Comment

Comment by Mark Bogart on August 26, 2013 at 3:48pm

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on August 26, 2013 at 2:54pm

Hey Aaron, I've bought many plants from home depot and transplanted them and they have done well.  I am now going to try seeds now, and have planted over 50 seeds for butter crunch, red leaf and romaine (also cucumber but that's just because I had the seeds laying around).  My own personal opinion is that if you start from seeds you don't have to worry about bringing in pests.  This happened to me when I bought broccoli plants from Harpers - they had aphids attached to the plants and when I introduced them  to my growbed they went crazy.  So from that experience just be careful when you pick up a plant to transplant and thoroughly inspect it. 

Comment by Aaron Brooks on August 26, 2013 at 2:32pm

I have been away from the forum for about a week and just caught up with all of the posts. It looks like your systems have been doing well. I will hit the 1 year mark in November. My Basil and Anice did great.

 

Can I plant new Cherry Tomatoes now from transplants, or should I wait a few more weeks? Also, do you plant the butter crunch lettuce by seed, or by transplant?

 

Thanks for the info.

Comment by Mark Bogart on August 26, 2013 at 7:59am

In regards to the concern about the KDF filter it says that it created a portion of ozone and that is why they make the reference about creating a hostile environment for algae and the like. Ozone is a powerful oxidizer and is used to purify water. It is used in drinking water systems and large aquatic systems as well as Koi ponds. It is very unstable and will disapate or revert to oxygen rather rapidly. Most commonly produced by an electrical discharge or spark created in an oxygen rich environment where the oxygen molecules are excited and combine to make O3 instead of common O2. If produced indoors the residual ozone gas could build up and be harmful to humans or animals. Outdoors this is of no concern, and the fumes can be smelled at a very low level giving you the opportunity to correct the issue. It is recommended that if you are going to use ozone ( most commonly generated by an ozone generator) that it is added in a side stream where fish or plants do not reside so as to give the ozone a chance to revert before reaching them. It will generally only last seconds but up to a few minutes depending on mostly on turbidity.  Using this in a sump would be sufficient. 

Comment by Chris George on August 25, 2013 at 10:50pm

@Dr. Brooks....John Kohler is the 'bomb'!!!   and I think the Boogie Brew filters are superior to others....'though' I would only buy them on a 'special' due to the price.

Comment by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. on August 25, 2013 at 9:22pm

At 16 odd pounds of basils and mints harvested we are 1/4 of the way through taking down an experimental backyard unit to prepare it for fall planting. Since March 31 this year, so far this unit has yielded 210 pounds of produce from 45 square feet of grow-space. Last year we only produced 150 lbs total from the same unit so it is largely a question of management and skill.

Comment by Scott Bloom on August 25, 2013 at 6:03pm

I wonder if the low daily quantity of water required by an AP system compared to the large quantity of water in the system, helps to mitigate the "hostile and desolate environment".  The "Growing Your Greens" guy uses and recommends the "Boogie Blue" and I have been using a KDF filter for the water I spray on my compost with no ill effects.  I guess I will just need to try the KDF filter.

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on August 25, 2013 at 5:20pm

No Problem Scott,  I use it along with a few other people here and have never had a problem, it's up to you what you want to go with.  

Comment by Scott Bloom on August 25, 2013 at 4:44pm

@ Matt - The Boogie Blue is the reason why I did research about KDF:

"Using a sizable quantity of highly effective KDF 85 & KDF 55 copper/carbon based filtration membrane material"

and wasn't thrilled with the information that I posted below.

Comment by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. on August 25, 2013 at 4:42pm

IMHO RO has real sustainability problems. It works by forcing water through a membrane permeable to the water only (mostly). In this manner it "cleans" 1/3 of the water you provide. However, the other 2/3 of the water containing the salts and other stuff you filtered out along with the salt load that was in the 2/3 of the water anyway is flushed down the drain. 

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