Window Farming

Almost a year ago I supported my first successful Kickstarter project: Windowfarms – Vertical Food Gardens. They met their initial $50k goal, and their $200k goal which meant they pledged to get them manufactured in the US rather than overseas.  They stuck to that promise, even though it meant that they didn’t get the first kits shipped as early as they would have liked.

Last weekend I received my window farm and got it set up.

It’s an interesting rig. There is an adjustable air pump, that connects to the bottom reservoir. As the bubbles feed through the tube, a hole in the bottom allows water to get in and be raised up the tube by the bubbles. It drips out of the tube into the top cup. Each cup drains out into the cup below, with the last one draining back into the reservoir.

Since this is hydroponic gardening there is no dirt, just water. So you need to add nutrients to the water for the plants to grow. I didn’t know where I’d be able to find hydroponic supplies, but it turns out there’s a very nice hydroponic gardening supply shop in Medford called Rootdown Hydroponics. The folks there were really nice, and very helpful with suggestions of which nutrients would be a good starter kit.

I couldn’t wait for seedlings from seed, so I ran down to Wilsons and picked up a six pack of Boston lettuce, and pulled a baby kohlrabi out of the garden. Before the baby plants go into the clay pellet filled baskets all the dirt has to be carefully washed off the roots.

I’ve got it set up on the porch while the weather is still good, but it’ll move into the TV room when it starts to be too cold. The lettuce look pretty happy – I wonder how long before we can harvest. Time to get some herbs and cherry tomato plants started from seed while these are growing,