Deep Water Culture

While WindowFarms are a very efficient use of vertical space (the reason for their explosive popularity), they are not the only method of growing plants hydroponically.  There are actually a very large variety of different systems, each of which has it's own benefits and difficulties.  I will not pretend to be any expert on all hydroponic systems, but there are a few that interest me, and I have experience with.  My favorite of the alternatives to a vertical drip system is called Deep Water Culture, or DWC for short.  It is my favorite because it has the simplest construction, and has some of the best results.  Essentially it is just a reservoir; you have to mount net pots to hang into the solution, and aerate the water substantially.  The aeration is necessary for root growth, which uses oxygen, and the more the better (it also has the benefit of preventing anaerobic bacterial growth).  My system is a two gallon bucket (unfortunately plastic, but I am working with what I have laying around, I plan to transfer to ceramic or glass once I have the means).  I have two of the five outlets from my airpump running large airstones that I do my best to keep submerged under the root system (I plan to weigh them down with gravel at some point).  The top is a makeshift lid in which I have cut a to rest the four inch net pot in.   Currently I only have one plant (red cabbage) in my DWC, but it is doing fantastic, definitely the best of all of my plants.
Some pictures:

Approx. twelve inches across, for reference.

 Look at those roots!

 Be careful of the airstones, they like to float, 

it is ideal to keep them under the root system.

I am currently thinking about a way to potentially have the plants float on top of the solution, so that the reservoir does not need to be refilled as often.  And I continually attempt to integrate a DWC system into the reservoir of a vertical drip system.  I hope to actually do this with my Tower Two, which is assembled to support such a system, but I am waiting until after I move the system to attempt it.  But in any alternative system, replacing the reservoir with a larger volume, that has space for at least one net pot, and introducing an airstone into it is a way to utilize the most out of your system.

Tower Two is Back!

With the recent holiday, I was finally able to do a little more work on mine and my parents' farms. Coming up in January I will be moving into an apartment, and reinstated this farm to bring with me, with the hope that it will be producing or at least established by move-in time. Because of this, I am going to be posting separate posts for the separate systems. The tower here is the one I will be taking, and is the inverted pyramid design (look back for a full view without plants). The major modifications that I have made to this to get it working again related to the pumping mechanism. I removed the cork from inside of the bottle, replaced the needle, and reconstructed it with the check valve outside of the bottle. I then inserted the cork int the mouth of the bottle, rather than from inside the bottle. The function of all of this was to get the pump to work more efficiently and consistently. Previously the water would stop pumping if the water level dropped minimally, due to the height of the needle within the bottle. The needle lowered 3-4", now it hardly needs any water to work. This is the same construction as Caroline's farm, pictured in the post below. I also unclogged the T junction at the top which had built up algae causing a pump malfunction. And I covered the top (clear) bottles with black fabric to block out sunlight, and prevent algae growth. And a new innovation I thought of when working on Caroline's farm that isn't pictured, but I added last minute was wrapping the holes on the drip ring with cotton fabric to prevent it from spraying off in every direction and causing water loss.

We had planted a boat load of seeds a couple of weeks ago, but unfortunately most of them didn't sprout! So I filled my farm with what did sprout, and we will be planting some more soon to fill out my parents farm.

Here are some pictures:

My two peas (in front), and two eggplant (in back).

The left bottle is full of hydroton, but no plants due to the upcoming move.

Purple basil

My three bush beans

My green basil plant.

A bunch of lanky lettuce seedings

The new neck set-up

Planter Changes

The last couple of weeks haven't been too great on my plants and consequently, a few of them have suffered. With the transfer back to a single system, I caused a little too much stress to some of my plants. The DWC strawberry suffered the worst, it never really established new roots after my multiple transplants, and it eventually developed spider mites. And then I caused even more stress trying to get rid of the mites, and now, well, it's spot has been filled with big cabbage from our garden that we decided wouldn't get to producing in time before winter. Also, we had a some issues with the needle on the pump clogging with sediment from the nutrients, so the plants had a few instances of dehydration, the tomato in all of it's colossal glory was hit hardest, browning at the extremities. And then I noticed last time I was home that it had acquired the mites from the strawberry, so extensively that we decided it best to remove it to save the younger, more fruitful plants, and my dad's soil tomatoes (I guess he will be winning our soil v. hydro tomato competition this time around, haha). And while the size and stability of the plants was impressive for the longest time, it did use an unnerving quantity of water, and being at the top of the tower, we were unable to have anything under it, for fear of drought. And the way I had contorted it to be supported it nearly blanketed the tower on all sides.

So, goodbye tomato, you were my first, and you put in a good run. But hey, on the plus side, your roots look really cool out of the bottle!

Along with the tomato, the basil has seen better days. After the most recent cropping, it isn't quite bouncing back like it had, being a little light choked from the tomato's dangling. So we are planning on removing that as well.

On the plus side, all three assorted peppers are doing good! The bell is ripe, albeit the fruit is a little small, but the plant is on the inner side of the tower, and the tomato was being a little fascist with the resources. And the jalapeños are hanging in there, they got some slight spider mites, but they are small enough we could fix it. They are flowering like it's their job though, and now that the sun has sank on the horizon, they will hopefully get the light they deserve and produce some full fruit (they were starting to fruit when I was there).

In other news, I have brought the other farm back into serviceable condition (the needle had clogged with sediment, so I replaced it with a fresh one)! And will be getting it going soon. We have seedlings popping up every day now, a wide assortment of things, including replacement basil (green and purple), lettuce, peas, green beans, eggplant, and even watermelon! I had planned on setting the farm up in my dorm room, but realize that that would just be a lot of work for no good reason, because my window gets iffy light for a couple hours in the morning right now. So I am establishing the farm at home over the next couple months, and will be bringing it with me to my new apartment in January. I will finally have a kitchen to cook and minimal time to work due to my full time student teaching, so I will be supplementing mine and my roommates grocery list with some fresh, all organic, really local veggies.

Also, in the next week or so I will be helping my friend (whom exposed me to the WindowFarms Project through a youtube video she had StumbledUpon) get a farm going in her apartment! We assembled the system weeks ago, same construction as the farm from the "My Newest WindowFarm" post. Modification is primarily that the needle is inserted from the mouth of the bottle rather than how I did it initially, so there won't be pumping issues. Otherwise it is the same. We had the bottles pre-cut, some left over from my prior incarnations, we chose nine of the twelve to use. From sanding edges smooth to hanging the system, the whole process took approximately 4-5 hours with two sets of hands. Due to school distractions and workload, as well as being in the city in the winter, it took a little bit of time for her to find seeds and then germination took an awkwardly long time to happen, but as of seeing her last they had started popping up and as soon as I have more than five minutes free outside of work, class, and projects I am going to help them get the seedlings into the system. I made her a collaborator on this blog too, so hopefully once the whole thing is established she will add some posts of her escapades.

So keep posted, between the changes in the farm I built for my parents, the reincarnation of my farm, the development of my friend's farm, and some ideas that have been jostling around my noggin during this month of work overload, there will be some more busyness for all of you wonderful readers out there to put on your palette in the coming weeks.

And please, if you guys have any input at all, comments, critiques, suggestions, requests, anything at all, do not hesitate to comment on the posts. The biggest innovations always come from multiple points of view, and my farm has only become what it is because of my friends' and family's idea bouncing, and the wonderful information and discussions on our.windowfarms.org. So, any input will be thoroughly taken to heart.

Namaste, and Keep Farmin'

Copper Lift Tube

This is an aspect that I never even mentioned because it is really quite easy, but I figure some people may hear copper and think that you need special tools. You don't though, just a hacksaw, or tube cutter. As far as straightening, you only need your hands:



It is really that easy, take it a little slower if you have never handled copper tube before, and be gentle so as to not kink, but it isn't any ordeal.