Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

JT had some extra seeds, so he donated a small portion to the government. It became the entire national seed bank (which is quite vast by anyone's standards.)

Pfft, those tomatoes are small

A Blendtec will only blend JT's vegetables after he decides that they will blend.

Stevie wonder was the last person to stare JT's tomato's in the eyes..

JT has a pepper plant that people mistake for a citrus tree.

JT once built a 10 megawatt hydroelectric dam out of some reclaimed hardwood pallets and some EDPM pond liner.

Good one Ron. I think Chuck was magnetized to the lid for awhile there.

Nice Tomatoes JT.

JT's veggies are so big they call him Mr Big Stuff

(I was free associating off of the Stevie Wonder post)

Im so overstocked on tomato plants, monsanto wants to know how I do it without gene splicing

Im not telling

jT

I'm not sure Monsanto's ears will stop ringing long enough for them to be able to read this forum. Could you imagine, Monsanto doing an about face and instead of creating GMO, switching to Aquaponics? The only problem is they would try and patent it, then come knocking on the doors of everyone doing it and say that we were infringing on their patent. Just like they did to all the farmers who did what they were taught and saved their non-Monsanto seeds.

Y'all think those tomatoes look big because of the hands for reference, right?

I met the guy, his hands are as big as 5 gallon buckets!

He can palm two basketballs and a watermelon in each hand...

But he's still one of the nicest guys I've met in a while.

---D

I was thinking, " Man those tomatoes must be ginormous, because that due has big hands!"

Well, that's been some well spent hours, read the whole thread... inspiring.

I'm curious about your plant starting, it looks like you start everything outside of the bed and transplant it? Do you do any plants from seed in the bed? What medium do you start seeds in, and what's your process for transplanting? I've been having an issue with losing seeds in my GB's I think (using .5-1.5" expanded shale) and am looking for a method to have better germination (and also get plants started indoors in the winter and transplant them to the AP greenhouse; I don't have quite the build yours is and it barely keeps things from freezing, doesn't do so well germinating).

Also what minimum temperature do you keep your greenhouse at? I guess with your solid build and location the heating isn't quite as outrageous fuel consuming, but it still isn't insignificant I'd imagine.

Also are you running all your flood cycles off one on-cycle of the pump (eg 15 min on per hour)? I saw early on you had a bypass for your high volume pump flow to go back to the sump, with the 4 large beds are you using most of the pump's flow? Why did you go with the timer run massive pump? (Just curious as to the benefits, as I went with a small continuous pump and siphons. I guess my plants spend a little more time with wet roots than yours do... what other effects/benefits do you see?)

I'm sure I'll have more questions for you, but thank you in advance for your guidance.

thanks.... its been a great journey.....



I start all my plants in flats, I can have more control over the temp by using heating mats.. I havent had much luck in tossing seeds directly into the GB's. I use an organic seed starting soil.... to help me keep everything as chemical and pesticide free as possible.

try the flats indoors and get a seed starting heat mat.....




I try and keep my winter min. temp at 45 degrees (7.2c) with the high temps during the day, I use very little propane at night...my water temp (2000 gallons in the GH) never get below 50 degrees (10c) our winters here at the coast are not so bad as we get some heating from the ocean.....




I run about 22 minutes on and 45 minutes off to turn over the entire volume of the FT every hour.... Im pumping about 80% through the FT to the GB's and the other 20% goes back to the ST which aids in O2 increase....

I started using the large pump way back when I didnt know as much , its a pool pump and has worked great for several years so far, I am planing on putting a smaller pump on sometime, probably when this one starts to give me trouble....

I do a timed flood and drain.... seems to work really well for me... the plants really like the extra oxygen that is pulled down into the rock with the fast drain.... I use Affnan siphons on all four beds and have had 0 problems with them in 3 years...



NP, ask away.....

jT

Thank you for the quick reply! I'm really trying to get some of these issues ironed out of my system so I can implement one at my parents farm/market. Between my engineering degree and a decade now being in sales and inventory I figure I should be able to build a solid economically productive system, if I can just get these darn plants to grow!



I feel better about my seed loss with your admission to the same

So do you wash the roots free of the potting soil? What size are plants/their roots when you transplant them? Why a soil instead of a lightweight starter like vermiculite/coir? I started a window box herb garden, everything in soil damped off, everything with at least a top layer of non-soil took off. I guess there are some plants that take better to transplanting than others... I've always heard peas/beans don't cope well.

Pending your response about size and root washing, have you tried other starting methods like damp paper towels or gauze that it would be easy to pull clean roots from? (granted it's not a method for getting large starts...) Any other methods? Just curious why you settled on the method you did. As an engineer, without documentation of the alternates being tried, I feel obligated to try them too

I started a few hundred tomato and pepper plants in flats to sell them, used those little expanding vermiculite/coir pellets with the biodegradable sleeves... I guess that would not be AP ideal as those can't really be washed off the roots? I think I'll find some of those heating mats for next go round as the peppers didn't get enough heat into them I don't believe.




Do you have any water heating, or just air heating? I got a stock tank de-icer for the dead of winter after all my fish died, but took it out when I restocked as figured hot coils would be dangerous to them.
Do you shut off cycling at night, at least when it is cold out? I've wondered if I lost a lot of heat leaving it run 24/7, with the air getting sucked in and out of the media and the water running through the mid-air pipes.




I guess pool pumps are probably designed for heavy cycling/duty time so good to know if I build a giant setup.

Do you think the intermittent flow is enough oxygenation for the FT? I guess that's something you've adapted your stocking ratio to... Also do you think that ST aeration is critical for getting good O2 levels? Sort of a pre-frothing of the water to it getting spraying in the FT.

Ah the Affnans... next rebuild I'll go with those but I got my regular siphons working so not touching them :fingerscrossed:. I guess that's another plant dependent thing, how much dry root time they prefer? My GBs are on constant flow, take 10-20 min to fill and then once the siphon kicks 2-5 to drain. If you had started with a smaller pump would you use the constant low flow+siphons for F&D or do you think would still do timed F&D? I guess the real question would be to compare energy consumption per gallon flowed and make sure the roots have enough air time?

Eventually I'd like to use an elevated tank+flout or somesuch to run an indexing valve. Get higher flood flow for aeration, a better-measured faster-filling unit volume of water to kick siphons in uniformly sized beds, and more time in between floods for less water logged roots. Alternately I've considered putting a specifically sized holding tank+flout above each GB to implement the flash F&D rather than the slow flood, rapid drain currently in place.

Thank you again for your input, patience, and answers!

Wow, that was a long post... The rinse, non rinse roots debate is ongoing, I am curious to know JT's answer too.