Comment

Comment by TCLynx on January 5, 2012 at 7:00am

I do believe it's possible to do this without a greenhouse here, However, you are restricted to using seasonally appropriate plants and climate appropriate fish.  (My water is down into the 40's now so the Catfish and Bluegill are not eating much but they are still alive.  And the plants have slowed down.)

Now your micro climate will play a big roll, How hard the freeze falls on your area.  I was out chipping ice off the Kale and Sorrel yesterday morning.  The only plants I LOST were tomatoes, Peppers, and some of the Nasturtiums (some were down but others 3 feet away were fine? go figure.)  and of course the bananas and papaya.  I suppose had there been Basil outdoors I would have lots it.  (I think moisture levels played a roll in my lack of losses because it was a hard enough freeze here that I would have expected more damage to the lettuce but since none of my lettuce is sitting down in a raft of water but rather vertically in a tower and only getting a trickle of water I think that may have helped protect them.)

Anyway, around inland central Florida there are plenty of strange pockets of micro-climates So anyone planning to grow commercially in any manner better spend some time (would take several years and even then it's a small sample) getting to know their micro climate at their intended location before they decide if they can do it without a greenhouse.

I"m Further North than Green Acre but I don't know if it has something to do with my particular position on the ridge but it was not so cold for so long here.  I did have ice in a 50 gallon water tank but not so think and it melted before 10 am.

Heck, I was able to see a distinct difference between plants that were behind the house as opposed to plants in front.  I expect the plants in back didn't get the benefit of the warmth from the sun warming the concrete blocks the way the plants in front benefit.

Comment by Rob Torcellini on January 5, 2012 at 6:51am

Up north, we hit 9 the other night.  Hope that makes you feel warmer. 

Comment by Gina Cavaliero on January 5, 2012 at 6:32am

Thanks David.  We never expected a loss from freezing!  What's crazy, not long ago I read in an aquaponic newsletter that that a guy in Florida has demonstrated that you can do aquaponics commercially in Florida without a big, expensive greenhouse structure.  That was a gross misgeneralization that can really spell disaster if someone heeds that advice.  Perhaps in South Florida or along the coast line where temps are more mild.  However from Tampa and northward one would be in trouble without some kind of structure for protection as even Tampa was in the 20's for 6-8 hours.  Frost blankets would have done nothing as we weren't protecting crops from frost but from literally freezing!  Seedlings were ice cubes of coir!  We incredibly had frozen heads of lettuce that survived but others that looked like they had been in a too cold refrigerator and froze and burned.  This was a hard freeze for an extended period of time.  If we didn't have our structure, we would have lost everything just like my traditional farming friend. This was probably a little rare because of the duration of the freeze however I guarantee we will have minimally a dozen more nights with temps like that through the next 3 months.  

Florida's climate has shifted drastically.  We don't get the spring and summer daily rains like we used to and our winters are much more harsh.  People think I am crazy when I say it gets cold here.  I had to break an inch of ice on my horse trough yesterday morning and we have had pipes freeze if every spigot outside wasn't left open to drip.  Its 28 right now.  Got to go bundle up and go outside!  

Comment by David Rosenstein on January 4, 2012 at 11:55pm

so sorry to hear about your losses!

Comment by Dave Lindstedt on January 4, 2012 at 9:49pm

Thanks for the response.  I had one of those torpedo heaters up north.  I have a thermostat you can pug the heater into.  I got mine from Northern Tool on line. It is suppose to warm back up but I can see I need to think about putting up my enclosure for that car port. I have blue prints on order for a 24 ft x 42ft green house. Looks like FL is not as warm as we would like to believe.

Comment by Gina Cavaliero on January 4, 2012 at 8:16pm

Dave we suffered some losses too.  It was down to15 or 16 degrees here but we were below freezing for nearly 12 hours and actually colder and colder longer than we anticipated.  Tonight we will run a diesel powered torpedo heater for 15 minutes every two hours in both the greenhouse and seedling structure.  This will keep the temps inside at or above freezing.  We should have done it last night but did not.  A traditional farmer friend of  mine called today to say she lost all of her crops.  Her farm is 5 minutes from mine.  Its too cold for too long here!  She even lost winter crops that otherwise would tolerate a light freeze. Gotta go.  Time to go fire up the heater!

Glad to hear you figured out a solution on your fish loss.  

Comment by Dave Lindstedt on January 4, 2012 at 5:25pm

Gina:  Whereas you are about 40 miles north of you,  what are you doing to keep your plants from freezing on nights like last night.  Temp. here got down to 27 degrees for 3 hours or more. I enclosed my 10ft x 20ft growing area with tarps. Where as my discharge water to my grow troughs is over 70 degrees, I thought I would be ok.  Carrots and red onions survived with no damage.  I lost all but one tomatoe plant and 1 green pepper plant. I lost all my lettuce and egg plants.

I have made some cheap tank heaters using 1500 watt, 110 volt water heater elements.  Originally I had enclosed them in 1 inch PVC pipe.  Only to find it melted the PVC and burned out the element.   I now just submerge the unprotected heating elements.  You have to watch that you dont overload the circut and trip the breaker. 

Comment by Dave Lindstedt on January 1, 2012 at 9:29pm

After my major fish kill resulting from accumulation of excess fish food in the bottom of my tanks,  I have installed a 70GPH Fountain pump, purchased from Lowes at about $20 each.  I suspend the pump 1/2 way into the water level.  Only half way so a mishap can not suck the tank dry. This pump has a 1/2 inch discharge I connected to 1/2 inch tubing with the discharge into my grow troughs along with the gravity fed water from my tanks. I run these pumps (and now) 24/7.  This means over 1,600 gallons of water a day is being pulled through the spong filter on the pump. This requires cleaning the pump & filter every two to 3 days..... But my water is now cystal clear!

As we use to say in the Marine Corps  "ADAPT AND OVERCOME !"

Comment by Dave Lindstedt on January 1, 2012 at 9:12pm

Gina:  Have you reached any conclusions about your two different systems?

Comment by Dave Lindstedt on November 14, 2011 at 9:30pm

Gina:  Do you still have the white trough liner material and the Dow blue board for sale.  I just aquired 3,  250 gallon tanks  and planning 1,008 sq.ft. green house expansion, with 20 additional grow troughs.  I will have had my fish 4 months this week.  Most have more than doubled in size.  Hope they will start reproducing shortly. 

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