Updates

Here are some recent pictures of the plants, they are doing great! There is still some stretching, particularly with the plants on top and in back, where (right now) they don't get direct light for very long. And my original, tomato and bell pepper plants have flowers! They should go to fruit soon, if they haven't already. Also, I got a new pump, and now have the reservoirs ready for DWC. And my brother suggested filling a whole bottle rather than just the basket, with hydroton pebbles. And I figure that it will hold more moisture and block sunlight some, so why not try it. I put a small 3" basket upside down in the bottom of the bottle to keep the pebbles from going out the neck, and plan on planting something in there soon.

Pictures:

One Week Later

After getting the first system (on the right in the pictures) successfully pumping, I immediately started modifying and adding to the older system (on the left). It initially was three tiers of modules, the top being corked with a very slow drip through a drilled hole. So with nine bottles I only had a six plant capacity, and the plants nearly died every day from lack of water, in the summer heat. I had previously transfer the plants into the new pumping system, so I took down the old module to add to it. The first thing I noticed was that the top module (likely my first attempt at tying one) was nearly falling apart, and worse than that it seemed like the weight of the entire system was hinging on a single point a bottle that was starting to crack. So I disassembled and reassembled that module, cleaning the two intact bottles and adding a third, matching bottle to replace the cracked one. Then after checking and making sure the other two were fine, I moved to the extra rope that I had left on the bottom when I initially made the tower. I first added a beer bottle module that I had tied earlier in the day, then the final large sized bottle at the bottom for the reservoir. I plugged the neck from the inside with a cork that I had run the check valve/ needle through (same as the first system), and ran the airline tubing out the mouth of the bottle.

After some modifications to the coat rack that I have recycled as a mounting system for my farms, I hung each system on opposing sides (in retrospect, I probably should have oriented them on adjacent sides of the hexagonal pole so that they would both be angled toward the window). Using the remainder of the copper tubing, I assembled the old tower's pumping system (more-or-less the same as the first system), and attached it to a home-made drip ring.

After a week of them both working, the plants are thriving in the new far-more-moist environment. The tomato and pepper are both flowering, the lettuce has 4x in size, the mint is growing wonderfully, and newly transplanted broccoli, jalapeños, and strawberries are all establishing themselves wonderfully. I still have many open cups to fill, and need to get a four outlet air pump so I can get the DWC system to work in each reservoir.

Oh, and pardon the foil, I was worried about too much water evaporating in the sun and consequently raising nutrient levels too high.

Moment.of.Zen.

Ahh, finally I have a fully functional system after months of thinking, planning, building, tinkering, more thinking, and more building. I finally decided it was time to concede to my attempts to make an electric free system (for now at least). And for the first time since I first started planning this I looked to the windowfarm site for some ideas on pumping the water, without having to double the size of the whole assembly. The windowfarm team's latest version is very slick, with only an inline air tube running into the bottom bottle, which acts as a reservoir, sans flora. So in my attempts to be as efficient as possible, and the convenient assembly of my most recent farm, I decided it would be very possible to use the single large wine jug at the bottom as a universal reservoir. Using a similar (conceptually the same) method of pumping. I bought my aquarium supplies from walmart, who sells a check valve that fit conveniently into a cork that I had drilled the center out of. I ran a tube into the cork that connects to the check valve, with an inflation needle attached to the submerged end. I sealed the cork around the inline air tubing with hot glue. I then ran 1/4 in. copper tubing from the reservoir to the top module, which is then (a minimal conceit to organicism, as well) connected to some inline tubing that I fashioned a drip ring out of (with one hole over each of the top bottles). When I first turned it on, immediately I wanted to drop in some strawberries, but quickly realized that the water was spraying pretty much everywhere except the bottles they were aimed at. So me and my family started thinking how to guide the water, and decided that tube gauze would work; something like a conical sock that slips over the mouth of the bottle, guiding the nutrient solution wherever it is guided. The problem was, tube gauze didnt exist, at least not where I looked. So I made some with gauze, needle, and thread. It was a pain, but they work great, and mindless work is always like meditation for me, especially when it was the last step before a working pump system.

And so I eventually finished the little bottle-socks. And turned the system on again, and it worked wonderfully.

Along my attempts to be as efficient as possible, I am not using the bottom bottle for reservoir alone. I have threaded the tubing through a 4 in. net pot and inserted an air stone into the bottle in order to have an efficient DWC (Deep Water Culture) system, as well as perpetually stir and aerate the solution, for healthier roots and more consistent feeding.

Overall, it is a ten plant system, in ten bottles, supported by two airlines (one pump), all hanging from a single planter hook. Whole system dry weighs approx. 10 lbs. And aside from the drip ring and net pots, it is all organic.

Some pictures:

A video: