Mikko Laajola, Niko Punin, and Botanics gardener Merja Pulkkinen sorting seeds, and placing on rock-wool to germinate.
6 x 24 different plants, growing as you read under the bright lights and hot house of the Botanic Gardens in Kaisaniemi, Helsinki..
Overview of the rows of seedlings, with Kaura shooting up!
Close up of Tammenlehti Salaatti seedlings
Close up of Kurkkuyrtti seedlings
Ph testing kit for the water.. Happily, 6.5 after nutrients were added
Mikko Laajola watering the seedlings with water & nutrients on 3rd Feb.
Collecting the 1.5 L bottles must now begin!
Andrew Paterson boxing up seedlings for transfer to different glasshouse (Photo credit: Tuomas Heinämäki)
Wheel-barrowing them all over to the crypt-like glasshouse within the rock hill
Next step for many: a new surrounding medium of clay-pellets
The rock-wool cubes & seedling plants placed inside the net-cups with clay-pellets
The now 'cosy' bunch of plants within water-tight plastic crates
Unfortunately not all the seeds made it to this stage :(
But we make a new batch of seeded rock-wool cubes with Mikko's fast-growing range of salad-like seeds
Consulting the 'net to remind ourselves of the correct dosage..
Biopower nutrients: for young plants, 2 ml per litre of water..
As we leave them, 10th February.. 10 days before installation.
Bubbling away happily, we hope (!) until next time..
Hydroponic tubes and the plants as they are on 17.02.
We are growing herbs in Kiasma
Trying to collect bottles before they are recycled into the machine.. (credit: Kavita Gonsalves)
Kiasma brochure page + red marker pen + bottle recycle point = commercial/forage mash-up
Hypermarket bottle recycling points for better yields (cars + families + soft drinks = plastic bottles)
Once collected together (bought or gifted or :) wash the bottles inside & outside ..
Discard the labels, and leave to dry..
Mikko gets into a flow preparing the bulk batch of bottles before weekend
Carefully making a notch for drilling in the plastic nub on bottom of the bottle (keep the cap on!)
Cardboard drilling support
Drilling a hole 2.5cm wide in the base of the bottle
Making double-sided
Dipping each bottle into pot of slightly-thinned white paint (the plant roots need to be protected from light)
Arial view of bottles & 'sticky spacers' and Finnish newspapers.
A batch of paint-dipped bottles waiting to dry (it said 30mins on the tin, hmm.. overnight?)
Drop-off delivery from behind the supermarket recycling machine.. These ones escaped the crusher!
A fast Friday transfer of all plants to Kiasma before the snow-storm
.
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All ‘Making of Windowfarms Finland: Preparation’ photos (unless otherwise stated credit: Andrew Gryf Paterson) are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 1.0 Finland.
Windowfarms Finland: Preparation
Mikko Laajola, Niko Punin, and Botanics gardener Merja Pulkkinen sorting seeds, and placing on rock-wool to germinate.
6 x 24 different plants, growing as you read under the bright lights and hot house of the Botanic Gardens in Kaisaniemi, Helsinki..
Overview of the rows of seedlings, with Kaura shooting up!
Close up of Tammenlehti Salaatti seedlings
Close up of Kurkkuyrtti seedlings
Ph testing kit for the water.. Happily, 6.5 after nutrients were added
Mikko Laajola watering the seedlings with water & nutrients on 3rd Feb.
Collecting the 1.5 L bottles must now begin!
Andrew Paterson boxing up seedlings for transfer to different glasshouse (Photo credit: Tuomas Heinämäki)
Wheel-barrowing them all over to the crypt-like glasshouse within the rock hill
Next step for many: a new surrounding medium of clay-pellets
The rock-wool cubes & seedling plants placed inside the net-cups with clay-pellets
The now 'cosy' bunch of plants within water-tight plastic crates
Unfortunately not all the seeds made it to this stage :(
But we make a new batch of seeded rock-wool cubes with Mikko's fast-growing range of salad-like seeds
Consulting the 'net to remind ourselves of the correct dosage..
Biopower nutrients: for young plants, 2 ml per litre of water..
As we leave them, 10th February.. 10 days before installation.
Bubbling away happily, we hope (!) until next time..
Hydroponic tubes and the plants as they are on 17.02.
We are growing herbs in Kiasma
Trying to collect bottles before they are recycled into the machine.. (credit: Kavita Gonsalves)
Kiasma brochure page + red marker pen + bottle recycle point = commercial/forage mash-up
Hypermarket bottle recycling points for better yields (cars + families + soft drinks = plastic bottles)
Once collected together (bought or gifted or :) wash the bottles inside & outside ..
Discard the labels, and leave to dry..
Mikko gets into a flow preparing the bulk batch of bottles before weekend
Carefully making a notch for drilling in the plastic nub on bottom of the bottle (keep the cap on!)
Cardboard drilling support
Drilling a hole 2.5cm wide in the base of the bottle
Making double-sided
Dipping each bottle into pot of slightly-thinned white paint (the plant roots need to be protected from light)
Arial view of bottles & 'sticky spacers' and Finnish newspapers.
A batch of paint-dipped bottles waiting to dry (it said 30mins on the tin, hmm.. overnight?)
Drop-off delivery from behind the supermarket recycling machine.. These ones escaped the crusher!
A fast Friday transfer of all plants to Kiasma before the snow-storm
.
All ‘Making of Windowfarms Finland: Preparation’ photos (unless otherwise stated credit: Andrew Gryf Paterson) are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 1.0 Finland.