A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners
Rob's Harbor Freight 10x12 Greenhouse
I'm going to try and be more proactive about providing updates about my greenhouse. For those of you that keep track of my setup on the BYAP forum (user Web4Deb) or on my blog (http://web4deb.blogspot.com), I will also post the info here so all 3 locations somewhat match. Also, I'm going to try to make a few more videos which can be found on my channel at https://www.youtube.com/web4deb.
I'm not going to repost all the initial details about my setup here, but there's a bunch of info about it in my blog. Questions/comments/concerns are more than welcome! I'm more apt to write about my setup if I know people are reading about it. ;-)
More to follow......
-Rob T.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rob Torcellini on
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This large leopard frog has been hanging out in the greenhouse for a couple of months. At first he would jump into the sump pump area whenever I would go in, but now I can walk right up to him and he doesn’t even care. Luckily, he’s too large to get sucked into the impellers of the pump!
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I finally had some time to make another video update of my greenhouse. As you can see, I’m still suffering from a white fly problem and the strawberries just aren’t strong enough to survive. They’re starting to succumb to the flies and are getting mildew on them. I’m probably going to rip them all out, and this winter drop the temp below freezing to kill off the bugs. Bring back DDT! ;-)
There are some stats near the end, so you may want to watch it in full-screen hi-def so you can see the info!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e2cQQbMMcw -
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Permalink Reply by Michael sanders on
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Rob,
You stated in your video some usb and some relay. I am looking for the relays / sensors that you used so I can see what I am up against. I have been doing software development for 25 years, so I am not concerned with that part. I just do not have a clue on the sensors or relays for the PH / Temp / Nitrite levels. Any help would be great. -
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The first generation of IO cards I used some USB interface cards that mimic a com port. They accept one letter commands and return some data. There are from http://www.dlpdesign.com/usb/ in the data acquisition area. The temp sensors use a Dallas 1-wire digital sensor that work very well. However on occasion I would get a few weird readings. I contacted DLP and they were unwilling to make the appropriate changes to their firmware to fix the issue. (Their boards are really for simple prototyping.) The relay cards work well, but are NOT designed for the startup amps for some of the pump motors….I’ve burned out a couple of relays…which is quite expensive to replace the card.
I’m now on a second generation system where I’ve designed my own interface card. The foundation is using an AVR micro on a breakout board from www.pjrc.com. (Teensy 2.0) It has a ton of IO pins and a bunch also do analog. It also has a built in USB so I was able to also mimic a com port with it.
Currently with my system, I use it to measure the temps, sunlight (with the analog port and a photo transistor), wind speed and rain with the interrupt ports. Reading pH is far too complicated. I work for a company that manufactures pH sensors and I can get them fairly easily. However, they are expensive and need their membrane cartridges replaced to insure an accurate reading. So I simply opt to use a test kit every few months and manually enter the data into my system. I’m also using some nice latching relays rated for 15amps. They aren’t cheap, but I know they won’t burn out either.
Michael sanders said:Rob,
You stated in your video some usb and some relay. I am looking for the relays / sensors that you used so I can see what I am up against. I have been doing software development for 25 years, so I am not concerned with that part. I just do not have a clue on the sensors or relays for the PH / Temp / Nitrite levels. Any help would be great. -
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I picked my last cucumbers today. The official stats are:
-3 plants yielded 330 fruits for a total of 116.3 pounds (52.8kg)
-First fruit was picked on May 31st, last on Nov 7th. Even though peak production was during the summer, this averages to around 2 fruits per day.
As a comparison, my regular dirt garden had 6 plants. I didn’t keep official results, but I got no more than 20 fruits before the plants died off.
Overall, I was overwhelmed by this year’s results. Looking forward to next year already!
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You would think with the statistics I keep, I would keep track of the type of cukes these are. I can't find the pack of seeds, but I remember there were Burpee pickling variety. It’s been a few years since I’ve ordered from them so the seeds were old….obviously didn’t seem to affect the yield!
Kobus Jooste said:Excellent! I've also got three plants going and will be picking the first fruit soon. I doubt I will see the same yield as I may have some space issues for them, but at least I now have a benchmark to try against! What cultivar were those? The fruit size looks about the same as what I will get from the one I'm growing (Ashley).
Rob Torcellini said:I picked my last cucumbers today. The official stats are:
-3 plants yielded 330 fruits for a total of 116.3 pounds (52.8kg)
-First fruit was picked on May 31st, last on Nov 7th. Even though peak production was during the summer, this averages to around 2 fruits per day.
As a comparison, my regular dirt garden had 6 plants. I didn’t keep official results, but I got no more than 20 fruits before the plants died off.
Overall, I was overwhelmed by this year’s results. Looking forward to next year already! -
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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on
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too cool!
Those look a little like the burpless tender greens but I don't think those are listed as pickling varieties though they pickle just fine.
I've never done well with cucumbers in my AP? I'm always impressed with the systems were they do so well.
One of these days I want to get into monitoring and tracking things like temperature in my system. I'll have to pick your brain on that sometime. -
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Today marks the end of the season for the “sustainable” greenhouse. Last night was the first night the heaters needed to run to keep the plants from freezing. (The heaters are programmed to turn on at 36F). My outdoor growing season ended just shy of 2 months ago so I’m still quite pleased with the extended growing season!
My definition of “sustainable” for this project is not having to add extra heat or lighting for the plants to grow, The other electricity for the pumps and automation is an integrated part of the greenhouse Aquaponics system and I classify that as part of the normal functions. ;-)
I still have peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce growing which should survive for the winter. Of course the cost to keep these plants alive will now skyrocket in electricity costs, but it’s still a nice treat to get a few fresh veggies during the winter. These peppers I picked today and have a few more on the way.
Already looking forward for spring! -
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what type of heater are you using
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In a tragic turn of events, my winter season is over. The circuit breaker for the greenhouse tripped and it went through the night with no heat.
The outside temps went down to 21F (-6.1C) last night while the inside temps went to 27F (-2.8C). Everything got frosted except a few lettuce plants. Tank water is at 38F (3.3C)...goldfish are conserving energy by sitting at the bottom of the tank. They'll be perfectly fine this way until spring.
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