) and leave enough standing water to get it through to next time.

3) We anticipate it will get a bit gunky on the corners. Since these are independent sections, that should make it easier to clean.

4) We have absolutely no idea how high we should leave the water. Suggestions?

5) For the wick, we’re thinking nylon rope.

6) PVC pipe seems to be the way to go, BUT I know there are some pretty substantial environmental concerns. Any other suggestions appreciated.

7) End caps. I understand the PVC caps of the size we need are expensive. Any other ideas to seal off the ends???

What exactly are we sacrificing by not having a semi-constant stream? Are we going to suffer for lack of aeration?

Any other questions/comments/suggestions would be welcome! We’re new at this and have no idea what in the world we’re doing!

The Mystery Planter, then. The upper part of a water bottle a new substrate to test (crushed-clay-pebbles-with-fancy-name) , four or five different seeds, and a wick.

Which, as it turns out, is made of the wrong material: a piece of coco mat whose ability to wick up water is zip. Lesson learned, felt’s next.

But at least the larger seeds I put in don’t seem to mind much, and because my WF is hanging in a brighter and warmer spot now, evaporation – something the coco is capable of supporting apparently – currently supplies enough moisture to keep them going. It remains to be seen whether their roots will reach far enough before they run out of puff.