Quick Update

Weather has warmed up a little, and we had a couple of near 60 degree days. Both the trout and the veggies like things a little warmer than what it had been. Broccoli is still growing. I lost a few, though. Their trunks would sometimes get squishy in the middle in a 2-4 inch section, while everything else looked OK.

I think that if I was able to maintain a temperature inside my "greenhouse" of 30 degrees during those colder nights, I think they would be fine. This little experiment has given me a lot of hope for winter-time aquaponics with an outdoor pond. I don't think it would be too expensive to have a small greenhouse and a little heater of some sort that would be capable of keeping the air temp around 30 degrees. Day time heating on sunny days, would, of course, raise the temps in there greatly. It's just those cold nights and cold/cloudy days where you have to worry.

The trout are still very shy in sight and sound, but it's not a big deal to stand a little bit away and toss the food in from a distance. I've also noticed that, at night, they are afraid of normal flashlights, but seem unconcerned about LED lights. That got me to thinking that it would have been cool to have installed an underwater LED light in my pond for night time. The fish don't seem to notice the light at all. If they do notice it, they certainly don't seem to be afraid of it.