Window Farm

Our plants are growing well, last term compared to this term, we had a 10% growth increase

Our Window Farm is still strong

Our watering system has proved to be successful, we have a solar panel providing 24% of the power to the pump.

Window Farm - Design

  

 

We are experiencing technical difficulties which will be resolved soon.

Here is a link to the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JteNQAnmGwg

Window Farm Plants Growth

A bar graph showing the comparison in plant heights between the three plants:
Series 1 - Rocket
Series 2 - Coriander
Series 3 - Fennel



A line graph showing the growth of our plants from the 6 March (The day the plants were planted) to the 18 March

The Growth of our three plants: Rocket, Coriander and Fennel

Reflections - Stocking of Plants and Window Farm

Our choice of plants was very clever in that we chose three different plants; Rocket, Coriander and Fennel. In the given environment of Lab B4 there are different abiotic factors which influence the growth of our plants, the one side of the lab receives a lot of sunlight and the other little sunlight. We chose the sunny side.

Our Window Farm is a sustainable farm in the window sill. If features a pump with complicated clear irrigation tubing running through the whole system to provide an effective watering system. The elegant design of securing the a water bottles from behind eliminates the chance of the bottles slipping down and provides a sturdier product.

My overall understanding for food security has grown over the past term, the window farm has taught me, we can introduce these effective farming methods which require limited space and are easy to build. Food security can be improved by growing plants which you can eat which we have done in our Window Farm

Choice of Plants and Stocking of Window Farm

Our choice of plants were carefully analysed as the top section of our Window Farm does not get as much sun as the middle or bottom so a plants which required less sunlight was planted. All three plants our different as the elements are all different even though the space is within 30cm.
 The three plants we chose are: Rocket ( Planted at the bottom of our Window Farm), Coriander ( Planted in the Middle) and Fennel ( Planted at the top of our Window Farm ).

Window Farm Design Reflection

The Design of our Window Farm makes effect use of the space provided with three large water bottles containing plants suited for each specific section. The design has been altered slightly to improve the durability and sturdiness. The Plascon paint used gives the water bottle strength and long-lasting resistance against the sun's harsh rays. The integration of cable ties from behind the water bottles secures it firmly and also stops the bottles from slipping down. With the effective integration of a pump, our window farm is self- sustainable.

Our Window Farm has shown us that food security is possible if the right amount of work is put in. Food security is to have access to safe nutritious food. The Window Farm is perfect for people with limited garden space or no garden space at all as it makes use of the window sill.






Taken on 2015/03/21
www.foodsecuritynews.com/What-is-food-security.htm

 

Window Farm Reflections - Nicholas Peile (2)

I like our window farm's design. It's effective in growing plants in and it's not too expensive. We did have to shrink it in size as people needed the space around it. I like how a pump is used to transfer water from the reservoir and that we have a timer to pump at set times. The plants we have chosen are the right plants and are growing at a good speed in the right soil, these being rocket, coriander and fennel. I believe that having the physical window farm greatly helps with learning and understanding food security as it a viable option for people with limited space and is easy to build.

We have the perfect choice of plants for our Window Farm. The plants are Rocket, Coriander and Fennel. Our soil and water compliments our plants nicely as they have the same pH level. The idea of having three different plants is that the top container doesn't receive much sunlight compared to the bottom two so a different plant is required for every section.

Soil pH and Water Retention Capacity

Our Soil choice, loamy soil mixed with lots of good natural compost has worked very well for us and our Window Farm. Even it has a quite high water retention level, we have discovered that all our plants react well with this amount of water. Our soil is slightly acidic with a pH of 5,9 but plants like coriander and especially rocket, require this type of soil. We have designed or Window Farm in such a way so that we can transfer water outside the actual farm without interfering with the water retention capacity.

Window Farm is up!

Our Window Farm has been successfully installed at the rightmost location on the racks.

Window Farm Reflections

My Blog group, Green Thumbs, has been a wonderful team to work with besides communication issues which we will introduce implementations to fix this, they have been working very well. I have enjoyed the different activities of this project, practical experiments, outings and Window Farm building. I have enjoyed this as it has been a very interesting project. It has been a truly fun experience.

Window Farm Reflections - James Halle

 

I personally feel that my group (Green Thumbs) and I worked very well together on almost all aspects of our Biology Project. Except for the lack of communication between my fellow classmates everything worked smoothly. One of the two marks that we lost was only due to a minor error of not proof reading our work and checking for grammar and spelling mistakes. All in all I have greatly enjoyed working with Michael and Nicholas on our Blog.

Window Farm Reflections - Nicholas Peile

So far, I have enjoyed doing the soil practicals as it has been a major help in deciding the soil we would use.
We have worked well as a group during the soil practicals, taking pictures and noting down results.
One way we can improve is co-ordination between ourselves. This is because we have had problems with communications and requirements in the past.