Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I carpeted the inside of my greenhouse but its hard to tell for all the grass these days

Yea, eventually weeds will grow through anything.

Oh and I don't think I could claim to be the first to use old carpet around the aquaponics since Jaymee already had comments about the old carpet around her place before I ever got started.

I saw this link and thought it might be useful for you at some point (provided they fill in some of the plans and descriptions better as time goes by) - http://farmhack.net/tools

The one that I really wanted to see was the commercial processing kitchen and storage in an insulated shipping container (apparently avoids having to meet code in some ways). Unfortunately whoever started this didn't follow through yet.

Interesting the problems with the weeds growing through the fabric. Are you using the nursery cloth type? Just curious because we have used 1000's of sq ft at our plant nursery for decades and have very few weed problems. Occasionally nut sedge will pop through, but never any broadleaf. We did have some issues with some weeds in an area where the fabric had a lot of organic matter on top of it. but, as long as it was kept blown off, never issues. My experience to date is DWC, GB, and towers in terms of growth. Although, in terms of fruit production, my towers have more berries then my Gb's...at least for now. I have no idea how long they will keep producing. Sure couldn't make money on those things.lol Good luck with the new towers. I do like the idea of taking the towers to "market" and letting customers pick their own produce. Seems like an easy marketing idea. I'm currently contracting with the NSA to set up satellite surveillance on Chatterson's farm, I will report my results later. Ryan know's so much about this stuff, it's kind of frustrating at times. I do await his posted with great anticipation...hoping to learn something new. This whole forum has been a God send for me. Happy and prosperous New Year TC.

Grass is the toughest thing to keep from growing through the weed block. Bindweed is also a problem but it doesn't grow through the cloth it sends long runners over the top and then sprouts up. A lot of weeds just spout on the gravel, 10 inches deep on top of weed block and still get weeds. I think it just rains so much here in the Winter that they grow anyway. At least they are easy to pull.

The construction in a shipping container is really just getting round the "building permits" you still need to put in a kitchen that meets the regulations for the health inspections. To a large extent why I was looking at some of the vending trailer ideas.

As to the weed mat coachchris, alot will depend on the site prep. I haven't had the money to spend on heavy grading equipment to basically level and compact and get rid of the weeds in the first place and if you are not starting from a blank slate like that, it is probably unfair to expect any weed mat to work well. And I'm also not very likely to keep ALL organic matter blown away (I don't like leaf blowers any better than mowers or weed eaters) I've seen weeds start growing on cold frames before. Unless the area is really well cleared and kept that way, it is hard to stop weeds. At a large nursery I would expect more clearing to be done to keep weeds at bay since they otherwise invade the nursery plants but I have trouble justifying the time/expense or chemicals to be spraying all around the growing area here. It isn't like the weeds are actually managing to invade the aquaponics, just annoying around the walkways.

Taking towers to market seems like a great idea on the surface but if doing "farmers Markets" it isn't so easy when you figure that hauling water and towers takes a lot of space and weight so it isn't like you can easily haul enough towers to make a heck of a lot from them in one 5 hour market. Taking towers to a fixed market means you really need to have the staff of the Market onboard to help educate the customers about how to pick as well as to tend the towers (make sure they haven't clogged and keep them nice/clean looking) since you don't necessarily want to be driving very far on a daily basis just to check the towers unless the market is actually busy enough to warrant you showing up every day to get money and swap out towers.

The farmers market I'm doing right now, I take one tower Spring system and I have an aquarium on the trailer that hooks up to a bus tub media bed with grow stones media (because it is light enough that I can pick up the tub with media and small plants) as well as a bus tub raft bed using a 5 gallon bucket as sump tank and a 25 watt pump. That serves as demo and people like seeing the vertical tower but the truth is in a tropical to sub tropical climate, vertical growing is not necessarily THAT much more productive if you have the space you can spread out. In higher latitudes I think the towers make far more sense especially when greenhouse space, light, and heating for winter become factors. Here, if you are doing this out in the open, vertical growing has some temperature drawbacks as well as the fact that here the sun spends more time closer to overhead.

AS to berries, strawberries can be pretty picky about water chemistry as well as temperature. It has been a kinda warm winter this year so far so the strawberry plants may not have experienced enough chilling to really get them going. Growing strawberries vertically makes lots of sense primarily because in horizontal media beds you are likely to loose more fruit to rot from sitting on the media. Anyway, I got lots of strawberry plants but I still don't think my pH is really low enough to keep them happy.

TC, your spot on on all points. We did strip, grade, and install the fabric. We also use glyphosphate for weed control around the mat and in larger containers. I don't use any non OMRI rated chemicals in my AP greenhouse, but it's tiny...under 200 sq ft. I will most likely use GC cloth if I ever do a larger AP greenhouse. If I can't spray, I don't want to pull.lol You make some valid points on the towers in terms of "bringing them to market". I have a friend of mine who has a 20 acre blueberry farm and who grew strawberries 1 year. He had to spray them 2-3 times per week and lost money on the crop. Blueberries are much easier and profitable. I have a decent crop going...will have to see how they mature. My family loves to eat them, but it's certainly not a cash crop. Good luck with all the new plantings!

Blueberries are a major crop right around where I live now. Too bad the chilling hours have been so minimal this winter so far but yea they are easier than strawberries if you are not using chemicals and they have replaced some of the citrus in this area. One of the Blueberry farms right by me is actually USDA certified Organic.

Hey TC here's a picture of the net pot thing on my pump today. If the leaves are still problem with a setup this big then I'd probably put the pump inlet under a pile of gravel or something. I think those are 4" or 5" pots.

Ah ok, I see not actually putting the whole pump inside the basket. I've done something sort of like that but the net pots were too whimpy and they actually collapsed in under the pressure from debris against them (granted it was on a Danner MD18 which is a 1800 gph pump that I wasn't asking to lift the water more than about a foot. so a rather powerful pump to pit against a whimpy little net pot.)

At least one of the new pumps has shipped and is expected to arrive by next Thursday.

On a bright note, market today was better than any of the days in December. Not good enough yet to get me to commit to being there every week but good enough that I think giving the rest of January a go might be worth it. If we don't get any gangbuster days this month, then I won't bother booking a spot at that market for Feb.

I knew there was a reason I liked you, TC. Former stagehand, sound engineer, steel climber, etc. myself. Did The Recording Workshop in Chillicothe in the early 90's. They had just installed their "digital" studio which, if memory serves, consisted of an 8GB Mac and a few peripherals. Used to have a working vacation at the Barbara Mann Theater at Edison College in Ft Myers. I left a one off Def Leppard gig at the Orlando arena with a hernia after having to carry one of their Super Trooper spotlights from one side of the top of the arena to the other. Ahh, the "good" old days... Now I'm designing my beds so I don't have to bend over too much. Pushing road cases certainly takes it's toll...

Oh cool working in entertainment must be glamorous, you get to see all those different places and work with famous people etc.........

Right, but in reality, you see the inside of a bus, the inside of a theatre or inside of a ballroom and never have a chance to "hang out" with the starts but generally spend all your time "Pushing Boxes" or laying out cable or wrapping up cable and "Pushing Boxes". Did I mention we push boxes for a living? LOL

Don't forget getting to eat whatever they demand they and their crew eat. Try climbing steel 16 hours a day for a week while suddenly being subjected to a vegetarian diet. Bodies were virtually falling out of the sky due to arms and hands cramping due to low potassium and protein. HATED McCartney's 1990 world tour. Then again, Stones had 53 trucks worth on Steel Wheels... Sunrise in a stadium really is NOT pretty...

But sitting behind the desk waiting for the curtain to go up, feeling the tingle!! But then I did theatre musicals, no stadiums. Been there, done that got the tee shirts.

And breakfast at the service station outside Oxford is the criteria of the worst meal ever!! Whenever I eat a meal that's not up to scratch I can compare it and and think!!!!

Yea riggers are NOT what I normally think of when I think vegetarian, while many would benefit from reducing the meat and refined carbs a little in their diet, DON'T cut out meat entirely or suddenly when the crew could be dropping things on you.

The musicals I've done and Riverdance was generally the easiest tour I ever did because we had been out for SO long that we had moving the show down to science meets art form but I was just sick of touring by then, it was impossible to really eat healthy on the road. I've also done the industrial and corporate shows, sick of that too. All the work with generally none of the excitement but long work hours and uptight producers that expect shows to be flashier than before but with the new economic reality in budgets. (What you want me to put on an effect int he ballroom that will make it look like the audience is traveling through space? And you want that $80,000 effect for only $3000?) Sigh.