Added some pea gravel to the Sand System

My original load of sand over time and under pressure of water has compacted, and some of the roots were starting to show, especially when I was digging my channels around the sides. I decided to add some pea gravel to the sides to see if it might help to keep some of the algae from forming. So far, it seems to be working. It's been almost a week, and there's no sign of algae on the new pea gravel. The water seems to be flowing just under the pea gravel's surface. Plan is working!

Added the pea gravel only to the sides where the water flows around. You can see the algal mat covering the sand in the middle. Much of that sand "flooded" before when the mat built up enough around the sides when it was all just sand. 

Things are looking good, despite the lack of sun.

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.

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

Progress Report on Sand System

Thought I'd post a little update on the sand system before I add in 15 tilapia to the mix. So, the growth that you see is the product of 2 good-sized goldfish - that's it. I've seen good growth in the tomatoes, and all of my seeds have germinated. I will say, though, that it seems like the seeds may have taken longer to germinate than they did in my hydroton system. Could be that the weather is the major factor in that, though, as it's been exceptionally cool and rainy this spring.

Veggies include tomatoes, green beans, edamame, cucumber, yellow squash, sweet pepper, and some basil starting to come up.

Top shot shows the grow bed when the water starts collecting. Bottom shows what it looks like after I poke a few holes in the sand with 1/2" PVC pipe. Many claim that I won't be able to keep this up for long - that the sand will compact and clog and eventually stop draining well. Maybe... but for now, things are fine with the occasional hole poking.

All in all, I'm happy so far with the sand system. Having to poke some holes into the sand to help with drainage isn't that big of a deal work-wise, but the fact that it requires any extra effort puts it at a disadvantage to my hydroton system. It will be interesting to see how the drainage fairs  over time. I think most people think it will get clogged and basically crap out. I sure hope that doesn't happen!

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

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!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Just a quick update on the garden:

Things are growing quite well. I've got about 6 different heirloom tomatoes in, some broccoli that's starting to crown, strawberries, basil, sweet and hot peppers, eggplant, and yellow squash. I'm using leftover 1/2" pvc as support for my tomatoes, which is nice, 'cause you can keep building on to it if you need more height. Other than that, I'm waiting for a call from Foster Lake and Pond about the tilapia. Should be sometime this month.

Oh yeah, I also replaced my water inlet piping, 'cause I had it going from the 1.5" feed lines down to 1/2" when I was trying a drip grid. The problem with 1/2" pipe is that it's the perfect size for hydroton to get stuck in. So, I got some 1.5" PVC. Shouldn't clog now!