A group dedicated to raft growers. A place to share tips, tricks, and general info.
Website: http://coastviewaquaponics.com
Members: 378
Latest Activity: Dec 8, 2022
Started by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. Jul 2, 2017. 0 Replies 0 Likes
Just an FYI. Here is the link to the youtube vid: http://bit.ly/2sLEAgABelow is a still of the system.…Continue
Started by Courtney. Last reply by kimlee kingston Jan 4, 2015. 2 Replies 0 Likes
Hi everyone! I had some issues with setting up a grow bed's plumbing and it got me to thinking, in the interim, can I just set up a raft directly onto the fish tank? If it were any other kind of…Continue
Started by Paul Trudeau. Last reply by Joni Solis Nov 14, 2014. 37 Replies 6 Likes
Glenn Martinez has described a nice small raft system where he uses 24 inch x 36 inch x 8 inch-deep plastic masonry mixing tubs (trays) (available at Home Depot) as plant troughs. Instead of…Continue
Started by Michael Gough. Last reply by Michael Gough Aug 20, 2014. 3 Replies 1 Like
Aloha all,Just joined today. 2 years ago had taken a tour of Coastview Aquaponics operation. Going back to the big island IN 4 WEEKS to see what damage our Puna property sustained from the…Continue
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@Tarah Bertsch - A few pictures would help, but I'll go out on a limb and guess that the plants shriveled up near the top of the net pot media. It's probably too late to save your plants, but you should remove infected plants, and sanitize with a 3% hydrogen peroxide using a spray bottle.
Here's one of many threads about pythium
http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/forum/topics/the-dreaded-py...
Here's a search on this site
http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/main/search/search?q=pythium
Does anyone live in Michigan near Ottawa County??? I need someone with experience to help me as I am at a loss with saving our plants. If there is a mold problem do you take out all the plants?? What do you do. We finally had a few grow into somewhat of a lettuce but are now also turning brown. I am getting so frustrated as I have poured everything into them and it's utterly failing.
John, I did something similar recently with similar results. Takes a little work to figure out the details to this planting technique for each seed but nothing good comes easy.
Starting tomato seeds
After getting feedback from this group I thought I'd tell what I did and show the results.
I got out my hammer and spent a 'fun' half hour smashing my largish 1" lava rock down to around 1/4" and less. It wasn't all that difficult but if you've got access to cinders of the right size, I'd recommend skipping the hammer.
Instead of putting the pots in the DWC bed I put them in a plastic tray and filled it with fish tank water to about 1" deep and put the clear plastic cover over the top. After a couple of days I thought I saw one of the seeds going moldy (I'm not sure, but it looked like it, and I lost a whole bunch of bean seeds last year to mold from been too wet, so I'm a bit gun-shy) so I took the plastic cover off and kept the water topped up.
In about 4 days I had shoots showing in most of the pots and in 1 week I have seedlings in ALL of the pots. Needless to say, I'm impressed. I must confess at this point that I was quite dubious about this process so sowed way too many seeds in each pot, probably 4-5+, but I don't mind. Seeds are cheap and having 100% hit rate on the pots is very satisfying.
Thanks to all who contributed suggestions. It is appreciated.
Sorry it was in the raft/dwc group. Here is a link.
@Chris Smith - I looked through all the discussions in Coastview Aquaponics group, and your web site, but could not find your post about starts.
Raychel, I seed net pots full of cinders in rafts then top water with system water and keep them out of the system sandwiched in plastic to keep in moisture in a shady area for germination. For most verities of leafy greens I have seeds popping in three days then I put them into a shallow trough for three weeks. Then they go to the trough at grow-out spacing. I have a complete description of my process in Coastview Aquaponics group. That posting was made several years ago and I still use the same technique today since it works so for me!
Mahalo Chris. Like others I used a mixture of vermiculite, coir, and some organic potting mix with the cinders. You have given me hope again because the other stuff just washes away in the water. Do you have a seeding table or do you just put them in the blue dow
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