This system is designed to accomodate urban farming. My next iteration will include a universal mount which will allow this system to be mounted on various different window grilles or other structures.

The system is modullar too, so this means that more pots can be added. My next iteration should also allow for an outflow pipe that flows directly downwards, which should allow for the construction of a vertical farm.

The system is uniquely designed to ensure each individual chamber floods to the brim. As each chamber fills to the brim it will rapidly overflow into the next pot. After the pump is turned off, the chambers will drain slowly over the course of 15min, however the sponges will remain soaked to the brim. This allows the sponge to continue dripping and drying for the next 4-6 hours before the pump is activated again.

There are 2 main advantages of this:

1. no nursery is required. You only need to plant directly into the pot and it should provide a water level sufficiently high to ensure that the seed germinates.
2. the pump does not need to run so often. In my findings, running the pump once every 4-6 hours will suffice. In my setup I only have 6 pots and my pump runs for 5min because that is the smallest duration my AC power timer can be set to. However, I will be buying a 5V pump to test and see if I can use an arduino to control this, along with other environmental factors such as grow lights. In my findings, running the pump for about 30s is sufficient to let 6 pots flood to the brim. The pump should need to run for awhile more to ensure that the sponges are fully soaked before letting it drain.

I have no idea what the theoratical limit of the number of plants can be, however theoratically this system can have a theoratically infinitely large number of plants, so long as the system can provide water to the last pot faster than it can drain. For the system to work correctly, every pot has to be fully flooded. The pump cannot be too strong too otherwise the first pot will overflow outside the system.