Seed Order

Tonight I placed a seed order with Johnny's Selected Seeds for my basement hydroponic project. I would have purchased seeds for the project locally, if I could have found any. Growing indoors outside of the traditional outdoor growing season does make it a little more difficult to find seed.


Here's a screen capture from the order screen:

Product ID:	Product	Quantity	Price
242G.10	Ripbor (F1) (OG)-Mini Vegetables > Kale & Collards > Green Kale	1	$6.50
428G.11	Waldmann's Dark Green (OG)-Packet Vegetables > Lettuce > Leaf > Greenleaf	1	$3.95
2571G.11	Corvair (F1) (OG)-Packet Vegetables > Spinach > Smooth-Leaf	1	$2.95
2116.11	Flash (F1)-Packet Vegetables > Kale & Collards > Collards	1	$2.95

I buy organic seeds whenever possible and as a result I end up paying a little more for seed than I would buying it at the local big box store. I like to use high quality untreated seed as much as practical. Johnny's sells treated seed too, but you can request untreated seed in your order. They also have a nice selection of heirloom seeds, which I'll be using in my outside garden next spring.

Basement Hydroponics Project - Day 1

Today I spent some time working on my basement hydroponics project inspired by Frugal Hydroponics.


You may recall that I have made an experimental deep water culture bubbler system several months ago. I have taken my original experience with that project and some of the tips I've seen on various hydroponics blogs and websites to hopefully improve upon my results this time around.


I started out with 4 ten gallon Rough Totes purchased at Lowes for $7.97 each.

In my first experimental attempt, cutting the holes in the lid turned out to be the biggest job of all. I first tried scissors, but when that didn't work I had to settle for a butcher knife. I don't recommend the butcher knife approach because injury is a definite possibility. It's not worth the risk. This time I used a 3 inch hole saw and rechargeable drill. I purchased the 3.0 inch hole saw at Lowes for $12.99. I've had the rechargeable drill for several years.

The hole saw made cutting the holes for the net pots a quick and easy job.

I  purchased 24 net pots at the local hydroponics supply store.  I wanted 3.5 inch net pots but they didn't have any in stock.  With a choice of 3.0 inch or 3.75 inch I chose the 3.75 inch size.


I achieved my goal of a tight fit for the net pots, but as the picture below illustrates the 3.75 inch pots are slightly too big for the 3.0 inch holes. The plastic lid will become more pliable with age and the pots will settle a little bit with the weight of plants and roots but if you attempt to make this I recommend you use 3.5 inch pots for a better fit.

I don't think the Hydroton (clay pebbles purchased at the hydroponics supply store) would allow much light into the water chamber, but rather than risk the possibility of algae build-up that would negatively affect my plant growth I used a single band of electical tape to bridge the gap.

At the end of Day 1 of my project, I ended up with 4 units with 6 growing ports each.

I'll be growing lettuce, spinach, collards, and kale.  All will yield several harvests and don't rely on polination for growth, which makes them good candidates for a basement gardening effort.

Basement Hydroponics (on the Cheap)

We lived in sunny Florida for amost 10 years, but relocated to the Upper Midwest this summer.  When we left the Tampa area in early July, the fields were bare. We arrived in Michigan to thriving vegetable gardens and lush green landscapes.  As the weather turns cooler in Southeast Michigan, I know that the growing season in Florida is kicking into high gear.


For the last three or four years when we became serious about producing edible food in our backyard, we kept adding to our backyard urban gardening effort.  Two above ground grow beds, a hanging planter, several containers, an Earthbox, a deep water culture hydroponics experiment, and a 200 gallon aquaponics fish tank. 


I still haven't adjusted to the switch in growing seasons and I'm beginning to crave fresh vegetables again. With inspiration from Frugal Hydroponics, I've decided to grow food in my basement this winter.


This afternoon we headed out to Lowes to shop for some supplies.

• Four 8 gallon plastic storage totes
• Two garage style flourescent shop lights
• A 3 inch hole saw
• Some Sanyo 6500k T8 bulbs

Tomorrow we'll be making a trip to the local hydropnic supply store for a few more items.

• Hydroton growing medium
• An air pump
• Four-way manifold
• Air stones
• Plastic tubing
• 3 1/2 inch net pots

If everything works as planned we'll be growing lettuce, Swiss Chard, collards, and spinach in very short order. Stay tuned for a series of posts detailing the construction process in the next few days.

Bats: Good for Agriculture

I was watching the morning news programs this morning and while flipping through the channels I settled on the CBS Sunday Morning program.  They did a nice piece of bats this morning and I learned some interesting things that I want to pass along. 

1. They don’t attach people
2. The more bats, the less pesticides are needed
3. Austin, Texas actually has a annual festival to celebrate bats

I've seen bat houses in Florida in many different State and County Parks, but didn't realize how important they are to our food system - until today.

This looks like something every homeowner should have, whether an active gardener or just someone that wants some pest control without the use of pesticides (who wouldn't want that?)  In fact, according to eparks.org, a single bat can eat 1,200 mosquitoes per hour!

Growing Vegetables in Fall and Winter

I started gardening 4 years ago when a job transfer sent us from the Detroit, MI area to Tampa, FL.  The sunshine and tropical temperatures make vegetable gardening minimally difficult there, even in winter.  In Florida, gardening in the summertime is actually difficult and discouraged.  Summertime gardens can be challenging if attention is not paid to the type of vegetables being grown and the specific varieties selected, but a little practice is really all that is needed to grow food for the family dinner table consistently.

Recently, a job transfer sent us back to Michigan so we’ll need to adjust our strategy a little for spring and summer, but I’ve become so used to having fresh homegrown produce to eat in the fall and winter that I’ve started researching ways to grow vegetables during the winter.

I can predict what you may be thinking – he’s crazy if he thinks he can grow vegetables in the snow, wind, freezing rain, and below freezing average temperatures that can reach single digits for weeks on end. I’ve been called a lot of things, and crazy is definitely on the very long list of those descriptions.

But before you call my family to suggest a formal intervention I submit exhibit A, from a successful winter time gardener in Maine that has been growing vegetables in all four seasons for many, many years.

I've never visited Maine in winter, but I'm guessing the temperatures are not much different than temperatures in Michigan. I think I'm going to try it. 

I'll need to build a cold frame of some sort and perhaps a crudely designed portable greenhouse, but it sounds like it is possible.

Aquaponics Update

I am writing this from a motel room in suburban Detroit.  It's quite funny how things work out sometimes.  I had my aquaponics system set-up and operating for 3 weeks when my employer requested my presence in another state.  I had to disassemble the system and prepare it for the moving company to transport to Michigan in a few weeks.

As a result of this process, I've got a few tips for urban aquaponics enthusiasts based on my experiences.

1. Gravel media grow beds are great unless you have to relocate them.  I spent $220 on 200 gallons of river gravel and had to give it away for free to entice a friend to help me remove it from the tanks and move it to his urban farm since it was too heavy to transport it 1,130 miles from Tampa to Detroit.

2. Two hundred gallon fish tanks are great until you have to empty them and replace the grass underneath them to make the backyard presentable to potential home buyers. It's been 4 weeks and the grass is showing no signs of coming back. I guess it's time to throw in the towel and buy some sod.

3. Buying expensive fish for aquaponics is an inefficient use of money. Luckily I didn't do it. I used the el cheapo feeder goldfish with good results.  When I disassembled the tank I moved them to a home aquarium. They are still going strong several weeks later.

4. Before you build your system, give some careful thought to your water source. If it's not safe for fish, figure out how you're going to make it safe before you spend money building an aquaponics system. I used Chloram-X (tm) with good results.

5. Figure how you're going to test your water. Not all aquarium kits will accurately test water treated with bonding agents that remove Chloramine to make the water safe for fish.

6. In an urban setting like mine where the yard is 45 feet by 25 feet, put a alot of thought into the foot print of your system. In the sub-tropical climate of Tampa, I might have achieved nearly as much vegetable production per square feet using Earthboxes (tm). (Probably not, but minus actually conducting an experiment my gut tells me that it would be close for the first year until the aquaponics system was well established.)

7. Building a media based aquaponics system sounds easier than it is. Washing gravel is hard work for 1 or 2 people. I recommend you invite the nieces and nephews over for the weekend to lend you a hand.

When I re-build my system in Michigan, I'll have colder weather to consider but I do plan to re-build next season. With my first experience under my belt, I am willing to bet that the second time around will be much smoother.

Build an Aquaponic System

Carrot Harvest

I harvested bunches of carrots this afternoon.  The carrots were the last remaining vegetables in our above ground beds for this season. 

I have noticed that carrots can be planted pretty close together without any noticeable side-effects in my above ground beds.  Planting in squares, rather than in traditional rows helps increase yields per square foot and conserves space when space is limited.

I think the natural carrot flavor is quite a bit better when they are harvested in cooler weather, but it's been a dry growing season here in 2010-2011 and the carrots were slow to mature this year. 

Things are really heating up here in West Central Florida, so we'll prepare for solarizing the soil this weekend.

Serrano Peppers for Salsas and Barbecue Sauce

Here's a picture of a serrano pepper growing in my backyard. 

A couple of years ago I started above ground gardening and after several trials and many errors, I've been successful in growing several pepper varieties in a simple, but very effective, hydropinc bubbler constructed from an inexpensive 18 gallon plastic tote.

At my house, we eat lots of green and orange bell peppers, cubanelles, poblanos and even some jalapenos now and then.  But the serrrano is a little out of my league. It's quite a bit higher up the Scoville heat scale than anything I could eat fresh from the garden.  When I purchased the seeds, I didn't pay much attention to the potential mouth scorching qualities of a "hot" pepper, but luckily I did a little research before plopping on in my mouth.

A jalapeno ranges 2,500 - 8,000 Scoville heat units, while a serrano ranges from 10,000 - 25,000 Scoville heat units.

Fortunately for me, one of my co-workers loves to make salsas. She took a batch of the serranos last week and made a batch of very tasty salsa that went well with a bag of Tostitos.

If you like hot bbq sauce, maybe you should consider growing your own hot peppers too. I can help if you're interested in building a cheap and easy hydropnic bubbler, but if you prefer the traditional gardening route, Gardenersnet.com has a nice article you might find helpful.

Funny story....I was making ABT's last year from jalapenos and decided to casually munch on one while I was cleaning up.  Apparently someone put a green serrano pepper in the bin where the jalapenos were being stored at Publix. Ohhhcheewowow!! I grabbed ice cubes, milk, water and any other liquid I could get my hands on quickly.

Aquaponics Project Update

I've been cycling my aquaponics system for two weeks now.  I had every intention to do "fish-less" cycling techniques to establish the bacteria in my grow beds before adding fish to the system. 

I don't have access to well water or spring water where I live, so I used tap water to fill my fish tank.  I let it sit for 3 weeks and circulated it for a couple of hours daily.  Three weeks should have been plenty of time to dissipate the chlorine in my tap water, but my water utility also uses chloramine (3 ppm actually).

Then I added 3 TBSP of fish emulsion to the 200 gallon fish tank.  I then started testing for an ammonia spike, but the ammonia spike never arrived. :-(  It took a few days, but after doing some digging around in various aquaponics discussion boards and aquaculture vendor websites, I figured out why.

Although my water testing kit did detect a small amount of nitrites in the system, it registered zero for ammonia.  I am new to aquaponics, but from what I've learned so far it's unlikely to have nitrites without ammonia.  So the issue had to be some type of issue with my water testing.

Tip:  Before you treat your tap water for chloramines, do some research and make sure you have a reliable method of testing the ammonia in your system.  Certain types of bonding agents and treatments that remove the chloramine, do not register well on the well-known water testing kits.

I have identified a water testing kit that should allow my treated water to be reliably tested, but untiil it arrives I definitely won't be adding anymore fish to my system.

Build an Aquaponic System

Cheap Fish for Aquaponics

My home made aquaponics systems is almost finished.  I have everything adjusted so that it will fill two 100 gallon grow beds with river gravel media in 15 minutes.  With that, it's time to get it cycled up so that we can begin growing some veggies and feeding some furtue food (i.e. fish).

Eventually, I plan to raise bluegill or if all else fails - tilapia in the aquaponics system - but for now I've added some "feeder" goldfish.  I think they are perfect for beginners to use (like me).  They are readily available and priced right - 38 cents from the big box store.  That way, if my system gets out of synch, I don't have too much money invested in fish. As the system stabilizes and my experience and comfort levels improve, I'll add some fish for our dinner plates.

To give you an idea ow just how big "feeder" goldfish can grow in an aquaponics system check out this video:



Build an Aquaponic System

Eggplant Recipe with Ramen Noodles

Since we joined the Gamble Creek Farm CSA two seasons ago, my wife has been preparing eggplant as a normal part of our meal planning.  Now that we're also growing Ichiban eggplant in our backyard, we eat eggplant more than ever.  Here's a recipe she found in Everyday Food Magazine, that is one of my favorite ways she prepares a simple, quick, easy, but tasty eggplant meal. She substitutes Ramen Noodles instead of lo mein noodles. (I think the Ramen noodle version is better.)

8 ounces lo mein noodles
2 T. soy sauce
1 T. toasted sesame oil
1 t. light-brown sugar
4 t. vegetable oil
1/2 lb. Japanese or other small eggplant, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/4 inch thick
5 scallions, white and green parts separated and thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 c. fresh basil leaves, torn for serving

Cook noodles according to package instructions; drain noodles and rinse with cold water. In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar and stir until sugar dissolves.

Heat a large skillet or wok over high until hot. Add 3 teaspoons vegetable oil and swirl to coat skillet. Add eggplant and stir until golden on both sides (4 minutes total). Push eggplant to side of skillet and add 1 teaspoon oil. Add scallion whites and garlic stir (30 seconds). Add noodles and soy mixture and toss to combine all the ingredients. Top with scallion greens and basil before serving.

Growing Peppers in an Simple Hydroponic Bubbler

I've been growing bell peppers, banana peppers, and chili peppers in a cheap and easy hydroponic bubbler system that I built for less than $30.  I really built it more as an experiment than as an example of "how to" grow peppers, but it has actually worked better than I originally expected. The 18 gallon tote, 6 net pots, an inexpensive fish tank pump, some tubing, and four air stone bubblers are all I needed.

18 Gallon Tote from Home Depot



Orange Bell Pepper

Green Bell Pepper

 

Chili Pepper



Green Bell Pepper

The biggest challenge with growing peppers using a bubbler system is regulating the amount of nutrient being used.  I started out changing the water and nutrient each week.  Then I switched to every 10 days and later to every 2 - 3 weeks.  As the plants have been fruiting more and more now that the plants are maturing, I've used a lot less nutrient and done fewer water changes.

With warmer temperatures this spring, there has been more evaporation of the water from the tote.  The leaves begin to wilt a little when the water level drops, so that tips me off to the need to add more.  I usually just top off the tote with fresh water every 4 or 5 days. 

I'm not sure whether I will continue to use this tote as a bubbler after this growing season, but if I can figure how to better regulate the nutrient flow it would be more likely.  At this point, I've just been alternating 4 TBSP of fish emulsion with one water change to 4 TBSP of Bone Meal with the next water change.  Disclaimer:  I have  no idea if that is too much or too little nutrient, but it has worked o.k. in this experiment.

The Blackberry Saga Continues....

Last night while at Home Depot picking up some more river rock for my aquaponics gardening project, I noticed some blackberry bush transplants in 1 gallon containers and couldn't resist picking up a couple.

My two previous attempts with the smaller blackberry transplants didn't work out well (they all died), but these 1 gallon transplants look much more promising. They are farther along in growth process and should work out much better (fingers crossed).

Triple Crown Thornless Blackberry Bush from Home Depot

Instructions to care for the plant on the back

Blackberry Container #1

Blackberry Container #2

I've tried two other sets of blackberry plants in these same containers.  When I removed the old ones to transplant these larger ones I noticed the roots were dead, which leaves me scratching my head as to what happened.  Hopefully my third try will be a winner!

I hope to grow these plants in containers, although drainage might be an issue.  Blackberries don't like to be "flooded" and won't tolerate "mucky soils".  These will get 6 - 7 hours of full sun each day. I'll just need to be careful about watering.

After these start growing in the pots, I'll fashion some sort of make-shift trellis to train the vines. The planting instructions say that the canes can be removed after fruiting.  I know these berry plants will never be as massive in containers as they would grow in the ground, but I've seen wild black berries take over an entire fence row. In our urban setting, I want to maintain more control over their growth.  Containers also add an element of portability to the bushes.  If I decided I don't like them in the front yard, I can simply move them to the backyard (hopefully) :-)

Orchids at the USF Botanical Garden in Tampa

Orchids in a greenhouse at the University of South Florida botanical gardens.

Upside Down Japanese Eggplant

I've been growing eggplant in an upside down hanging planter marketed for tomato plants.  I'm not a fan of tomato unless it's in ketchup, but I'm becoming more fond of eggplant each year.

I am growing the ichiban variety because it is more tolerate of hot weather and although it's still spring time in Florida, we've had several days in the 90's already.  The ichiban have taken the hot weather very well.  We had three of them in the pictures below for last night's supper and all were very good.

I've had bad luck growing classic eggplant in my raised bed garden, but that is primarily due to a lack of cold weather protection in the fall of the year.  I learned that ichiban can take more hot weather, so from now on I'll be growing ichiban eggplant. 

I'm not sure it's plainly visible in the pictures, but about 30% of my eggplant succumbed to the pesky little devil known as the tomato horn worm, which obviously also like to snack on eggplant.  :o)