Hello Fellow Window Farmers!
Finally, I am up and growing!! I had a few kinks to work out, but stuff is growing and I want to share my experiences so far with you,
I followed the instructions for setting up the window farms with the exception of the part that said to drop the net cup into the pot. I pushed the net cup down into the pot as far as it would go. When the farms were all set up, the water splashed all over the floor. After adjusting everything, I finally figured out that the net cups were down too low and the water was splashing out of the back. After taking the net cups out and just dropping them into the cups, very lightly, the splashing stopped. Now, there is no leaking on the floor at all.
LESSON LEARNED: Just drop the net cup in the pot as instructed. If it leaks, readjust it so that it is as close to the top of the pot as possible.
Next, I was afraid the farm columns would topple over and I didn’t want to buy the stand sold on the Window Farms store. I think they are too expensive. So, I decided to improvise. I like getting creative. I had a clothing rack in my guest room that wasn’t being used. It had a rack-type shelf on the bottom for holding shoes. I was able to find some brackets in my tool kit that I used to screw the window farms to the clothing rack. It worked just right and the rack has wheels on it so now I have a mobile window farm. This is a picture showing how I adapted the clothing rack to use as a mobile holder for the window farms. The glare is from the lights.
While waiting for the baby plants to come, I added some cucumber, cilantro, and basil seedlings that I had started. Then the baby plants came. What a big disappointment. First they were not baby plants as advertised in the Window Farms Store. They were tiny seedlings, too small to be shipped and too small to be planted in the window farm pots. Most of them did not even survive the shipping and the others got ruffed up in the shipping as they were poorly packed, in fact they were just thrown in a shipping bag. I was able to save a few and even as of today, three of the those had to be removed from the farm. The seedlings were so small that they could not be put in the net cups on a slant as the instructions said. I had to break off some of the planting medium that they came in so that they wouldn’t drown in the net cup and even then those that didn’t make it failed because they drowned after all. One of the lettuce seedlings had a gnat on it. They seedlings were so small that I could only identify the lettuce and basil (because of the smell) so I don’t know what I am growing other than those two (aside from the seedlings that I started from seeds.) I wrote to the Window Farms Store about this and they responded right away with some questions and requested pictures, and asked if I wanted a refund or more baby plants. I answered all of their questions and sent pictures because I thought my response would provide information so that they could improve the service. I asked for 3/4 of the cost of the plants since I was able to salvage a few. That was on January 17, 2014 and I haven’t gotten a response from them as of today, January 28, 2014. The first pic below shows one of the seedlings that I received that was in bad condition and the next one shows how the seedlings were too small to fit in the net cup properly.
LESSON LEARNED: Don’t buy the plants from the Window Farm Store. Start your own from seed. Let the seedlings grow until they are big enough to be placed in the pots properly. You wont get any gnats, you’ll know what you are growing, and you probably won’t drown your plants!
My window farms came in the middle of the Polar Vortex that we are experiencing in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Just ain’t much sun coming in my windows these days so I had to come up with another solution for light other than relying on the sun. I purchased some of the new Cree LED light bulbs from Home Depot. They are 75 watt equivalent and the daylight (not the soft whites) are 5000Kelvin. I hung them from hanging sockets between and in front of the columns. The light was too bright and disturbed me when I was watching TV and the gurgle of the hydroponic system was too loud, so I moved the hole farm operation into the basement. I love it there. That is where it will live. (It won’t be a window farm, its a basement farm!) Now, I became concerned about whether the Cree LED bulbs were providing enough light. I did some research and discovered the optimum color temp for an indoor garden is 6500Kelvin. Shucks!! I found a CFL bulb on Amazon that is supposed to be used for photography, but it was 6500 Kelvin and 65 watts at 200 watt equivalent and not too pricey ($22.00) given that it is supposed to last for 7 years. Boy did my plants perk up after two days of living under the CFL bulbs. I left the Cree bulbs in place although I don’t think they are needed. Can a plant have too much light as long as it is not too hot? The LED gives off no heat and the CFL just gives off a very little heat. I made a light screen to bounce the light back onto the plants. I just used some PVC pipes, and tee connectors (Cost of all was $8.00)and those silver mylar emergency blankets that are sold at Walmarts for $2.97. I brought two, one that i taped to the back wall and one for the screen that I put in front of the window farms. Its not pretty but that doesn’t matter, its out of sight in my basement and the plants love the light! The pics below represent my journey toward the light! The long light is the CFI and the round lights are the Cree LED bulbs.
LESSON LEARNED: When buying a supplemental light, get 6500 Kelvin, that is the ideal color temperature for the plants. Use some mylar emergency blankets to bounce lights back on your plants. Plants like light.
The water reservoir has a maximum and a minimum fill line. I marked the lines so I could see them with just a quick glance without having to get down on the floor to look. I made the max fill line black and the min fill line red. I can easily see where the nutrient is without having to get down on the floor since my reservoir sits a few inches off the floor. Getting the water in the little slot without wasting it was a trick at first, then I salvaged a teapot from the kitchen that had a nice long spout and worked well for getting the water right in the little slot without wasting it. I mixed enough nutrient to fill a gallon jug and adjusted the ph to 6.0 and use this when adding nutrient to the reservoir. I have found that the reservoir needs to be topped off every three days. I was concerned about the bacteria building up in the water in the reservoir since it was running across the roots and recycling. I added a natural enzyme product called Hygrozyme to the water that I was using to mix the nutrient solution. I also read that you can use hydrogen peroxide for this purpose. I don’t know how frequently I should change the nutrient solution in the reservoir (gotta check on that!)
LESSONS LEARNED: 1) mark the fill lines so you can easily see them if not a eye level; 2) use a teapot or something with a long spout to top off the nutrient reservoir; 3) adjust the ph level of the nutrient solution to 6.o; 4) consider using something so bacteria doesn’t build up in the net cups on in the reservoir.
Here’s some more pics that I took today so you can see how my operation is doing. I am jazzed up about this hydroponic growing thing. I purchased some more seeds and I am going to grow more green vegies — in my basement! Too bad the windows there are tiny!!
