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Comment by Aaron Brooks on March 3, 2014 at 1:02pm

Here is a picture of my small 250 gallon system. The plants are thriving. I have 5 of Jim's tilapia that have been raised from fry and 20 goldfish. The Tilapia are about 6 inches long now.

 

My GB has Purple Basil, Anice, Iris, Marigolds, and Cherry Tomatoes. I will add a shade this summer. Last year my plants struggled with the heat.

Comment by Jacques L. on March 3, 2014 at 11:02am

@Kim

Wormbin.. if you're having fruit flies, its usually do to there being too much refuse being tossed in the system at a given time and not enough worms, too much moisture can also play in to that. A good rule of thumb is to let the worms work thoroughly before adding in more scraps. Another good idea is to add a piece of cardboard on the top of your scraps, which can act as a good barrier to the pests but still provide a breathing layer.

Heat.. evaporation happens.. especially here in the Valley. In comparison to dirt based farming, it still remains true that only 10% of the water is used in an AP. That same degree of evaporation happens to dirt farmers as well.

@Jeff

I wouldn't recommend the idea of covering your beds, your water would heat up tremendously in a short time (during the summer).. the beds act as heat exchangers and work both to heat and cool your system. If that's a road a person wants to take, then they should design around a floating raft system versus one using a siphon based setup.

Comment by Jeff S on March 3, 2014 at 8:56am

I'm not in AZ but if you cover your tank you'll cut down on evaporation. May have an overheating problem though.

Comment by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. on March 2, 2014 at 2:17pm

Hi Kim. It is more or less true.

Comment by Kim Romen on March 1, 2014 at 10:06pm

we've heard it said that AP requires 10% of the water as soil gardening.  I wonder if this includes AZ.  it's so dry here typically that I have to add a lot of water to my FT each week or so.  anyone ever do the #s on their soil garden verses AP here?

Comment by John Malone on March 1, 2014 at 10:11am

Rain: The plants love it!

The AP garden looks great and is growing well.  

Comment by Kim Romen on February 28, 2014 at 11:25pm

i've fit in a few things recently:

1. made my worm bin, went to pet smart and got 24 red wigglers to start.  stuck 3 in ach garden bed and the rest in their new worm bin.  i'm glad i didn't start inside cuz since i have done bananas there are a lot of fruit flies.  i'm seeing that they won't last much longer before i need to move them indoors so i'd better figure it out soon!  i might try the garage but i can imagine even that will be too hot for them. they all might end up in my AP system if i can't get it right. ironically i read nonorganic bananas attract fruit flies.  maybe i'll try organic next time.

2. got a shelf mini greenhouse set up.  planted seeds 10 days ago or so. lots of the ones i planted directly into the AP system came up and only one is sprouting that was in a pot in the mini greenhouse.  i realized i needed a thermostat in the greenhouse and saw that it's been getting over 100 degrees in there so i guess i went too far the opposite extreme and have been frying my seeds. i'm surprised the one came up (:moringa).  i'll give them some time as i dont think i'll have room in my system to plant them anyway. i'll thin the seeds in the ap system like John recommended before. i visited the hydro store in chandler off the 202 and AZ ave.  helpful guy.  i narrowed it down to waiting for a heating pad until next winter (I can't find anything warm in my house-DVD player, fridge...).  i'll prob move the mini greenhouse soon to the shade and buy some CFLs with clamps or pick up one of the T5 reflector lights from the hydro store that u can set directly on the domes. have any of u started seeds outside in the summer?

3, got some photo and biz card holder pages that i'm going to stick in a notebook and file my seeds that way so i can flip the pages and find my seeds easily, along with maybe organizing them by planting season or alphabetical.

:)

Comment by Casey Unfried on February 28, 2014 at 2:08pm

Maybe I am just too impatient 

Thanks, I have wanted to do that since i was 2 years old. 

Comment by Jim Troyer on February 27, 2014 at 2:32pm

Just match the hatch Casey, lay the fly out on the still water and wait, eventually some thing will eat it ;-)  Black ant imitations work really well that way.  I caught a trout at a lake right at the shore in 3-4" of water that way while I was eating a sandwich.

Marine biology: I'm impressed, good luck with your studies.

Comment by Casey Unfried on February 26, 2014 at 3:39pm

Ohi have been trying for a long time. Im a marine biology major so I am always in the water. Someday I should catch one 

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