Week One is in the Books!

 

So the Aquaponics system has made it through its first full week fully planted. (Well, I *thought* it was fully planted. More on that in a bit.) As a reminder, here's what it looked like on Monday of this week:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The water in the fish tub has started getting very cloudy (thanks, I believe, to the large number of beans that are rotting instead of sprouting. Note to self- don't bury any of the beans in the rocks next year. Just let them sit on top. Those are the main ones that are germinating.) To help with the cloudiness, I decided to add some carbon to the system to help remove color, smell and cloudiness. We'll see if it makes a difference.

 

 

If this doesn't work, then I'll probably run an external power filter for a few days to try to help it out.

 

So now for the first week comparisons. Here's the system on the first day it was planted, Friday, 5/22/15.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the system today, Friday 5/29/15

 

 

Wait a sec. That looks awfully full!! Did I actually have that much growth in just one week??

 

Well, no, not really. While there is some very nice growth, I've actually added some more plants.

 

A green bell pepper (the first one is a yellow pepper.)

 

 

Lemon Cucumbers (I really didn't need more cucumbers, but these seemed fun. The fruits are the shape and color of lemons.)

 

 

Zucchini (in case the seeds don't germinate.

 

 

And....wait for it....STRAWBERRIES!!! (How could I not????)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, now that you know what's new, here are some comparisons for you. Remember the seeds that were caught by the screening at the end of the gutter?

 

 

Here's what they look like now.

 

 

The tomatoes are growing apace! The grape tomato on the end has actually grown to reach above the gutter above it. They all have set small buds!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lettuces have sprouted and are showing nice growth.

 

 

And the broccoli/spinach/swiss chard seeds continue to develop nicely.

 

 

So that's where we sit at the end of our first week. My plan is to document growth, change, challenge and success each Friday with pics and posts. Whether I can follow that plan or not is another thing. :-)This is our year to try, experiment and fail, if necessary, to learn what's best for next year. (Such as only plant beans on TOP of the rocks!) As such, I'm being rather loose and fast with what I plant where and how. If something grows and produces well with this, then we know it will do well when we have more time and experience to bring to bear.

 

Of course, if everything does well, we may be swamped with a bit more produce than we anticipated. Anyone out there have backyard chickens and want to barter eggs for produce??? :-) Guess I shouldn't really be counting my chicken (eggs) before the harvest!