Fresholi | Melting Pot Café

Link: Window farming (http://www.windowfarms.org/)! 

Since the wabbits ate my crop last year this seems like the perfect thing for me. It will be an all year round thing with LED lights in the winter. Recycled bottles.

I have "adjusted" the idea to fit me (no electric pump) and have one column with three grow spots as a start.
Didn't have any sprouts ready besides Calendula so that had to do for first test. Will plant some seeds of tomatoes and herbs. Will also make another three columns when I know what I'm doing.  ;D

Pic 1. The whole column hanging in the window. One container bottle at top with a hole in the closure enough to drip every third second. Nutrient solution.
Pic 2. The calendula guinea pig. The plastic hanging in the middle is a home made tube leading the water.

Naughty wabbits!

That is such a good idea, and look at the space saved.

That's so ingenious..............naughty wabbits you say....   I'm afraid my two would have been the first to plunder your goodies...... :mwaha:

That is so cool!  :buttrf:

Day 2. It survived the night and has grown a little.  :hap3:

Best of this is that OH didn't freak out when I told him about it last night. He is in Stockholm working again. He suggested I go check if the bottles we threw away last week is still there (in plastic recycle container nearby) so I can make more columns. Yeeeaaah!

Very clever! It's so cool.

I'm puzzled by:

- What's wabbits? I only know rabbits!  ;D

- What you use in place of soil, they look like soap nuts...  :-\

They're called lecakulor in Swedish and google translates it to Leca balls. It's made from clay (I think) that's heated up and the result becomes "puffed" clay pebbles.

I'm refining the design so it'll be easier to control the water flow and take the construction apart.

What a good idea (I love the name of the project).  They all look rather space-agey - you sure it's veggies your growing  8)  :mwaha:

Not totally sure there H.  :mwaha:

The Window farming concept is not mine as you can see at the link. I have only adjusted it to what I had to work with.  :)

Love it!

Pesky wabbits!  ;D

Do you suppose they are now lining up outside the house, looking in longingly at your window farm?

Very clever idea, Eva!

how exciting! Is it hydroponics? I had a brief look at the link you shared but not properly yet. I must admit I find hydroponics a bit 'creepy', growing things that usually need soil without soil feels a bit weird and that it is not a proper cyclical cycle (if you see what I mean) that extra nutrients have to be added. Now if it was connected up to an aquarium or something....

I'm going to have a proper look in a bit. I really like the use of the window space, filling the window with jungle  :)

Those LECA balls are what we are having under our limecrete floor for insulation - they are clay so actually quite "natural" and have been used in gardening for ages...very intersting Eva!

@ lyndsayfink, yes it's hydroponic. WIKI-link and info (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics)

The best thing is that the plant don't need to grow loads of roots since it's easier for it to get the nutrition thus it'll grow faster.

After the first test I didn't think it was efficient or using the space ultimately so I've created a new one.
Have also learned the proportions of the nutrients (I hope).
Here are pics of latest set up.

Pic 1. At topleft of pic you see a dark area. this is the sturdy bag holding 10,5 litre water. It'll be covered by the curtain later.
Pic 2. The special pots for tomato plants, bigger and stronger.
Pic 3. The herb and smaller plant set up.

The green plastic thingies are where I set the drip speed. It's very good.

I use kling film to lead the water from one pot to the other on the vertical set up.

You are so inventive Eva. I love your mind and experiments. :buttrf:

Thanks hon!  (:hug:)

I am enjoying watching this develop!  You are so creative.... :buttrf:

So clever!

Thanks guys.

Today me and my Dad started idea tossing (between Canada and Sweden) how I can set it up so the collected water will be pumped up to the bag automatically when reaching a certain level.
I have also started looking in to lights for the fall/winter since it does get dark here. Just in case the veggies decide this is a good spot to grow up.  ;D

To be continued...

The latest set up seem to be right in water speed and nutrition balance. It is growing like crazy and faster than the plants on the balcony.
I'm so pleased.  :hap3:
Pics in a couple of days if you like.

Yes we like  ;D

Really interesting project

Update with pics from today July 27 2011.
It is going well. Think I have the balance figured out (thought so before but a couple of sprouts died) with drip speed and nutrition mix. Here you can see how it has grown since last pics.

Pic 1. From left: cherry tomato, regular tomato, up - bush dill, low - Unhappy lettuce.
Pic 2. I read one could just drop the seeds on the moist pebbles so I did and you can see them starting to grow. :)
Pic 3. Basil.
Pic 4. Lettuce.
Pic 5. Sage on top and chive at bot.

The rest of pics

Last pic.

That is looking so good!

Wow Eva I missed this one, its so clever, they are going well, the chives and sage look great.  The candle holders that you make look lovely on your window in the first pics.  :buttrf:

Can't believe the length of your chive!  :D

Fab work, I bet they taste delicious, even the unhappy lettuce (thought this was very funny!).

Another update. Pics from this morning, 14 aug 2011.

The big tomato plant has a little flower bud on it's way.
I have "harvested" some basil twice as spices in food. It's growing very well.
Will cut the dill today and put in the freezer.

I have sprouts of ruccola lettuce, chili pepper and Echinacea purpurea  growing after just throwing seeds in the buckets among the pebbles. I'm very fascinated about the whole thing.
I have two low energy lamps on (wide spectra light) from 4 pm to 9 pm to give extra light due to our days getting shorter. Also have it on on cloudy days.

I've noticed the herbs seem stronger in taste. Basil is very strong and the sage, when touching the leaves slightly it gives a very strong scent. Stronger than the ones on the balcony. Interesting.

It is a fascinating experiment. I wonder why the flavour is stronger?

Me too. I'm on a mission to find facts if this is true.

Due to not finding the correct nutrition for tomatoes I moved it to soil beginning of September. It's still in the window though. Two weeks ago OH came home with nutrition he found in Finland and it has worked wonders for the tomatoes. See pic below.

Not much light here now so at early September I took a couple of (old) IKEA desk lights to use as plant light. They seem to be enough but will see in a month or two how it looks.
On my new system the tomatoes will be in the hydro again (new plants).

The second pic is one of the chilli plants now flowering. All the herbs but sage loves the new nutrition. Theses are in the hydroponic system. The sage died within a day after I had added the new nutrition. :(

I have harvested loads of basil and chives. Can't believe how fast and much they grow. It's a joy.

I am setting up a new hydroponic version which will be a flood & drain system. Have read a lot and it seems to be one of the best solutions. It will have a pump and a timer. Pump will be on 10-15 min every third hour as a first test run.

This is the first time I've seen this thread - it's fascinating

Thanks for showing us this Eva, will now keep a lookout for any additional info you post :buttrf:

What a fabulous project Eva, it must be so exciting.................. :buttrf:

Tomatoes looking good ;D

OOh you must feel really proud of those.  Way to go Eva!!!   :buttrf:

They look fab, Eva. Can't believe you have fresh tomatoes this time of year. :jealous:

Eire

Eva those look fantastic!

We have harvested the (2) chilli fruits before I had to take the whole farm apart and clean it. I did the mistake to use the organic tomatoe/veggie nutrition in the hydroponic system so it started smelling bad. I think I also heard a growling one morning  from the deep within so had to do something.

Pic one and two shows the chilli when they were babies.
Pic three shows (manufacturers pic) of one of my two new LED lamps. Yeah! Am also getting one more pump and special nutrition for hydroponic growing so I'm all set to rebuild the farm next week.
Will have two different ones, one for "baby plants" and one for "grown ups".

I'm starting to sound like a true, fanatic canna grower.  :whist:

you are sooo  ingenious....absolutely fab...

I wish I had the energy, patience and organisational skills to do something this fabulous. Huge respect!  :buttrf:

Well done on the harvest Eva  ;D :buttrf:


What else were you growing?   :o :mwaha:

 :mwaha:
I'm 100% certain it was some alien fungus. Fortunately I had my anti alien fungus perfume on so made it just barely.
 :mwaha:

 :mwaha: :mwaha: :mwaha:

You really have something fabulous going on - how many people can grow alien fungus?????

Oh yeah and the peppers look good too. ;D

I guess you are all tired by now with this but if no one tells me to stop posting about this silly project I'll go on and on and...   ;D

Here is my new, well working setup.

Pic 1. Yesterday I got a strong low energy lamp 115W (approx. 575W regular incandescent light bulb), 5500 Kelvin (daylight).  And made a reflector for it. Lamp was only about £10 from China!

Pic 2. Small box to the left is a "bubbler" with baby plants. The main big black tray is a "dripper". Both on timer. To the right on the wall will be an air lift system (there will be more pots on it) for lettuce and basil. I'm waiting for some supply for it.

Plants in the black tray are chilli of various kinds. They have flowers again so soon there will be fresh chilli fruits.

Since the tomatos grow too high (don't count the one in the pic, it's gone beyond skinny and tall) I'm setting up a tomato system in the basement, they'll take up the whole window otherwise.

Wow, just wow!

I am so impressed with this garden Eva!  I wish I had the space to do one... :buttrf:

Thanks both of you.
Lindy, you don't have a window or a storage or similar to place it in? It doesn't have to be in a window if you have proper lights.

Once I do some de-cluttering in the basement I might be able to rig something up there, but I am so squished for space it's nuts.....

We have lots of chilli fruits growing right now and I just discovered one is turning red.  :hap3:
I've been waiting for this and was not sure it would happen since most of the light is artificial (we are getting more daylight now though). I've also learned that chilli grows quite slow compared to tomatoes for example.

How cool is that?!?!?!?!  Awesome Eva!