Tag Archive for 'hydroponics'

Jackson’s Journal (6/9/09) – Working on Window Farms!

jackson published on June 9, 2009 in food, superforest journal, technology and zeitgeist. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

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Good Morning SuperForest!

Today was a very exciting day!
Last month, I posted about meeting Rebecca and Britta, the heads of the Window Farm project. Today, Julius and I walked the Jackpot through the pouring rain over to Eyebeam gallery, where Miss Rebecca and Miss Britta are setting up an exhibition of their hydroponic DIY food growing machines.

3611844202_30015c71e4_oWe made our own pants!

Once we got there, Julius and I got to show off the Jackpot, and then we were lucky enough to be able to help out by dipping old water bottles in paint to use as plant containers. The paint will protect the roots of the plants from sunlight, as sunlight makes plant roots turn into leaves.

3611844516_9fa12a9515_oJulius hard at work.

Now we’re back home for a brief rest before heading back over to Eyebeam for a meeting of the Window Farm pioneers group. The pioneers group are a gang of folks who are all independently working on their own Window Farm designs. By crowd-sourcing the prototype process and sharing our results, we will all be able to collectively create the cheapest, most efficient food system much quicker than if we all worked alone. Isn’t that wonderful!

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Imagine all of humanity collectively working on problem solving and idea-sharing and you have a basic idea if what SuperForest is aiming to achieve. Whether SuperForest aggregates other positivity/idea-sharing blogs, or is itself incorporated into a larger site, (or a combination of the two…) EVERYBODY WINS!

The end result of a group of people prototyping DIY food systems is a cheap, DIY food growing system for anyone who wants one. Booyah.

Now imagine if everything were handled this way? Imagine if every problem humanity faces were attacked by a collaborative group of humans.

In my opinion, the problems we face don’t stand a chance.

Now this is just a humble food-growing machine…

Imagine a hundred million humans all working on defusing racism, negativity, and intolerance.

A hundred million humans working out ways to best use the Earth’s resources. To provide and care for all humans.

A hundred million humans decoding the genome and finding new therapies and vaccines for every disease and affliction imaginable.

Imagine if everything we did, made, and knew, were re-examined and updated by everyone at once.

That is the present we are working to create. And it is happening.

All around us, the seedlings and shoots of the new millennium are poking their heads above ground, and soon all of humanity will be able to join hands at the table of abundance and give thanks for the generosity of the natural world and the boundless nature of human creativity.

The TV news is wrong. The entire news media is wrong. If you’re only looking at the back end of the horse, you’ll miss seeing where it’s galloping.

Everything is going to be just fine.

Let’s take a nice deep breath, roll up our sleeves, and get to work. The present needs us.

Love to all,

-Jackson

p.s. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Jackpot Update: In Which We Meet Britta and Rebecca from WindowFarms.org, and Seedlings Get Sewn

jackson published on June 1, 2009 in build, celebrity, food, technology and zeitgeist. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

picture-9(Britta and Rebecca and their most excellent Window Farm prototype)

Hello Sexies!

Last month I posted about the Jackpot, which is a DIY home hydroponics food machine, and I wanted to update you as to the status of the project.

Just before I left for Texas last week, two fun things happened:

I met with Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray from Submersible Design and got to chat with them about their own rad window farm project. (Britta and Rebecca also came out with DrinkPee, a clever home kit that let you turn your pee into plant food, via the miracle of chemistry. Swoon!) Check it, check it out:

These talented ladies have an exhibit up of their window farm design at Eyebeam here in NYC, for those who wish to see in person.

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We met up at Eyebeam, and Miss Rebecca was kind enough to show me their design, which uses a high-powered water pump to move the water from a bottom tank to reservoir up top, where it trickles down through a cascade of growing chambers. Super smart.

I love how their design can fit in any window, and is easy to make and set up, as it uses recycled 1.5 liter bottles. I mentioned to them that my design uses an airlift and only requires a low energy air pump to lift the water. So, a hybrid system, where one uses a window hanging cascade instead of one central pillar AND an airlift instead of a water pump, would be a big winner.

The problem with a water pump is that one: it has to be really powerful to lift the water from bottom to top. And two: because it’s so powerful, it does its job rather quickly, and thus sits idly unused for the majority of its life.

And the problem with my central pillar idea, while being visually appealing, is that you have to rotate it every week, so that one side doesn’t get more sun than the other.

So by pooling our ideas and sharing freely, we’ve already begun a refinement process that helps not only the three of us, but anyone who later stumbles upon (ahem) these blog posts.

The internet has allowed for huge multiple wins. Thank you internet.

And secondly: Although I’ve already grown past the first design for the Jackpot, I still want to try it out, because it’s cute and makes my heart glad. So I’ve sewn a bunch of seedlings to later transfer to the Jackpot. Here are a few of them:

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Melon in the foreground, and assorted yumyums behind
(including a lovely little sculpture by my friend CEO, which makes an excellent jalapeno drying rack. <3)

photo2A milk carton, split lengthwise, makes two very nice growing beds.
Here we can see marigolds, tomatoes, salad greens and nasturtiums poking their wee little heads out.

photo3Mean Mr. Cilantro and his pals Jackson and the Kitra the rosemary sprigs. You’ll notice that J & K are alive and well.
From garnish to growing plant! It makes the heart smile.

photoHere we behold Jeremiah Salad Greens and Edward Cullen the vampire-basil.
Both are looking well and spry.
The salad greens are a mesclun mix and will go in the top chamber of the Jackpot.

Britta and Rebecca have been kind enough to invite me to join their Window Farm project and I’m thrilled to take part!

Check out the Window Farms site.
And definitely check out Submersible Design.

Thank you Britta and Rebecca! Thank you lovely growing plants. And thank you to all the makers and dreamers and doers out there.

Love to All,

-Jackson

The Jackpot: It’s Alive!

jackson published on May 25, 2009 in build, food, technology and zeitgeist. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Yesterday and today I really bore down and tried to finish the Jackpot prototype. I learned so much about my own design. I cannot stress how fun and valuable prototyping can be.

So, now it’s 2:30-ish on Monday morning and here’s a picture of the Jackpot just before its first successful trial run, standing looking silly in my bathtub…

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Me sooooooooo tired!
To sleeping we will go!

-Jackson

The Jackpot’s Bones

jackson published on May 24, 2009 in build, food, technology and zeitgeist. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

The Jackpot’s Bones from SuperForest on Vimeo.

It totally works. I’m totally stoked.
More to come!!!

Missed the first Jackpot post?
Missed the second one too?

Jackson’s Journal (5/14/09) – Hydrodynamics Can Be Vexatious

jackson published on May 14, 2009 in build, food, superforest journal, technology and zeitgeist. 12 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

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Gooooooood Morning SuperForest!

I’ve been home a great deal lately, with moving my office here, and getting sick (again!) I’ve had plenty of time to really get to know my apartment and to develop a game plan for its growth as an organism.

That means I’ve been doing a lot of planting and thinking about plants. Last year, I bought a Prepara power plant, which is basically a little desktop hydroponic garden. Now I’ve got five healthy cherry tomato plants growing in it. I’ve also got an aloe, a comfrey plant that SuperForester Severine gave me that refuses to die, a flower box with an wild assortment of green beasties growing in it. And I’ve been rescuing plants off of the street whenever I can, so I’ve got a few things that I haven’t identified.

But it isn’t enough…

I won’t be happy until I’ve got basil up to my eyeballs. Enough basil to make pesto for an army. And green onions, chives, rosemary, jalapenos, lettuces. I want it all, ladies and gentleman, and I want it cheap and easy… I want a living space that truly is a living space. I want to live in a machine that gobbles up carbon, filters the air, and make food for me to eat. Later on we can working on making the whole thing run on poo. Ha!

How to achieve this indoor, urban Eden is something I’ve been giving considerable thought to. Many waking (and dreaming) hours are spent daydreaming about DIY hydroponic gardens, water pumps, filter systems and creative uses for the two liter bottle.

I found my way into the vertical garden/hydroponics section of youtube, and there I feasted like a wild wildebeast.
I gorged on gallons per minute tables, pvc piping comparisons, and silicone sealant. I learned about pump volume ratios and outflow units and bleeder valves and plastic tubing.

And in the end I thought: I could design a system for growing food and flowers just like these but much, much simpler.

And so I went to the drawing board and tried out some ideas…

And here we are now.

My idea, which I happily share with you all, is to use a six-gallon bucket, a few lengths of pvc, an air pump, a short section of tubing, some zip ties, and one-gallon milk containers to create a personal, scalable, hydroponic (soil-free) drip-irrigation food machine.

I call it: The Jackpot.

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The Problem: Moving water upwards is both energy intensive and usually quite noisy. Water pumps are loud and expensive.

How then do we move a column of water from a standing position to a position approximately three feet higher, using only the pvc, a cheap and quiet air pump, some sealant, an a tin can?

I believe I’ve found an answer: An air lift. Or rather, a series of air lifts, working in parallel.

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An air lift is a wonderful and simple device. It’s just a length of pipe, open at both ends. You feed an air line into the bottom of the pipe and submerge it under water. The air bubbles within the pipe form an upward current and water is carried up to the top of the pipe. Simple, cheap, effective. Here’s a viddy to help explain.

The problem with a single air lift is they can only lift water a short height. Conceivably, combining multiple air lifts within a larger pipe would allow one to lift any amount of water to any height required, provided you had sufficient air flow. This idea probably originated in ancient Persia, I’m not making any claims to it.

So, a hanging garden set up, where water is pumped to the top and there trickles down through multiple growing containers before eventually feeding back into the main reservoir, all built around a central multiple air lift is the problem that’s been bugging me for the past few weeks.

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Please forgive all this technical jargon, my basic point is this: For very little money, we all should have fresh, growing foods within arms reach all year long. And this system, properly de-kinked, should help us achieve that.

The Jackpot idea, like all things on SF is free. Yours. Share-ware. Take it, refine, package it, sell it. That’s the whole point of the internet. We can all copy each other so easily, it’s really a wonderful time for both openness and communication.

I’m home, nursing my zillionth cold, and working out the kinks on the Jackpot. I’ll get this thing built and running and then post a how-to so y’alls can build your very own! Cha-chang! Then we can all work to improve and refine the design! Double win!
And to the 4fives: When next I come in I want you all to know the definitions of “hydrodynamics” and “vexatious.”

Love to All,

Jackson

P.S. I awoke from a fever dream and drew this schematic! Cool, no?

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8.21 gigawatts!

Prepara’s Power Plant – Indoor Mini-Hydroponics!

jackson published on September 12, 2008 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

Just saw this over at notcot.

These seem very interesting. Indoor mini-hydroponic grow boxes.

I just ordered two. Let me have a go with them and I’ll post my results.

A constant supply of basil and tomatoes would be great, and since I travel a lot, the design is perfect for keeping my plants alive when I’m unable to regularly water.
(I’m torn between building my own full-scale farm fountain and these, but there’s definitely room for both.)

Check these guys out: Prepara

Farm Fountain How To!

jackson published on June 16, 2008 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .


It’s a farm! It’s a fountain! It’s a fishpond! It’s a trellis!

It’s all that and more. It’s aquaponics!

Here’s how it works in a nutshell. The main ingredient is water, which is circulated from the fish pond at the bottom to the plants on the top. The plants eat the sun and the fish poop, in doing so, they clean the water as it drips back down to the fish pond. Fish get nice clean water, plants get ermmmm, delicious fish poop. Humans get plants and fish to eat, plus a cool living sculpture/stress relieving device. And what could be more stress relieving than knowing where your next meal is coming from?

Another huge plus is that the water is constantly recirculated, with very little lost. It’s just the same water over and over again. Conservationtastic!

And the nice folks who thought it up have ever so thoughtfully posted a how-to so you can construct your very own.

Check it:



(click either pic to go the farm fountain site)

“Farm Fountain is a collaborative project by artists Ken Rinaldo and Amy Youngs.”

Aquaponics is great because as a system, it’s scalable, so it can be as big or as small as you like, and once it’s up and running, you need only power the pumps (which don’t use a ton of energy) and feed the fish.

A lot of folks are getting into it.

Australia!

Canada!

Mexico!

Even Texas!

We’d love to have one in the office. I think the super would be upset if we put a system in the apartment.

But the thinking is… why not simply build this system into every building? It solves a lot of problems.

And solving problems while creating opportunities is what it’s all about!

Special thanks to Ken Rinaldo and Amy Youngs for their creativity and generosity.

Love to all,

Team SuperForest