Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I wish mine had heaters! I haven't turned them over to look, actually...but I assume they don't.

Here are some future inhabitants of my AP system -- 2 lemon trees grown from seeds my son brought back from his grandparents-in-law's home in CA, and 4 tomato plants that were "pick of the litter" among the ones sprouting up in the compost pile we inherited when we bought this house. Figured I'd see what they might produce, if I can keep it warm enough to make them happy.

The lemon tree at top left needs major pruning, I think -- I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to let it grow forked like that. I just haven't had the guts to lop parts of it off without knowing what I'm doing.

That lemon tree actually looks great. Horizontal branches are your friend. It is the vertical ones you have to watch out for.

If that lemon tree is forked at the base I would go two choices. Lop off the least dominant stem and put a sealer on the cut or if the trunks are pliable get them as close to each other as possible ie touching. They will then grow into each other and form one trunk (never tried it with lemons though )
You into bonsai Ron, immature trees have branches shaped upwards like a V, mature trees (or at least youngish ones trained to look old) have horizontal branches.

I thought horizontal branches were fruit baring branches.

But that might be for stone fruit.

I'll be interested to see what the lemon tree does. I've never even seen one grow from seed, I think all ours here are grafted onto a different root stock. probably special lemon trees that are too frail to get their feet dirty.

Did you know that there is enough fuel in the form of fat, left in your frying pan after cooking a lamb chop, to cook a lamb chop?

October has been a slow month for education so far.

Actually it's been a slow month for results.

I asked a lot of questions, but the results of everything seem to be due next month.

All I've got is the lamb fat things so far.

That probably means I didn't ask enough questions last month.

I remember Radar O'Reilly said that the secret to getting lots of reassuring mail, was to send away for a stack of mail order stuff. I'm guessing the same is true for knowledge

You don't seem to get it unless you take the time to ask.



But I've been wrong before.

You know you're spending too much time in somebody else's thread when you post something to your own thread, but it tuns out to be just some other thread that feels just as comfortable as your own

Oops Sorry.

Lemons really don't need as much cultivation as stone fruits. I know my parents do nothing to their lemon bush, you could hardly call it a tree in the shape it is in, and it still bears more fruit than they know what to do with.

Make yourself at home, Bullwinkle, I'm glad you feel comfortable here. I'm happy to have your contributions; they'll keep my thread interesting until I can finally having something REAL to post about instead of just my daydreams!

Somewhere I read one time that if you let a tree grow a forked trunk, you risk it splitting in half later on. Not true? That would be a relief, actually, because it's really a nice shape, and every time I get determined I'm going to prune it properly and start trying to decide which fork I'd lop off, I give up in despair and go clean the kitchen or something instead.

Oh, there's an idea. I like that 'way better than lopping things off. Thanks!

And then, after you cook the second one, I bet you could cook two more, and after you cooked those two, another three.

This feels like it defies a law of some sort. Did Newton say anything about lamb chops in his laws?

I think that is the 4th law... A chop a-cookin' tends to stay a-cookin' until eaten up by another force.

Hmmph. The forum ate the only interesting stuff I've posted recently. Here's a rerun, for the sake of posterity:

This is kindasorta the arrangement I'm thinking of at the moment. Except for the floating strawberry tubes, which Bullwinkle suggested I put on either side of the door, which I think is a great suggestion. (Except I probably won't be able to make them float.)


And here's my fence guy beginning construction! Usually he builds fences (hence my unofficial title for him), but since he has the same greenhouse I bought a kit for, I hired him to put it up. That way it's likely to stay standing, whereas if I did it, it might have a significantly shorter lifespan. This view is from the south side of the house, looking at the north side of the greenhouse, which runs very close to exactly east-west.


Another view, with some of the ribs up -- this is from the west end, looking east.

Here's a tip for all you parents of adult children out there. If you want all of your children to call you immediately, and it's not your birthday or some sort of holiday, this is what you do:

Take a photo of yourself holding a highly toxic creature in your bare hands, and post it on Twitter with a question like, "hey, anybody know what this is?"


In this case, it turns out to be a rough-skinned newt, which exudes a highly potent neurotoxin from its skin and then tricks you into picking it up by disguising itself in cuteness.

But, hey, I didn't die*, and I heard from all my kids in a single day!


*Fortunately for me, it had just been washed out of our rain gutter by the first rain of the season, and I had plucked it out of a puddle of frigid water. I theorize that the toxins were diluted by the water, and the cold kept it from being able to react quickly enough to poison me before I put it back down.