Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yeah, might plant a big mix of varieties once it warms up...see what like Kal the best.

actually i think you can get all three types of strawberries. day long, day short, and day neutral.

i was surprised to see a tiny strawberry runner putting out a few fruit in the last week! its getting below 5C down here at night!

Hay Steve,
Do you know what kind of chilling requirements the different types of strawberries have? I have a feeling that most strawberry growers in FL need to grow stuff with minimal chilling requirements which might be part of the day length choice of berries for here. Strawberry season often starts in Feb here which is winter in most of the US but in FL it is the start of spring. My strawberry plants are still producing now in Late May, they are an ever bearing variety called Quinault. The tag says they produce in June and again late summer till frost so it looks like they are actually tagged to be sold up North and they might not do much of a second season here in FL. Where I grew up in Michigan, Strawberries were a June Fruit with the ever bearing types continuing to produce well into July (Growing up in Michigan summer was June, July and August.) I don't remember the exact types that My dad grew up in Michigan.

dont know much, tclynx.

i think my "winter SB's are just freaks.......but will get the variety name off the tag tomorrow after work, must sleep now

be good on the day shift at BYAP

might have had something to do with the moon hey steve 'cause I got them too!

must have! 'cause i checked the tag and they're meant to flower/fruit nov-dec which is summer here

At least temporarily the pee ponic system is playing home to one of my breeder size fish. There was too much chasing going on in the Quarantine system and I didn't want to loose one of the females right away so I netted the one I thought was doing most of the chasing and hence probably the male, and moved him into the barrel tank. I may put the females in there with him at some point and use it as a breeding system though I don't need any more fish right away.

Ok, PeePonic is back to being pee ponic now. I got a new little dosing tube.

Crazy... So 200ml a day? Say each person releases 1 liter a day... 2 people? thats 2000ml? So in reality you could have a system there that is 10 times larger?

I actually think that 200 ml might be a bit too much for a system that size but it probably depends on the strength of a person's pee.

Liquid gold diluted down will fertilize your dirt gardens too. The bananas really love the extra nutrients as will most really high nutrient fast growing plants like comfrey, tomatoes, grass, bamboo, and probably even moringa.

...I love the 'drip'.

I was wondering if a "living machine" might not work instead of a septic system (to hell with city code)?

Just because you have a septic system, doesn't mean you have to use it.

Humnaure composting is really quite easy if you have a place to have a good sized compost bin, can collect leaves (other people's bagged leaves are great), and can get some sawdust or other cover material.

Dealing with grey water can be a little trickier since the plumbing is already running to the septic or sewer but there are low tech ways to save. Like a bucket in the shower or taking the dish pan out to water the plants and of course running a hose from the washer out back to a mulch pit around your fruit trees or bushes.

The city officials need know nothing about anything. You are simply backyard composting (maintain it well and it won't be a nuisance or a danger) and conserving water by using it to water your plants. Just be very careful to keep the water going to the soil where plants can use it and never let it flow directly into water sources or over pavement. Deeply mulched areas are a good place to run grey water. Make sure to spread it around so you don't rot plants with constant water logging.

As safe as fish pee! I have worked in an ICU for the last 8 years. Human urine in the healthy person has no bacteria in it. If you work in a hospital, take a look at a few UAs and look for the bacteria count. Now your population is sick (in the hospital!) and still you will not find many.
Use it to grow plants that you can use to treat pests in the garden.

And as an added safety measure, you can store the pee in a bottle for a couple of weeks which will give it time to convert to ammonia and kill any e. coli that may have contaminated it. I did do a test some time back to see the e. coli bacteria load in urine since we all carry that one in our intestines. Fresh urine tested positive but aged urine killed it even if extensively contaminated.

Therefor we bottle up perhaps one pee per day and leave it for a few weeks before use. The rest of the urine is used to keep the humanure composting really hot and active.