Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Sounds like you have other plans for now, look forward to seeing your system shape up. Cheers

My own conclusion was that greenhouses are big and expensive because they are built for people to get in and walk around in them. My plans for now are to just put cold frames around each bed with lids to tend to the plants.

I have some of those little plastic greenhouses that you see at the garden center for starting seeds. My seedlings were going well, but not getting enough light inside the house, so I put them out on the patio this morning. After 4 hours in the sun, all the seedlings were dried up and dead. Cold frames may be ok, but might require lots of attention to manage the temps. The auto-openers on greenhouses certainly have an advantage there. Perhaps you could retrofit some for the cold frames.

I'm thinking more and more about the HF greenhouse now.

I had a houseplant that was used to the dim inside my office and put it outside and the sun killed it, basically fried with a sunburn. Maybe the plants should be hardened for direct sunlight as well as outside temps. My planters will be soaking in the tub so to speak, so they shouldn't die from drying out. The circulating water might also keep the inside from getting too hot as well, but we'll see what happens there.

Hi Dave,

Cold frames work ok, probably best for early in the season, but the main thing is the temperature swings are very rapid in such a small space. The other thing you will run into is not enough vertical growing space for things like tomatoes and cucumbers. Many people who use them just do it to get an early start on the season - not for year round growing.

Something like this might work for you over a growbed http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/prod1;ft1_coldframes_hightunnels;pg104155.html

Maybe hinge it on one side so you can open it on warm days. PVC hoops look like they will work also.

You may be on the right track, I see no reason why this wouldn't work for most plants given enough attention.

http://www.harborfreight.com/retail-flyer

This weekend! 10x12 HF greenhouse for 699. March 17-21 I think. I'm gonna get one - can anyone direct me to, email me or give me a 20% off coupon?

Deja,

What's your email....?

I received a 20% off email about 30 min ago..........

Dave Donley, are you thinking about cooking up some biocharr, terra preta ? I have been looking into cahrcoal retorts, but in my subdivision, it may not be practical. I bought a bag of charcoal at HEB grovery store, it was $3.80 for 6.6 lbs. Enough for me to play around with and make a mess... Whatcha got planned.

Oh, and dejavu, what kind of seedlings are you cranking up ?

Hi MM, see my 2011 and 2010 threads about my use of charcoal so far. Was your experimental stuff hardwood charcoal or the briquets? I have been buying bags from Lowe's for around $7 each, and am interested in making my own but don't have a lot of time to put that together. I wish I could just buy a WorldStove BBQ to grill and make charcoal at the same time, but they don't seem to be available.

RS - sent you a PM with email info. Thanks again!

MM - I've got some tomatoes seeds I started in flats...they are not doing so well. I need more practice at starting from seed. I also have some watermelon, lot of beans, strawberries in the IBC system right now are doing great...lot of little green berries on those already. Ate some spinach from the system today. Cucumbers, beets and probably a couple other things I cannot remember at the moment all started from seed inside.

This was my first year to try and start from seeds in the house in flats. So far I'm pretty unimpressed with my abilities. Almost everything sprouted right away, but once a couple inches of growth, most things fell over and dried out. Lack of light inside, and then when I moved them outside they all dried up. Maybe I'll have better luck next year in the GH. This year, I'll have to buy the plants at the garden center.

Deja PM me if you still need a 20% coupon if RS can't get you one, I have been getting a lot of emails from HF and some include the 20% coupon.

I've always just thrown seeds into the AP gravel and that has worked fine, is it that you're just trying to get the plants going despite the cold?

Ya - I was trying to get a jump on the last frost, which never seem to come. I had thrown a bunch of seeds into the AP system before the last freeze we got (and most had sprouted), a couple survived but for the most part they all died off. I usually have a dirt garden to fill also, but the way things are going I probably won't get to it for spring. The concrete guys are doing some work over on that side of the house pooring some footings for raised beds, but I won't get to finish them before summer. I was going to build the beds so that I could convert them to growbeds at some point in the future. Anyway the dirt garden is probably a loss for this year anyway.

Will PM you with email...thanks!

@DD, the stuff I bought from my local gorcery store was all natural whole lump charcoal. It was some hardwood, don't recall which. I also saw some at Lowe's, but it was more expensive per pound. I'll read up on your thread to see about the charcoal.

@Deja, I have four tomatoes that I had bought at Southwest fertilizeri n Bellaire. They are all doing great. Lots of flowers. Some have fallen off, dunno if that's part of the normal process, or it that's bad. I started peppers, and cucumbers from flats, as well as three kinds of lettuce. The peppers and cukes look great. Some of the lettuce probably went in too early (not big enuf or hardened off) and got roasted and fell over. I did seed some spinach directly into the hydroton, and I am pleasantly surprised that its got a good germination rate.

I bought a tomato plant from Walmart a couple years ago that already had flowers on it, so I was excited to get a jump on it. Planted it in some really good soil with lots of compost. All the flowers fell off and the plant never did grow any fruit that ripened.

Check out Dufflight's poo blocks for starting seeds (poo from his swirl filter dried and compressed and formed into seed-starting blocks), that looks pretty cool to me and probably would never fail.

It's not unusal for many store brought plants to do that....

Basically... they've been so badly treated and stressed... that they're throwing to seed as a last resort survival mode....