Comment

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on September 8, 2013 at 9:04pm

We've had the discussions on here about solar.  What i can sum up is that it is not cost effective.  For the price of the panels, the price of the batteries to keep charged, you just wont get it back for the price you pay up front.  Would I like to try it for the sake of being off the grid and be totally self sufficient - hell yah.  I may do it, just because I would like to try it, but I wont tell my wife because she's already pissed at the cost of my "hobby" has already cost.

In retrospect, you got to see it like this:  I you were to buy solor panels to get your house off the grid, they say you wouldn't make your money back on your investment for 15 to 20 years, now if you were to lease them, you could see immediate money back as you are only paying a leasing cost which is cheap - go figure huh?

Comment by Bayy Quest on September 8, 2013 at 8:53pm

Thank you next question, does any one run there units off of solar power or any other off the grid device, if so what are you using?

Comment by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. on September 8, 2013 at 7:11pm

Greetings Pat. From my experience I don't think dorsal fin shape is a reliable determinant of sex. Here are some links that might help, but it is never easy or certain and nothing replaces experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-6ac_1lT4Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGpjMOlC6rI  Dr. Benny (Short)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6zWbSYR5yQ Dr. Benny (Long)

http://ouraquaponics.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-to-sex-tilapia.html

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on September 8, 2013 at 7:03pm

@Bayy, regarding shade cloth, if you're building your system now you may want to hold off because it sounds like after everything is built you'll be starting growing when it the temp is cooler outside.  I bought my shade cloth in the beginning of summer when the heat went over 100 degrees.  

As to your low cost grow beds, I made my first grow bed from wood (you can see it in the picture in the back).  If I had to do it over from what I know now, I would just simply get a cut tote like you see in the picture.  From buying the wood building the bed, painting the bed for elements, adding pond liner etc.. it would have just been cheaper to go to tank and barrel and have them cut a tote section for you, they will also drill in the plumbing where you want - all for $75 bucks.  This was much cheaper then the home built growbed I built, the only extra for me was spray painting it white to protect the plastic and the cost of 4 cement blocks to put it on which where less than 3 bucks a piece.  Anyway that's my two cents worth, I would suggest looking into barrels as a grow beds too Stephanie has had great success with them.

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on September 8, 2013 at 6:49pm

@Samson,  I've been lucky with the birds, I do have birds around but I've never seen them inside the growbed area, so I've never had to close it off.  But if I needed to I could just get some more shade cloth and close the ends if I wanted to.  I may extend the shade structure another 5 feet forward (each section is five feet apart so I'll just add an additional beam)  The Shade cloth I bought was from home depot, it was a hundred feet in length and 5 feet wide so I cut it into 25 foot sections which is fits each five foot sections pretty good (so each section is about 20 feet high - give or take) .  Next weekend I'll sew the sections together so I wont have the ugly gaps and the clamps can go away.  I figure in two or three months I'll be ordering plastic to make it into a green house and will change it each season for heat and cold - when I make it into a green house I'll definitely close it off so I wont lose heat. 

Comment by Bayy Quest on September 8, 2013 at 6:42pm

Sweet set up Matt

Comment by Bayy Quest on September 8, 2013 at 6:36pm

Any local cheap dealer on shade cloth and looking for links and ideas on grow beds, on a tight budget

Comment by Samson J. Loo on September 8, 2013 at 6:32pm

@Matt that looks great. Can you close it completely? Where I live I have dozens of birds which attacked my soil garden. I had to setup a quick PVC structure and wrapped it in bird netting to protect it. I also tossed on some shade cloth which helped out a lot.

Comment by Chris George on September 8, 2013 at 6:17pm

@Matt....Nice re-do on your shade structure, looks great! (and the peppers look really good too!)

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on September 8, 2013 at 6:05pm

I also picked some peppers and dried out some peppers too very festive... 

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