Aquaponic Greenhouse Log

Sat Jan 23, 2016

• Sent inquiry to Ron on what appeared to be amblyseius (thrips eliminator insect) on the towers - but I suspected it may actually be aphids.
• Started 5 gallon compost tea bucket fd by a teabag of composted cow manure for additional fertility on growing towers.
• Floating Fish Food - started on a 50 lb bag of Floating Fish Food from Orscheln's - [1].
• Caught about one more dozen fry from the big pond, considering setting up another 55 gallon drum for the fry in the pond, but something easier to catch would be nice if we want to catch the fish for market more easily. A smaller floating cage would be a good idea - with free exchange of nutrients and water with the larger pond. This is a great 3D printing opportunity - one cubic foot open water cages for fry. Having a number of these set up would allow easy grading and harvest for sale.
• One good idea that emerges on economics is taking 6 towers to market (out of 50 total towers, where we now have only 24 set up) - assuming total 6 week growth time, a conservative time. At $1-$3 per plant - that would be $160-$480 per week revenue just from greens that grow in the towers. Total of about 1000 plants in the towers means planting out one tower (22 plants) per day - which would be a pleasant 15 minute task. If packaging means taking entire towers to market - so time requirement is essentially the seeding time. At about 1 plant planted per minute - that comes out to $1-$3/minute - or $60-180 revenue from that hour of planting - plus a trip to market - which is another 4 hours or so. Thus, earning potential is about $12-36 per hour, given negligible cost of fuel, water, and electricity to run pumps. This assumes water is harvested locally from ponds or catchment, and electricity is solar, and we go to market on pelletized charcoal gasification.

Fri Jan 22, 2016

Noticed first aphids - on several plants out of 500 in the towers. Also, the plants planted in the second batch did not do as well. Once could be poor placement of Net Pots, where I just put them in without snugging them up for good contact with the filter medium. Leaned out fish water could be another issue: just 7 adult fish + few small ones plus hundreds of babies. Also noticed minor yellowing in one or 2 bok choi plants (of 100), implying nutrient deficiency.

Thu Jan 21, 2016

School of hundreds of tiny fish appeared in pond 1. I also saw the first small school of 20 or so one week earlier, and yesterday, an intermediate size appeared - implying at least 3 generations of babies born.

Jan 27, 2016

Installed more towers for a total of 24 with 22 plants in each tower.

Sun Dec 14, 2015

10 double towers are now installed, and planted with small plants. This is our bio filter. Goal is to see the production levels from 50-100 towers - can it really be 50-100 plants per day harvest? What fish population is required to sustain it so that the biofuel tee is effective, and is the bio filter sufficient without the plants in place?

Sun dec 7, 2015

Fed some, of the last apples from orchard to the chickens, maybe a week of apples left for an apple per day. Should invest in walk-in cooler to extend apples - a lot have rotted, maybe 25% total.

Mon Nov 30, 2015

First flush of mushrooms. 2.25 lb in one bucket. Harvested over 3 days.

Sun Nov 22, 2015

Released aphidoletes, planted beans as indicator plants for pests. Small fish are very vigorous, large ones are looking good. Kale, lettuce, and bok choi is almost getting second leaves. Few strawberries are coming into fruit. Duckweed and azolla appears to be propagating.

Sun Nov 15, 2015

Cleaned out blackworms.

Mon Nov 16, 2015

Released predatory mites and thrips eliminator from Ron Whitehurst's Rincon-Vitova Insectaries.