Comment

Comment by Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr. on July 18, 2012 at 7:07pm

@Bob. A good vid

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on July 18, 2012 at 7:04pm

Bob R., I do feel very blessed to have our soil. We deal with very sticky mud and caliche, but not the rocks. 30 ft is a huge rock!

Bob C, THANK YOU! I hadn't done much research yet, but I thought there must be a way to do this. I finally stopped thinking about it because I could get part way with it, and then I'd hit a wall. This little gizmo could save us a lot of time!

Comment by Bob Campbell on July 18, 2012 at 3:17pm

@Sheri - Take a look at this.  It may save you from having to drill your tank

Comment by Robert Rowe on July 18, 2012 at 12:51pm

@Sheri

I love our hillside lot but am sure envious of your dirt(Your pond dig)

We are on rock and what ever the wind blows in. In fact our swimming pool sits atop a single rock(under ground) that's over 30 ft long.

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on July 18, 2012 at 12:34pm

Thanks, Jim. The back 40 might be home to a milk cow soon. :)

You're looking at one system, the one you saw when you were here. We had the raft on when you were here, didn't we? All we did to that one is add the duckweed tray at the end. It's a hydro tray, 2' x 4'.

What we've done since you were here is to completely remove all remnants of the old system (the barrel & 1/2 barrels). We also moved and expanded the fry/fingerling/duckweed system with the shelves on top of the aquariums. That was just finished this weekend. It's really two systems until we figure out how to combine them. I'd really like to add them to the main system, but we'd have to drill holes into the aquarium glass, and I'm not sure we want to do that.

Comment by Jim Troyer on July 18, 2012 at 11:52am

Looks great Sheri and BOB!

When do you expand to the back 40?

It looks like you have 2 parallel systems now, are they identical?  Are they both inside the green house?

I've been working outside this last week and understand the effort you have put in on this great project!  keep the faith!

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on July 18, 2012 at 10:13am

Thanks, Bob! We learned a lot from our first system. I hope we don't learn as much again because I don't want to have to replace this one. LOL! 

It's been a challenge to maximize the use of the space while retaining access to everything for easy maintenance. It's taken a lot of planning!

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on July 18, 2012 at 10:06am

Zach, Bob's right, nightcrawlers are “anecic,” or dirt worms. They burrow and aerate the ground, so they're great in the garden.

The kind you want are “epigeic,” meaning they live in composting matter. There are two common red worms: Eisenia fetida, which are red wigglers, and Eisenia andrei, which are kissing cousin, kind of.

You can use your nightcrawlers to improve your garden, though. Some have had luck with them in potted plants, too, provided you give them plenty of decaying matter (coffee grounds, tea bags, other stuff...) Others say never use them in potted plants because they'll over compost the soil and turn it to mush. Regardless, they'll do a great job in a garden bed!

I have a pail of wigglers in my kitchen eating scraps. I'm learning how to raise them...doing OK, but they're not reproducing as well as I'd like. We're going to change the setup tonight & add more aeration to see if it helps.

Comment by Bob Campbell on July 17, 2012 at 11:17pm

Sheri, you and Bob make a good team.  Your system just keeps getting better.

I like the way you sank the tanks into the earth for thermal protection and used scraps of IBC's on the outside of the frame.  Even the plumbing looks neat as can be.  You're getting good at this.

Comment by Larry in Casa Grande on July 17, 2012 at 10:34pm

I am going to come back over and see what you have done sometime.

 

PS I planted some flowering plants 3 days ago, and they are still alive! We will see what a week in the growbed looks like though.

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