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.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rob Torcellini on December 10, 2010 at 12:54pm

For several months, I’ve been developing a plastic extrusion system that has been able to take virgin HDPE resin pellets, or shredded milk jugs, and properly melt and extrude them into a shape that could be used as a low cost growing media for my Aquaponics system.

There was a lot of trial and error to get to this point. The biggest problem is that the plastic retains little moisture. If the seeds aren’t directly placed in the flood/drain cycle, they won’t get any moisture to germinate. I typically grow in stone and some of the stone above the water line is able to wick and retain enough moisture to provide water to new seeds.

Another issue with HDPE is that it’s extremely smooth (again, works well to repel water). Even adding texture to the media during the cooling process, the media still is smooth, which makes it difficult for bacteria to stick to it. I was also a bit surprised to see that the roots didn’t really care to grow in it and they would grow around the edge of the net pot instead.

On the plus side, the plastic is light, fairly inexpensive, clean, and easy to work with.

I hope some of the info in the video is useful to some of my fellow aquaponic/hydroponic growers in their quest to find a better, more cost effective growing media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anqKC0i0a7Y

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on December 10, 2010 at 2:08pm

Highly interesting. When did you start on that project? Was it around the time Kobus was asking about making a plastic "hydroton" alternative.

I love the use of the legos on your roller jig.

Permalink Reply by Rob Torcellini on December 10, 2010 at 2:35pm

I've been working on it since March. I remember seeing the various discussions about the using plastic media...just can't find it now. ;-) I didn't want to say too much in case I was able to produce a real product. Unfortunately, it’s just too expensive to manufacture: coloring, UV protection, and additives (to make it sink) help to drive to cost up. I decided to cut my losses and abandon my work.

Wait until you see my next project….it’s a doozy!!!

Permalink Reply by Rob Torcellini on December 20, 2010 at 7:36pm

I've had a bunch of questions about my extruder from various sites so I've updated my blog with a few details:

Blog

Permalink Reply by Rob Torcellini on January 2, 2011 at 1:11pm

By popular demand, here's a video detailing how I build my strawberry towers. I hope you find it helpful!

Permalink Reply by Rob Torcellini on January 12, 2011 at 11:06am

18" of snow...we'll get a few more before the storm is over. It's nice to see all that money I spend on heat goes right through the roof and melts it! (sigh)

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on January 12, 2011 at 8:30pm

LOL, well if the heat didn't go right though the roof to melt it, you would have to pay for lighting in there.

Permalink Reply by Rob Torcellini on February 4, 2011 at 11:38am

A little mishap happened with our last snow storm. The north facing roof buckled on the greenhouse from the snow. From the photo, you can see that the 4 “rafter” pieces have all bent in. The rigid foam insulation that I had installed on the inside has also pushed in.

Luckily, when I assembled the greenhouse, I had added some extra bracing inside. This prevented it from totally caving in so it’s not a total loss. The plants and fish are still alive! This spring, I should be able to dismantle this section and bend the pieces back into shape….and add some additional braces inside.

There’s a link to my blog that displays the original bracing I installed a few years ago. Link to Blog

Spring can’t come fast enough!

Permalink Reply by Rich Milliron on February 4, 2011 at 9:53pm

Thanks so much for this excellent video Rob. I'd admired your still shots, in the past, but didn't understand some aspects of your construction. This video made everything perfectly clear.

Rob Torcellini said:

By popular demand, here's a video detailing how I build my strawberry towers. I hope you find it helpful!

Permalink Reply by aaron steil on February 11, 2011 at 9:22pm

thats awesome.. thanks rob

Permalink Reply by Rob Torcellini on May 4, 2011 at 9:56am

This is a sequencing / indexing valve that I designed a couple of years ago. This uses a pinching mechanism to stop the flow of water. It is able to pass solids and keep operating if there is a clog elsewhere in the plumbing. I decided that it would be too expensive to develop and would show everyone how it works.

Permalink Reply by Rob Torcellini on May 6, 2011 at 8:06am

Usually I get a handful of hits per day on my new videos. I couldn't figure out why I got over 2400 hits in a day! Someone had posted it on the Make Magazine blog. [url]http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/05/sequencing-valve-controls-...[/url].

If someone from here did it, thanks!