Comment

Comment by Scott Bloom on August 26, 2012 at 6:12pm

Fishless cycle question?  I added enough ammonia, in the beginning, to bring my system up to 5 ppm have not added any ammonia since.  I now have a reading of .25 ppm on the nitritesand the ammonia reading has slowly dropped to 2-3 ppm.  Should i bring the ammonia level back up to 5 ppm or leave it alone?  Also, I have no nitrate reading as of yet.

Comment by Larry in Casa Grande on August 26, 2012 at 12:57am

Hey Bob! Good question, I meant to address that. It can be found in the door molding area. It is actually a PVC door jamb.

That's a picture of it's skew in the third photograph. It is just barely shy of being 6 inches wide, and is seven foot long. I was able to load three peices it in my Toyota Corolla, saving me from going home for my truck.

Comment by Bob Campbell on August 26, 2012 at 12:30am

Looks nice Larry.  What is this material called?  What's it's intended purpose? I've never seen it before.

Comment by Larry in Casa Grande on August 26, 2012 at 12:13am

So, a while back I presented my dilemma for the DWC tank that we have been wanting to add to the system for 2 months now.

 After reading comments about the white Styrofoam getting waterlogged, and the blue foam maybe having even worse contaminants leaching into the food chain. I tried to step out of the raft paradigm, and figure out another way. This led me to the idea of a fixed platform above a controlled water level via overflow tube, as opposed to a raft that floated on the water to maintain proper net pot height.

My first attempt was to build a frame with legs that reached the bottom of the grow bed with a very thin piece of fiberglass paneling on top of the frame. It proved less than ideal, as it became problematic to drill my desired 2 inch holes,  for net pots, due to the extra frame cross pieces required to support the flimsy paneling. Yep, crashed and burned on that one.

Well then the quest to procure some type of waterproof sheet product that was thick enough to support the load, especially after being riddled with holes was on.

I brought that idea to the group here, and as you will recall a great deal of discussion about suitable and affordable waterproof sheet products ensued.  Product was discovered that seemed capable of supporting the structural demands. But OH MY, was it expensive!

After weeks of pondering and getting nowhere, I finally went down to Blowes Hardware, determined to buy some Plexiglas and just be done with it. I have to admit though, that when I saw the price I just could not force myself to pay it. I determined I would just make an extra house payment with the money instead.  J

Finally though I had a breakthrough, that I truely may help the group here. It seems I needed to get further out of the raft paradigm, and drop the whole panel or sheet idea. With this in mind I went back to the building supply store with a new research project in mind. I decided I would span the grow bed in segments instead of a full sheet. I was looking for not only waterproof, but a good structure to support the plant at mature weight.

And my friends, I believe we have done it. I discovered suitably wide plastic planking, with ridges that run lengthwise of the product to give it the structural stability we desire. It comes in five foot lengths for a mere $14 dollars and change. Here are some pictures of the idea in action.

First, here is the original idea that we discarded:

Comment by Larry in Casa Grande on August 26, 2012 at 12:12am

Here is the new project as it progressed:

Here you will notice that some but not all of the support ridges were drilled through.

Finally all of the 2" holes are drilled.

This next picture shows how easy it will be to remove just one row of plants, to service the exchangeable overflow tubes. I will bring the water up pretty high to start the seedlings. Then place a lower tube as they mature.

Here is a close up detail of how the planks fit in the edges of the Behlen Country stock tanks I used for grow beds.

Comment by Larry in Casa Grande on August 24, 2012 at 10:03pm

Hi Robert, Nice to meet you! 

I know, I know, don't quite my day job.

Comment by Robert Rowe on August 24, 2012 at 11:21am

To many Bob's in this forum!

I changed my profile to Robert Rowe.

Comment by Robert Rowe on August 23, 2012 at 10:30am

Some good info on Red Wigglers

Comment by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. on August 23, 2012 at 9:40am

Just passed the 40 lbs of harvest mark for this year. Not what I had hoped but all good things in time.

Comment by Chris George on August 22, 2012 at 1:25pm

@Bob...my shelfponics system outside has been up for about 2 years now...we have such mild winters here in Scottsdale, I haven't ever enclosed it or protected it...I have grown arugula, lola rosso lettuce, basil and spinach.  I have an urban farm, so AP has not been my priority the last couple of years, installing fruit trees, grapes and berries (all the perennials) was/is my focus and raising my chickens up from chicks.  To add to that, I have never tested the water, or adjusted the PH, or cleaned the hydroton media, or done one water change.  I feed the fish once a day (like I do in my small wildlife pond) and we all go on with our lives.  I had an aquarium AP set up inside for 6 months or so with strawberries, (in the kitchen), I tested the PH on that system, and the PH adjusted itself after awhile.  All of these are with 'feeder' goldfish, from a good aquarium store, they grew big and beautiful and some look a lot like koi.  Any cold weather vegetable (ones that you eat the leaves of...kale, lettuce, spinach, bok choy, etc.) will do great outside in the winter, until a hard frost, but things like kale actually don't mind a little frost, and it makes them sweeter...  Strawberries are great, too.  I want to try growing alpine strawberries from seed...they are so fragile when ripe that they don't make it to market...and if you find them at a farmer's market they are prohibitively priced.  Dennis at gardenpool has grown beets in shelfponics, not sure how long they took but they look hilarious when they are growing, the entire bulb (beet part) and greens grow above the media, only the tap root into the hydroton, and it grew to full size, 3-4" around.  Broccoli rabe is another choice, and mustard greens, I'm not big on either, taste wise though.

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