Window farms - mini hydroponics in your window

[Edwardo]

I would like to introduce to those of you who have not come across it the concept of window-farms.

This is a way for people without gardens, who live in flats or even for offices, museums and art galleries to grow food as a supplement to heir needs.



Window-farms are very simple home made mini-hydroponic systems, they are made with recycled water or soft drink bottles and hang in a domestic window providing fresh herbs and cut-and-come greens.

Many people all over the world have caught on to this idea and are all busy developing variants and improvements on it.

My take on it has been to try to use plastic milk cartons (365 of which would go to land fill sites)



Britta Riley in New York has developed a system which is explained with building instructions and videos together with a support forum for fellow builders across the world.

http://www.windowfarms.org/
http://our.windowfarms.org/

They operate a not for profit organisation to promote home growing and are trying to get funding from Pepsi-Cola.

It's a simple and cheap (in my case my 9 planter unit cost me £12 but it is going to continue to grow until it has over 70 grow points for little extra cost)
an air pump (1.5Watts) provides automatic watering so the thing is fairly low maintenance.

I recommend having a look, do you have any suggestions how to improve on the techniques?

[alan refail]

Hi Edwardo and welcome to the forum.

I have been puzzling about your post this morning, wondering what my feelings are about it.

Having looked at your links, I can only say that I find the system impossibly complex (not to say unrealistic). A far better way for people without garden space (not many of this forum's members I reckon) to grow small amounts of salad leaves, herbs etc is to fill a seed tray or pot with compost and sow some seeds, keep it watered and fed and eat the results.

Sorry to sound cynical.

[Edwardo]

"I find the system impossibly complex (not to say unrealistic). A far better way for people without garden space (not many of this forum's members I reckon) to grow small amounts of salad leaves, herbs etc is to fill a seed tray or pot with compost and sow some seeds, keep it watered and fed and eat the results"

Good afternoon Alan,

Thank you for your comments, I am surprised that you consider the system impossibly complex, there is now an active membership of nearly 10,000 constructors all over the world on the windowfarms website in the process of building window-farms.

Many of these people are young people with no particular gardening or DIY skills but they all seem to be managing to build their systems.

The project is less than a year old so we are to some extent all learning together the simplest and most productive way to make this work.

I realise that to a keen gardener with a garden and greenhouse there may be little incentive to put together one of these, but not everyone has a garden or much in the way of horticultural skill.

Many people here will have a son or daughter in a small flat, or know younger children who might find growing stuff indoors with recycled waste an exciting project.

I have some experience with Hydroponics and Aeroponics and would say that the advantage for me of windowfarms over a window-box or indoor plantpot are as follows:

1. Low maintenance - the system waters and feeds itself - those of us who are away from the house a lot don't have to worry about watering and feeding.

2. No soil - my personal bug-bear with indoor plants are those minute flies that lay their eggs in the soil and then are forever hatching out - soil-less growing makes it very difficult for most pests.

3. Rapid growth - hydroponic plant growth can be very fast.

4. Pre-formulated nutrients - optimum pH, optimum nutrients - no other variables to consider.

5.The way I run mine allows me to germinate and grow without replanting.

6. It looks good... a bit like a slow aquarium.

7. It's fun.... and my children are fascinated by the bubbles and gurgles...

[Colin_M]

I looked at the first picture posted above and it got me thinking.

My dad always used to grow chilli peppers on his windowsill at work. This was in the 1970's and frowned upon at the time, but because Dad was from the West Indies originally, I think his boss decided not to make a fuss about it!

Seeing that arrangement of bottles hanging down made me wonder if a similar arrangement could be used to do away with the need for blinds in our office . I have the blinds drawn on the window next to me because of the glare I'd otherwise get on my screen from the sun. However I've also got some chillies and ginger plants growing there so maybe there's an opportunity here......

[alan refail]

Good afternoon Alan,
Thank you for your comments, I am surprised that you consider the system impossibly complex

I'm not sure how else you could describe it. I have been through the instructions
http://www.windowfarms.org/howto/WF-HOWTO-10-sm.pdf
And I wonder whether it would be worth it for a small amount of produce.

Unlike you, I have no experience of hydroponics, but I have always been led to believe that, though growth is fast, taste is lacking.

[Edwardo]

I'm not sure how else you could describe it. I have been through the instructions
And I wonder whether it would be worth it for a small amount of produce.

Unlike you, I have no experience of hydroponics, but I have always been led to believe that, though growth is fast, taste is lacking.

Hello again Alan,

The point is not to be commercially viable, but to be a bit of a hobby and be a useful and handy source of greens and herbs, it took me less than 2 hours to construct a 4 plant column.

Another point is that although it is not such an issue in the UK yet, water conservation is an issue in some countries – this system recirculates its water – one litre will last my windowfarm weeks.

As you say - you do not have personal experience of eating hydroponic "home grow" - the flavour and quality is as good as any I have tasted.

The suggestion of lacking taste I believe comes from the experience of commercially grown hydroponic food (a good percentage of shop tomatoes and cucumbers these days) where the food is aggressively forced to grow as fast and as fat as possible on the minimum spectrum of nutrients (cheapest) and the maximum content of water (more weight) - I agree with you on that one - I don't buy shop tomatoes any more - they don't taste of anything...

Home grown hydroponics get treated to an optimal pre-formulated full nutrient mix which has things like trace elements in it not just the "bulking" fertilisers.

There is nothing nutritious in compost and soil which is not present in the nutrient, in fact the opposite is true, and if an organic nutrient is used then the contents have actually been made from a "compost tea".

There are no magic ingredients in soil - the big issue about taste is freshness I believe, a carrot just dug up and cooked tastes so much better than one that's' been sitting in storage/shelf for days...

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Edwardo, although i woudn't use this system because i have a fair amount of land for growing vegetables, i do find it very interesting and i like your passion for the product.