This Blog is Over

Well, we sold our house and moved finally! Good news for us, but not such good news for this blog. Since it's pretty location-specific, I'm going to end it. I'm going to see if there's a way to archive this, as there might be some useful info on it for others, but there won't be any new content.

I will be starting from scratch with aquaponics at some point this late winter/early spring. We're renting as of this moment, so I probably won't be doing anything permanent. But, I can't see myself going through a growing season without some sort of aquaponic system set up!

You can follow my new exploits when they happen at my website http://www.briannaess.com

There's pretty much nothing there right now, but I'll be working on getting it up and running with content as time permits.

Feeding Time

Borrowed the underwater camera and let it run during a couple of different feedings to see how the fish were doing underwater. Added some of the soundtrack from The Life Aquatic. Enjoy!

Caterpillars Love Broccoli

I've been battling caterpillars for the past 4-5 days or so. They have waged war upon my broccoli.

This is one of the little buggers. They have a silk-like web that they spin around themselves, too.

Here is a close-up. Please let me know if you know what species this is.

You can see all the holes and fragmented leaves. I've pulled off about 30-40 of these daily.

Tomatoes are already as tall as my stakes. I'm going to have to figure out what to do about this.

Broccoli crowns coming in. I'm checking these multiple times per day to monitor for flowering. I have a feeling they will flower.

Quick Pond Update

Broccoli about to start producing. It's been so hot and taken so long, though, that I'm afraid all I'm going to get are broccoli-scented yellow flowers! Tomatoes are doing well, though.

Yellow squash doing well, as usual. Tomatoes and peppers in here not growing quite as fast. Might be more shade here.

Other than that, I put in a new 7" circular aeration stone. It's really cranking the bubbles up now, and I feel like the water clarity has improved ever so slightly.

Tilapia seem to be thriving now that the water temps are up. Eat and be merry, young tilaps!

Ant Invasion

So I was cutting my pond plants back today, which I need to do at least twice a summer, when I noticed that the bubbles from the aerator didn't seem as strong as they usually do. After collecting all the cut leaves/branches with my waders on, I picked up the aerator's air diffuser to see if it needed some cleaning, which it did. But that still didn't quite do the trick. So, I clomped over to the sprinkler cover that houses the aerator (Easy Pro Linear Aeration Kit (LA5N)), and the entire inside of the sprinkler housing was thick with ants. I'm talking millions of ants here.

I doused them with some bleach and water, which took care of most of them, though there were way too many survivors, pulled the aerator out of there to clean/dry it off, and that's when I noticed that the ants just seemed to keep coming out of the aerator.

Sure enough, they had made their way INSIDE the aerator's housing - all the way inside. In every orifice of the housing and under the motor, there were ants. Even after completely disassembling the unit and cleaning it, there were still ants popping out of there from time to time. I think they might have even made it inside the motor.

I despise ants. They are everywhere and in everything around here. But, I have to give them credit. They are an amazingly resourceful creature, and they can make a home in the least likely places.

Early May Update

Nothing too exciting to report. Things are growing. It's cold here for spring! Figures that as soon as I get my tilapia, we start going back to low 70's for highs and low to mid 40's for lows! Past 3 years, we'd have already hit 90 several times and be well into summertime temps. Oh well, I'm sure it will get hot before I know it.

In the mean time, we are enjoying lots of strawberries - about 6-10 per day. At least those that aren't too chewed up by the bugs. The mystery bugs are roly-poly's - or at least some close relative of them. They are voracious, and my attempts at drowning them have no effect. They just climb up the leaves and the fruit to higher ground. The drowning method has worked on the ants, though, as they need to rescue their larvae. They get the hell out of there when the water gets high!

Photos below. We also had a banner year for irises in the pond.

Aquatic vegetation getting out of control already! But the irises are nice. Pond in the foreground, waterfall on the right (obscured), and the grow beds with PVC supports in the background.

Tomatoes (2), sweet pepper, and a bunch of broccoli about to start producing heads

The strawberry bin. I'm trying to tie up the berries to keep them up off the surface while I flood to keep the ants out.

yellow squash (2), leftover spinach, sweet peppers (2), tomato - will probably add another 2 tomatoes after the spinach has been harvested.

Some of the strawberries ripening

My enemies the rolly-poly's feasting on my berry!

Close up of some of the irises

Very Quick Update

Had a busy weekend, so I didn't get a chance to get any photos, but I wanted to put out a couple of updates. First, I picked up 40 tilapia on Thursday. I initially put 15 into my sand system. However, Thursday night and Friday night dipped down in the 40's, and I was worried about the cool temperatures and the effects on the fish. So, I moved as many as I could into the pond. I got all but 2 out. The other two remaining were small and too damned fast to catch! I also lost a large one, who jumped out of the tank during the first night. Sad.

The tilapia in the pond seem to be OK. I've seen several feeding, though not all. I transferred 3 large goldfish into the sand system, so that is now holding 3 large goldfish and 2 small tilapia.

I've discovered that I don't need to poke holes in the sand. All I have to do is scrape away the algal mat on the top. I scrape it away in large chunks and then move those chunks to the surface of the sand under the plants (where the water doesn't get to). It should provide a bit of a mulch layer.

In my pond system. I've discovered that some other bugs are the major culprit in eating my strawberries. I don't know what they are, and I'll try to post a picture soon, so that someone who does know can identify them. They're extremely common around here. I've seen them in my compost piles, too.

I put in 3 uniseals in my three grow beds where the open hole overflow drains were, and I put in 2" pipe with elbows. When I flip them up, it serves to prevent water from overflowing out, so that I can flood my plants and get rid of the pests. It seems to be helping quite a bit, and I'm wondering if there are benefits to periodic flooding of the plants that I hadn't thought of before.

It also brings to mind the likelihood of growing rice in my system. I'm definitely going to look into it, as I think it would be quite easy to start off with less hydroton and keep adjusting the flood height and adding hydroton. I think that's how it works! Like I said, I need to read up on it.

ANTS!

So, some of the pests that I see frequently in my pond/hydroton system are ants. For the most part, they aren't a problem, though they do enjoy some of the sweeter fruits that you might grow, like tomatoes and strawberries. Well, since I have quite a few strawberries growing right now, I'd really like to limit the losses I take from the ants. By ants, I'm talking about sugar ants (or at least that's what people call them down here). They don't bite, and they can live just about anywhere - under leaves, rocks, inside toys, etc.

Well, turns out that hydroton makes a nice ant home, too, especially if you have a couple of inches of hydroton that don't get too wet from your inflow.

So, the question is how to get rid of them? I don't want them eating all my food!!

Yesterday, I tried to flood them out. I basically just turned up the volume of the inflow so that it was faster than it could drain. The problem is that I have overflow holes just drilled into the grow beds, so when the water got that high, it all overflowed. A terrible waste of water!

But, it worked. The ants got the heck out of there. I met their escape with my garden hose, which at least served to scatter them temporarily. I'd wager that they'll be back soon enough, though. There were some other critters in there that ran from the flood, too. Interesting...

My plan is to install some bulkhead fittings into my drain holes so that I can at least prevent the water from spilling out onto the ground. I don't really have any better ideas, though, do you?

Early Season Update

First, an update on my sand-based system. I noticed today that the water was collecting on the surface of the sand more than usual. Turns out that an algal mat is forming, and as a result, the water was having a hard time permeating into the sand. This is to be expected, and it's not a big deal. In fact, I think the algae will play an important role in the nutrient cycle for the plants I'm trying to grow. Problem was easily remedied by poking a few holes in the sand using a piece of 1/2" PVC pipe.  I imagine I'll have to do that regularly. Luckily, I planned ahead for something like this, and created channels in the sand around the outside of the grow beds for the water to move through. Since I don't plan on planting anything in these channels, I'm not interfering at all with any of my plants by poking holes into the sand.

My pond-based system is cranking along nicely. I'm in full swing in terms of spring veggies. See photos below. I'm particularly excited about the strawberries. They look fantastic, and there look to be a record number of berries on the way. I thought of a new term today for my system: "aquapondics". You heard it here first!

Cilantro in rear (left), arugula in rear (right), spinach in middle, and broccolini on left/right front

Strawberry grow bed. This grow bed is devoted entirely to strawberries, and they survive year-round (even when the entire grow bed froze solid with ice this past year)

Two tomato seedlings just planted on left, spinach in the middle, broccoli on right (with some leftover cilantro growing up in the spinach)

Pond with grow beds in the background

Spring Veggies Coming Along Nicely!

In my established system, things are looking really good. I've already harvested a ton of arugula that we've used in salads and also made a nice pesto out of. There's more arugula on the way, too. Spinach is looking nice and ready for harvest. More salad for me and spinach quesadillas for my son. Some of the cilantro grew up nicely, and that ended up in some of my famous salsa (thank you Giemzales!) The strawberries are looking fantastic, and there are plenty of flowers blooming.

The broccoli seeds have germinated well, as have the broccolini, so things are looking up. With one batch of arugula out of the way, I have some space for tomatoes. I've already purchased 4 seedlings, but the weather's not cooperating. It's been over 80 the past two days, but it's supposed to drop to near 32 tonight and not get above 60 for the next 5 days. So, I'll wait a week to stick them in the grow bed.

Some of the worms that I put in there last year survived the winter. I'm not sure how they managed that, since the grow beds were flooding continuously. Hardy little suckers!

Spinach on the right, broccoli on the left (need to thin it)

Strawberries

Cilantro/broccolini on the left, spinach in the middle, arugula on the right

Pond plants seem to be taking off even earlier this year than normal.

Night fish pics

Getting ready to go on my annual snorkeling adventure to the Virgin Islands, and I was playing around with the underwater camera and lights last night in my pond. It was pretty cold, and I put on my waders and just sort of lowered the camera into the water, so the photos aren't all that great, 'cause I couldn't really aim through the viewfinder, but some of them turned out OK. The water appears to be a little murky. That's partially from me stomping around in my waders, but it's also been very warm the past couple of days, and the algae has been very active. Once the water plants are able to kick into overdrive, they take up any excess nutrients, and the algae settles down to a level that the fish can manage.

I was hoping to get some pics of catfish, but they are still very small and very skittish. I'll try again during the day.

Update on Pond System

Well, after that one sticky week where everything had frozen into a solid block of ice, everything has been working perfectly. I did not detect any new leaks or pipe cracks or any other negative consequences of the super cold. My plants actually survived for the most part, which is amazing, and a testament to the resilience and vigor of plant life itself. I did lose some arugula, but the plants that survived are doing quite well.

I've added more seeds, and I'm hoping the warm conditions will last long enough to let them germinate and form a root to tap into the lower levels of the grow beds where the water is.

Looking forward to April, when things will get going in full force!

FROZEN

OK, so flood and drain is all right during the spring, summer, and fall, when it's not ridiculously cold, but when it doesn't get out of the mid-30's for days on end, and it gets below 20 every night for a week, flood and drain with an outdoor pond is not smart!

Checked on things this morning, and it appears that my aerator, though powerful enough for my pond, is not powerful enough to keep the whole damn thing from freezing over! I had 1-2" thick ice covering the entire pond, so my pond pump wasn't getting enough water to send through the system, which then caused my return line to freeze, too.

I'm just hoping that the return line doesn't crack or burst when it thaws out.

Assuming it doesn't, I'm gonna switch the pump to run 24/7, which worked last year to keep the pond ice-free for the duration of the winter, which was also quite cold. Continuous flow for the cold season.

I wondered if this was going to happen, and I now I know.

I've got the pump off today, which means that the plants won't get any water. I'm just hoping the plants survive the day while I'm at work. I'm hoping to put some water into the pond today, which should warm it up a bit, and get that pump going full steam.

BTW - putting your hands into icy pond water repeatedly to try and get the pump to go sucks when it's 18 degrees out.

UPDATE -

2-3 days have now passed since this post, and despite day time temperatures climbing above freezing all three days, the grow beds are quite literally frozen solid. I've removed the greenhouses from above them, hoping that the rain we're getting now will be able to penetrate into the hydroton and help to thaw it out. Tomorrow, it's supposed to rain and reach the upper 40's. With any luck, everything will thaw out and the return lines will drain. If that happens, I'll be able to turn everything back on. Even if that does happen, I wonder if the plants are still alive, as their roots are quick literally frozen into a block of ice right now. Should be interesting!

UPDATE 12/12 -

Got 2 out of the 3 growbeds going again. The 3rd is still frozen in the return line. The arugula there doesn't look it will make it. Many of the leaves look translucent, as if all the chlorophyll has abandoned the plant. Nevertheless, I'd still like to get the flow going again, though it's supposed to be even colder tomorrow night than it was last week. Based on last year, though, as long as the water was flowing, it never completely froze over or through, and everything was still working. We'll see...

No trout, but we got catfish

I couldn't find a trout supplier this year. Bummer. I'm sure I could have found one way out near Tennessee and driven 4 hours+, but it wasn't worth it. Instead, I found out about Southeast Pond Stocking (http://www.seponds.com/) and picked up 20 channel catfish. They happened to be making a delivery round, and one of their stops was in Siler City, about 15 minutes from my house.

I think the catfish are used to the good life of coastal living and warmer temperatures, though! They probably were in for quite a shock when they arrived in my pond, and water temps were about 40 degrees. Temps. are probably lower now, as we're in the middle of a serious cold spell, with day time temps in the mid 30's and night time temps below 20 degrees (fahrenheit).

Hopefully, they'll pull through!

The arugula in one of the grow beds is doing really well, which the spinach in one of the other grow beds is doing pretty well. The others are still very small and fragile looking. Not sure what's going on, but at this point, there's not much that I can do. The mini-greenhouses are doing OK. I think the larger issue is that the trees around my property are getting tall enough that they're starting to shade the growing space for more hours of the day. Short of hiring some tree trimmers to come in and cut off the top third of the trees, there's not much I can (or will) do.

Mini-greenhouses or coldframes - not sure what to call them

First post in a while. I've been so busy with work and travel that I haven't had any time to spend in the garden. Maybe that's why it's been so sucky lately??

Anyway...

Dedicated readers (if there are any) may remember that last year, I put together a makeshift, greenhouse-like structure out of old fencing, some fenceposts, and some plastic tarps. Rather than go down that same path this year, I decided to build a mini-greenhouse for each of my grow tubs.

 First, I built a wooden frame around the grow bed. Not as easy as it sounds, even though all the grow beds are the same product. They each seem to sag in a different way, so each of the frames had slightly different dimensions and different heights.

 

Next, I created a PVC greenhouse using mostly existing 1/2" PVC that I had from other experiments uses. I bought special 45 degree elbows and special 3-way fittings for the bottom corners from a greenhouse supply store.

  

Once the PVC frames were done, I used my old plastic that I used last year. I basically rolled the frame in the plastic, then used plastic clips to hold the clear/opaque plastic to the PVC frame. Each greenhouse has 2 little chimneys that I'm hoping will help it from getting too hot in there. Though the plastic drapes down the sides, it's certainly not air tight, so there should be some air flow, even when the sides are fully down.

 

 Here's a view through all 3 greenhouses. I rolled up the sides to keep air moving through there. I probably will keep it rolled up until it gets closer to 25 degrees at night. 

The cilantro, arugula, and spinach that I've planted, along with the tub full of strawberry plants, proved last year that they can handle the cold. The greenhouses should help warm things up during the day nicely, and they'll keep the frost off of the plants at night. Another side benefit is that they keep the leaves from landing on the grow beds! This time of year, it's a daily chore picking the leaves out.

I put in another order for rainbow trout this year. It went so well last year, I figured we'd do it again this year!

July Update

Just a quick update with photos. Things are going pretty well, except that every now and then, my tomato structure will fall down. The plants with large tomatoes are extremely heavy, and I've got all kinds of string trying to keep the pvc pipe towers in place. I'll need to do something better next year - maybe some kind of rack that hangs above that I can fasten the PVC into for support.

Tomato taste report:
- The Amish paste continue to be the most productive in terms of #'s of tomatoes, but their taste isn't all that special. They make nice salsa, though
- I let those 3 large, green German Johnson's sit on the windowsill, and lo and behold, they turned red and taste good.
- I've had a couple of the Moonglow's. They have a subtle flavor and a nice texture. I ate one tonight that I just picked right before, and it seemed a bit watery.  That got me to thinking that maybe it's best to let them sit on the windowsill after picking for a day or two to sort of let them dry up and enhance the flavor. Thoughts?

Cherokee purple (left) and Brandywine (right)

Moonglows and Cherokee purple

The whole system

Trouble with German Johnson's

From the beginning, they seemed a bit weak in the system. I bought them as organic seedlings from Whole Foods. They just never seemed to take well to my aquaponics system, though they had 3 very large tomatoes (still green) on them. For the past week, they've looked weak and wilted, as if they weren't getting enough water. I tried giving them a little boost of nutrients, I tried pouring fresh water over their roots, and I tried cutting the water level down a little. Nothing - they remained wilted. I finally pulled them up yesterday, 'cause they simply didn't look like they were going to make it. The roots looked pretty rotten.

Doesn't make sense, as there are several other tomato plants in that same grow bed, and all are doing fine and producing fruit and looking healthy.

So, maybe it's just that German Johnson's don't do too well in aquaponics (or my aquaponics)? Or maybe I just had a couple of weak plants.

Will try them again next year to see if they consistently perform poorly in my system.

Update and a Reminder

First, the reminder:
- Once your plants are well established and large, you should check your drains periodically (maybe every 2 weeks) for root invasion. Roots grow very quickly and will spread throughout your grow beds. One of the best spots for a root to find is the drain, as it has a nice flow and a steady supply of nutrients. If you aren't vigilant, you may find that your drains have clogged with roots, and your grow beds will overflow.

Now the update:
See for yourself. Things are looking good. Tomatoes are large and healthy. Shouldn't be too much longer before they start to turn color. Some varieties are more prolific than others. Cherokee purple's are probably doing the best in terms of making the most fruit. Also doing well are the Amish pastes and the Brandywines. Not doing so well are the Pineapple somethings and the Moonglows, which only have about 2 tomatoes each on the vine. Not sure why this would be - it could be a great many things. Maybe they like a different pH? Maybe they need more or less sun? Maybe they need more or less water/nutrients? Or maybe they just take longer to get going?

Also, you can see that the yellow squash is repeating the feats of last year by showing MONSTROUSLY large leaves. It seemed at first that they were more normal-sized, but at this point, they are MUCH larger than the squash I have in the dirt. Also, you have to be careful to not leave the fruit on the vine too long. You go away for the weekend and come back to squash the size of bowling pins!

Problem Solved!

I went with the cheap and easy option - elbows! Found a neat little piece of conduit in the electrical department for the overflow ($3). Kinda looks like this:

          ------(
)-----/

Happened to have some 2" pipe and a 2" elbow, and had some leftover aquarium caulk.

So, I put in the piece I bought (middle), put in the 2" elbow (and a lot of caulk), had to move the pump outlet over a little (the pipe on the right was longer, so that the pump was centered in the skimmer) to make room for the previous two items (and added a lot of caulk), and voila!

Did all of this just in time for the 2.5" of rain we got yesterday. Now the pond is at an all-time high level, with probably an extra 300+ gallons in it from before.

Took the opportunity to update the veggie photos.

Broccoli looking really good. I cut a bunch of it already, fearing that I would somehow let it sit too long again and have it flower.

Tomatoes, broccoli, strawberries, squash, etc.

Basil, tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, etc.

Small Problem - Losing water on the drain cycle

OK, so flood/drain is definitely working out well for the plants, and I'm pretty sure that the fish like the bubbles when they kick on. It reminds me of Finding Nemo ... "bubbles!!!"

However, and this may be a problem unique to my set up, the cycling is causing me to lose water, and the equilibrium level of water is less than optimal. Here's what's happening...

In my pond, I have a skimmer with the pond pump at the bottom. The idea behind the skimmer is obvious - it allows you to catch stuff floating on the top before it sinks and then gets sucked into the pump. Now, whether that works as well as it should is another matter that I don't want to get into here. At the back of the skimmer is an outlet for the electrical cord from the pump to go underground to the outlet. There is also an overflow outlet that goes out the back, travels on a french-drain like gravelly-path to a small pit that I dug underground and lined with gravel and sand. This works quite well for keeping the pond from overflowing.

Here's the catch, though. While the pump is pumping, the 3 tubs with plants are filled with water. When the pump shuts off, that water drains out from the tubs and into the pond, raising the water level. When the water level reaches the overflow drain, the water flows out of the system.

I am most comfortable with the water level when it is just below the level of the drain, but as you can see, this is not currently possible for very long. Every time the tubs drain out and the water level comes up, I lose water until the maximum water level (when the pump is off) is below the overflow drain.

What I need is a way to automatically seal the overflow when the pump kicks off - or, better yet, seal the entrance to the skimmer. This way, the pond can handle the extra water, as there's plenty of space in the pond before it overflows.

If not that, I need to re-engineer my overflow so that it can somehow store the water while the pump is off and the level is higher until the pump kicks back on and it can handle the additional volume.

Any suggestions?