Complete House Clean of DWC grow beds

[Sahib Punjabi]

I had planted my first seedlings in my 48ft DWC bed last August 15th. Since them, I have harvested a tremendous amount of food and grown a considerable variety of different food plants other than lettuce. I have grown berries (blackberry / raspberry), peppers, egg plant, fig tree seedlings, tomatoes beans, swiss chard, box choy, kale, spinach, cukes, melons, basil, okra, bananas etc. Not all the items gave me the best success bit they all wanted to grow.

I pushed the limits as regard the size and length of time I let these plants remain in the DWC beds. As the Central Florida summer heat started to take effect, I found it increasing difficult to keep the DWC bed clean from fallen and decomposing leaves and excess growth. The roots of many of the overgrown plants were also starting to take on a large amount of the sunken coir. Increased oxygen into the DWC had helped continue the growth but I was becoming frustrated at the amount of time required to keep the beds clean (the fallen leaves would rot and form an unsightly algae on the bed. 

 

About two months ago, I had a major set back in that I somehow stupidly managed to KILL all of my expensive Koi ...almost 200 fish that were between 6 to 9 inches. I had forgotten to turn off the water faucet that was being used to full up an extremely low fish tank (evaporation due to summer heat). This had stayed on for the whole day as it was the weekend. Bummer! Expensive fertilizer!

 

Well, as I cleaned out the dead fish, I decided to clean out the whole of the DWC bed. What to do with the existing plants? We have a 6 ft payment boundary which has Oak trees planted every 10 to 12 feet. They are reasonably mature and best gardening knowledge and experts kept informing me that I could never grow anything under those Oak trees. Really! Well, I have numerous recirculating wicking beds there now which are now planted with the plants from my DWC bed. They are going great. i will post pictures later.

 

I am going to replant a whole new crop of plants and have started the seeds. Planting date commences on August 15th again...Indian Independence Day...Jai Ho :-)

 

 

[Sahib Punjabi]

Thanks Sam,

 

You live and learn. Yes, always need to look into it as a positive learning experience and try to make sure that it doe not happen again. Just look at all the good wishes and fantastic and helpful advise our Aquapon Friends have provided. If this itself is not a blessing indeed, what is?

 

Boy, we have so much to share and learn from each other :-)

 

God bless,

Sam Warren said:

Sahib I am distressed to hear of your Koi loss!  I remember how beautiful they were.  Things will be bigger and better for you I am sure!

[Carey Ma]

Well my friend, what can I say, I hate to see waste but I hate to see a friend's anguish even more. On the other hand, you have just earned another feather in your hat, so congratulations! It is unfortunate that education is so expensive. No wonder I'm so broke. I know ALL the wrong way to do things. An expert at killing the innocent.

No worries, their souls hold no grudge for it was a pure mistake with no malice. Thing happen, and that's just life.

 

You have a nice setup there with sound understanding, so keep up the good work!