Tweet
It's been a month since I've posted any pics. It's late spring, headed for summer here and we are headed into to prime garden time. The plants in the system are 2 to 2 1/2 months old. Here are a few pics:
1) Jungle - the gravel beds are a mess! Peas that the package says would grow 18-24 inches tall are 4 feet. Beans totally took over and I pulled them out - to many bugs. Cucumbers have powdery mildew, but have 6 foot vines and 2 plants are producing 5-6 large burpless cucumbers a week. The cherry tomato plant has more tomatoes than leaves. Everything is out of control.
2) Floating Raft (DWC) full of varieties of lettuce, celery, basil. The blank spots are where we have harvested lettuce heads. Butterhead varieties are the ones showing iron deficiency OR it's just natural coloring. Celery and basil is very very slow to grow. Lettuce 2 months from seeding to harvest.
3) Betterboy tomatoes - the plant is 4 feet tall and there are orange size fruit.
4) Cucumbers - not all grow straight, but I pick them and new ones start at the same node!
5) Cherry Tomatoes - They are just turning red and there are hundreds and hundreds of these.
In addition to the grow beds and DWC, I have been watering my greenhouse plants with fish water once a week. I added a few pics of the results. Grapefruits, lemons, figs, avocados,banana plants, and even Pomegranates. I also have strawberries, carrots, limes, oranges, and much more, all are doing well.
My bug problem seems to be under control. Pulling up the bean plants, pruning off all the lower leaves to expose the gravel bed to air, AND cutting down the siphon tube so the water stays lower all made a HUGE difference. Now the lady bugs and other beneficial insects are able to keep up.
I don't have any pictures of the Blue Gill, but I netted a bunch and they have doubled in size in just the last month. The P.H. continues to drift UP, I add 2 tablespoons of phosphoric acid each week at a minimum. The water temp stays relatively stable, it drifts down to 67 degrees (19C) at night and around 70-71 degrees (21C) in the day.
I installed a temp probe that posts to the Internet, along with data from my Giant Pumpkin patch. You can see the gravel bed temperature swings here: http://www.alpinebusinessbrokers.com...Soil_Stats.htm. I have a weather station that posts lots of info to the web, including a live camera out my office window. (Unfortunately the garden is in back).
All in all, I'm pleased. Some varieties of lettuce are trying to bolt as the greenhouse warms up in the day, I'll phase out those and plant warm season varieties till fall. I cannot find ANY solids on the lettuce roots. There is some accumulation in the bottom of the raft near the outlet end. I think a lot of the solids flow along the bottom of the inlet pipe, and as there are to openings into the two gravel beds BEFORE the third outlet into the DWC, I think a lot of the solids are flowing out into the gravel beds. And the outlets are at a 45 degree angle so any solids floating along the bottom of the tube, would drop out before the DWC. I suspect I'll have to siphon off the thin layer at the end of the DWC in time, but it has not affect the lettuce growth at all.
Prev Post | Next Post