Month: October 2017

What is a window farm?

Many people today are choosing to grow their own food. There are numerous good reasons why you should do it as well. Truth is that today food is cultivated by using some methods that can significantly reduce the nutritional value of the foods. Not just that, but some techniques for cultivating can even make the food dangerous for your health. Some plants are sprayed with different harmful chemicals like herbicides or pesticides. Food also has to travel very long distances until it reaches its final destination in the supermarkets. All of that can make the food less nutritious. Our planet also suffers because of the fuel and energy used for transporting and storing the food. Therefore, people started looking for effective solutions for cultivating food in the place of their residence. One such solution is the so-called window farm.

A window farm is a hydroponic type of farming, created vertically and designed to function year-round. You can grow foods indoors on your windows. It requires some intervention from you as a farmer, and this farming system enables you to easily grow your plants hydroponically even if you live in a very limited space and during all weather seasons. The main goal behind window farming is to encourage urban people to grow their own food inside their homes throughout the entire year. That way people can significantly improve their quality of life and live healthier.

So how exactly this system works? The water pump is connected to a timer, and this pump circulates the nutrients through the columns of plants. Water goes from the bottom water reservoir up to the top plant bottle through a lift system that is powered by an air pump. Water then goes down from one bottle to another, goes through the hairy roots of the plants and if there are any unabsorbed nutrients they are collected again and the water goes straight down to the bottle of the bottom reservoir. The hydroponic system means that the water filled with nutrients is pumped from the base reservoir and goes from bottle to bottle, making all roots of the plants wet along the way. Water that has not been absorbed collects again inside the reservoir and is later pumped again. Usually plants that grow in soil have roots that go deep and wide, but plants that are grown hydroponically have dense and hairy roots. The roots here are very compact and do not take much space, which makes this system very efficient to use.

There are many different things that you can grow in a window farm. In fact, you can grow all types of plants, except for root vegetables like radishes, carrots or parsnips. Try window farming and you will quickly see all the benefits it brings. It makes for an awesome background in a selfie post. It’s very trendy! Not only you will learn good farming techniques, but you will also enjoy eating healthier and more nutritious food. Window farming will not take much of your time, but you will still have good foods to eat all year long.

Categories: Window Farms

What is hydroponics?

 Hydroponics is a sub-category of the hydro culture. Hydro culture involves growing plants in water based environment. Hydroponics or hydroponic system uses mineral-filled solutions for feeding your plants in water, without using soil. Those people that enjoy growing own plants love the hydroponic system as it gives them opportunity and pleasure to grow and consume own food. Now you can grow any plant you want at any period of the year without any limitations. This relatively simple farming system is easy to use, so anyone can take advantage of it and grow their favorite plants at home.

Hydroponic is Latin word meaning ‘working water’. In simple words, hydroponics is the ability to grow plants without using soil. Many people associate hydroponics with plants that grow vertically and their roots hanging in water. This is the so-called Nutrient Film Technique of the hydroponic system, or NFT. NFT has other variations as well, but this method is very popular to many places in the world. Hydroponic gardening system is great both for commercial producers of food and for amateur gardeners. There are many advantages that come with this system. It differs from soil-based gardening in way that plants in this system do not require long roots to get the nutrients. In hydroponics gardening system, plants are hanging high and they easily acquire the necessary nutrients from their roots. There are several types of growing methods under the hydroponics system. Besides the mentioned Nutrient Film Technique (NFT), there is also aeroponic system, water culture system, flood and drain, drip system and wicks system.

Many people wonder why hydroponics system works well. The answer to that question is simple. Through this system you are giving your plants what they need at the times they need it. The plant in return grows as healthy as possible, and growing plants in water is lot easier than growing them in soil. By using hydroponics, plants grow in an inert medium. They have a perfect pH balance and their roots get the exact nutrient amount they need. The plant requires just a small effort to uptake the food, while in soil-based farming plants need to search for nutrients in the soil and extract food. You can easily see the difference between soil growing and hydroponics if you grow two exact plants side by side by using the two methods.

Hydroponics is getting more popular with each day and many people are starting to use it worldwide. There are tons of chat groups talking specifically about hydroponics and window farms. Not only it is better and faster way for growing plants, but it also gives you greater yields. If you are interested in farming your own food then you should definitely consider hydroponics. You do not require much space and you will certainly get quality food all year long. Go a bit deeper into details of hydroponics and you will see that this technique has numerous advantages over soil-based farming. As soon as you start with hydroponics you will never go back to soil-based farming. Make a small investment, try hydroponics and enjoy eating healthy food year-round.

Categories: Hydroponics