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!

 

Off and Running!!

 

Well, the system is finally fully planted. More or less. Might add another pepper plant or two. :-)

 

We had a bunch of seeds that we received free a few years ago, and figure they're a good risk for this system. If they don't sprout, we're not really out much. In order to improve the chances that they would sprout, I soaked them in warm water for 24 hours before putting them in the system.

 

The easiest way I could figure out to do this was to put them in ziplocks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then staple the bag the seeds came in to the ziplock. Those seeds tend to start looking alike after the 5th or 6th bag, and that was the only way I think of to keep them labeled. 

 

 

 

 

Then I put them all in a gallon ziplock, and let them sit on the table till I was ready to plant them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weather outlook finally looked warm enough to do the final planting on Friday, May 22. Here's the flat of transplants. Notice how wilted a lot of them look.

 

And here's the system fully planted:

 

 

 It's normal for plants to experience something called "transplant shock" when removed from one growing spot and placed in another. I was expecting some major shock and wilting when I changed all the plants over, since I had to not only remove them from their containers, but rinse as much of the soil from their roots as possible. I found it easiest to do this by dunking the root system into a large bowl of water and swishing the dirt off. This sounds easy. Don't be fooled. It was a mess, and took much longer than I expected. Having to handle, squish, and irritate the roots that much had me convinced it would take a while for the plants to rebound, if at all. The following are pics taken right after transplanting side by side with pics taken of the same plants 3 days later. 

 

Full system (notice the tomato plants on the second row!)

Right after transplant:

                   3 days later

 

 

 

 

Bell Pepper (2 hours after the first pic was taken, the plant was almost completely sideways and limp)

 

Friday:                                                                                              Today:

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Butternut squash. (I think they're even grown!) 

 

 

 

 

 Everything seems to be pretty happy. As I figured would happen, some of the seeds got displaced by the water flow and caught by the screening at the end of the channels. What I didn't expect was for them to seem to thrive there. I *think* these are swiss chard seedlings (they could also be spinach). It will be interesting to see if they are able to actually grow successfully there.

 

 And I found our very first bean sprouting today!

 

 

 The broccoli seeds and swiss chard seem to be sprouting nicely.

 

 

And the fish seem to have settled in as well. We did lose one large lionhead to some sort of fungus. I was worried until I discovered that, at the store, the fish from the same batch had the same fungus. This is why you should only purchase your fish from a reputable place with a good return policy.

 

(In case you don't know, I actually work for Petco, and all the fish came from there. Every other fish, beside that lionhead, is doing fantastic and growing. The lionhead was replaced per their guarantee.)

 

 This shot shows the black moor, two large lionheads (from a different batch than the one we lost), two pearlscales, a fantail, and some of the extraordinarily nice comets. Yes, I broke my rule of not combining single tails with broadtails.  But these comets have unusually long fins, which slow them down considerably. Plus, since I actually WANT some excess waste, I can overfeed quite a bit to make certain everyone gets fed.  I'm still on the lookout for one or two really nice orandas, preferably blues or calicos, and maybe a really nice calico fantail or two. We'll see.

 

I've been testing the water pretty consistently, and am amazed at the steady results. This many small and med goldfish (many of them are 4-6" long) in this size system will usually overwhelm everything with ammonia very quickly. My ammonia has never gone above a slight risk, and nitrites and nitrates remain at zero. The plants seem to be doing their job, and enjoying it. Even with water temps in the low 60's, the fish are eating well and being active.

 

I'm hoping to take weekly pics to chronicle the growth and development of the system. I imagine we will need to add something to support the tomato and possibly the broccoli plants once they start to fruit. Here's a full listing of what we've planted:

 

Oregano - transplant and seeds

Basil - transplants and seeds

Lettuces - seeds

Tomatoes - 4 different varieties - transplants

Parsley - seeds

Spinach - seeds

Swiss Chard - seeds

Peppermint - transplant

Spearmint - transplant

Butternut Squash - transplants

Chives - seeds

Pepper - transplant

Broccoli - seeds and transplants

Beets - seeds

Carrots - seeds

Thyme - transplant

Cucumbers - 2 varieties - transplants

Beans - 6 or more varieties - seeds

Summer squash - 4 varieties - seeds

Watermelon - 2 varieties - seeds

 

And that's where we sit. 19 feet of growing space. Will all of these survive and actually produce? Only time will tell! Stay tuned!

Finally, a moment to update!

 

Life has been more than a bit crazy lately, but the great fish and plant experiment continues apace.  I actually managed to get a few pic to show you all what's been happening.

 

For those of you new here, my husband and I decided to try out a vertical aquaponics system to grow some veggies and herbs. If you'd like more details, check out the blog entry just before this one. 

 

This is our blank slate, with all the supplies in one place. (Ignore the ladder. We had to find a new place to store it.)



 

 This is the 50 gallon tub that became the fish tank. It wasn't strong enough to maintain its shape on its own once it was filled with water, so I ended up building a simple wooden frame for it. (You'll see it in a later photo.



 We decided to use red lava rock as our growing media. 

 

 
 



 Here's the lid of the tub with the holes marked to create screens to allow air in but keep leaves, etc out. I cut one hole smaller than the other, then used the larger piece that was cut out to make a frame to attach to the screen. This piece sits over the smaller hole, giving me a removable lid for feeding, adding fish, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the active worksite. :-) You can see the wooden strips that the gutters will be attached to. You can also see the wooden frame I built around the fish tub. And all the way to the right, you can see who really is doing all the build work. Hubby Tom! :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's the semi-finished project. Once we set it all in motion, it seemed our pump was too weak, not filling the gutters even halfway before spilling over into the next gutter. We debated getting a stronger pump, but worried that the flow would be too strong. Then it dawned on us: reduce the slope of each gutter, slowing the flow and allowing them to fill more fully before draining.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we had everything up and running, it was time to add fish and seeds. I ended up with 10 goldfish of various types (they don't really photograph well in the tub. I'll try again on a sunnier day.) A couple of years ago I was given a bunch of free veggie seeds, so we decided to go with those to see if this worked. Provided, of course, they would germinate. I soaked lettuce, spinach, carrot, beet, oregano, broccoli, and swiss chard seeds indoors for 48 hours to give them the best possible chance of germinating. And amazingly enough, some of them are actually doing just that! I even saw a few tiny sprouts today!

 

So here's the system in its current state. The plants you see are organic starters that I picked up today at Whole Foods: Thyme, Spearmint, Peppermint, and Oregano. I also picked up two different cucumbers, 4 different tomatoes, one pepper, basil, butternut squash and broccoli plants. But it needs to be warmer before I plant those.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, as a bonus, here's a short video of the system in action. It's a tad shaky, but hopefully you can get a good idea of how it all works. (Hopefully the video works. I'm still new to all this!)

 

 

 

 

Shadow did get cast as "Cheeky" in Cross Community Players production of "Anything Goes". We had our first rehearsal this week. Plus I'm currently working 6 days a week. I'm hoping that things will settle down soon, and I'll be able to keep this blog a tad more current!