Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Nitrates about the same...maybe a bit toward .25. Went ahead and fed about 1 lb, and will check again in a few hours. Cleaning out some GB's and starting some more seeds.
Still no luck with the grow grips at all. Going to try soaking seeds overnight first?
Only getting 15-20% in the grips, compared to 90+ percent in the potting mix. Trying to eliminate the washing off of all the media part. If I ever do add a large GH off the RAS, I will need to figure out a more efficient way to germinate.
Going to try some seeds directly in some hydroton in a tray also.

How much did you feed yesterday? Sounds like it's improving..

Around 12 oz. A far cry from my high point a few months ago. I was doing almost 5 lbs a day...before I bought the koi. Should be able to double that with the media amount.

Chris, if you want to save yourself a headache with seedlings just buy rockwool cubes. I use the 1" cubes for all herbs and greens and they do fine in 2" net cups in the DWC. It's more expensive than soil media and isn't "biodegradable" but you can still add spent cubes in smaller amounts to a compost and it will help aerate and retain moisture in the pile

Do you put them in a 10/20 tray and just keep them moist Sam? I haven't had great luck with rockwool either?? Ryan uses them very successfully. I must be doing something wrong.

I put seeds in a tray filled with damp hydroton and Root Magic. See how they do. I was hoping to just scoop them out and add them to the dwc bed. Also cleaned out some of the malabar spinach. That stuff is crazy. I'm going to save some seeds and see if I can plant it on my c.l. fence across the front. A few hundred feet of it will keep me county in malabar spinach forever.

I haven't tried it cooked yet, just raw in salads, and we all love it. It's supposed to be used in a lot of Indian cooking as well. I don't really have any Indian recipes, but I may Google a few. I like hot & spicy, and i know they have some recipes with some fire!

Grow grips won't really work for germinating seeds. Far better off staying in the potting mix route, and transferring them.

Or go my little seeding bed route, it works a treat.

Das Boot has pretty good luck germinating in his. I think you need to soak them first, place them deeper in the grip, and keep them pushed down in the water until they sprout. It's just a lot of labor to have to wash the starting mix off the roots before planting.

The seeding bed route...I hope that works for me.

Just looking at calendar planning out schedule for next few weeks and noticed Friday is a year since I broke ground on the RAS. I sure thought I would have some salable fish by now.

I would have if these damn nitrites weren't kicking my butt. Should have, could have, would have. Just like in sports, they mean little.

If you're doing enough to worry about time, then I wouldn't use the grow grips either. They'll get expensive quickly (although, from googling, they are cheaper in the states). You'll only get one or two seasons out of each grow grip.

Look for something like horicubes:
http://www.growhubhydroponics.com/produ ... ts_id=1637

You just drop the seeds in the little holes, and then put it on a flat table that has water flowing down it on and off. Then just pull off the cubes, and drop them into a net cup. It has the added benefit that you can grow far more seedlings in a smaller area, if you're sowing direct in the DWC, you'll loose a few weeks of usable space for the seedlings to emerge and grow.

what experience or source are you referencing on the life expectancy of grow grips?

I've been using them. So just me.

Some got through just fine, lettuce ones seemed to handle it the best, but ones with basil in them were just flattened, same with anything with a thicker stem, and they didn't seem to bounce back at all.

Chris,

Yes the 1" cubes come in pieces of 200 each that fit perfectly into a 1020 flat. I soak the cubes first then put my seeds in and spray over the top. I keep a humidity dome over the top for ~48 hours until they are done germinating, when I then expose them to light. I cut some holes in the bottom of the 1020 flat so I can easily dip the tray in a light nutrient solution every 2-3 days for about 2 weeks when the plants are ready to be transplanted into the DWC. For head lettuce I put 1 seed per cube, but 2-4 seeds for greens and ~10 seeds for herbs. I do this so the canopy fills faster and I can harvest them younger without compromising net yield. It allows for a quicker turnover as well which leaves me with fewer pests and disease problems, since I'm constantly taking out the oldest plants, cleaning the rafts, and replacing with healthy seedlings. I like to grow the seedlings in the rockwool outside of the DWC for about 2 weeks and then transplant. At the densities above I am usually harvesting in about 4 weeks from transplant (6 weeks total).

Also, I never really cared for the texture of the malabar spinach. Maybe if you find a good recipe it will give me a reason to grow it since it grows so well down here.

Is there a good way to dispose of the grow cubes?

Not really Scotty. They aren't really biodegradable but as I mentioned they will add some benefit to a compost pile as long as the pile isn't mostly rock wool cubes. The big time greenhouse growers have Grodan pick up spent rock wool at the end of the season as a part of their recycling program, but for backyard growers I think the best option is to the compost pile. I'm sure other people out there have figured out more purposeful ways to use them than myself.