New 4 x 8' growbed

[bsfman]

Just added a third growbed (this one 4 X 8') which doubled my GB capacity. Recent rains have dropped my pH and that, coupled with an increasing fish weight load, has caused a few ammonia spikes. The new GB should alleviate that.

I put together a video - mainly for my non-aquaponics friends who wanted to know more about aquaponics and what I was doing with it. It will be pretty basic for everyone here, but I'll post the link anyhow. I added another pump to my system with this expansion. Yes, I know I could do it all with one pump, but I like having redundancy -especially given our Florida thunderstorms and the frequency of power surges which tend to trip the GFCI built in to one of my pumps. That, coupled with the re-plumbing required made me decide to just add another (third) pump with my GB expansion. I have extra pumps and had enough supplies on hand to add them - but a bigger pump and more PVC to re-plumb everything wasn't something I wanted to tackle right now.

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pOTVqoqZQ0&feature=plcp

[davidstcldfl]

OK guys ...for the following to make sense....you have to watch BSFmans video.....

As I formerly stated, it's a "Photo-kinetic solar assisted electro-powered hydraulic bio-chemical reactor and waste converter.".... 8-)

So, did she get anything good from the store ? ..... :lol:

[bsfman]

OK guys ...for the following to make sense....you have to watch BSFmans video.....

As I formerly stated, it's a "Photo-kinetic solar assisted electro-powered hydraulic bio-chemical reactor and waste converter.".... 8-)

So, did she get anything good from the store ? ..... :lol:

Yeah. She seems to do okay at whatever store she decides warrants her attention :roll:

[bsfman]

Here's some pics taken this morning. The two older growbeds were completely cleaned out at the end of August and reseeded. Doing pretty good in just a month.

This one has corn, cukes and a couple tomato plants going:

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/aquaponics/IMG_0037.jpg

Second growbed has Abe Lincoln tomatos grown from seed in late August and radishes seeded two weeks ago (the Papaya tree in the background was a volunteer that sprouted from the residue remaining when I mucked out one of my Black Soldier Fly bins):

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/aquaponics/IMG_0038.jpg

The newest growbed was seeded last week. Broccoli, crook neck squash, cukes and okra are all sprouting now:

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/aquaponics/IMG_0039.jpg

This is another view of the new growbed with the two older and smaller ones in the background:

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/aquaponics/IMG_0040.jpg

Radishes planted about 10 days ago (thery make a good companion crop with the tomatos:

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/aquaponics/IMG_0044.jpg

My little poly filled pre-filters, a separate mechanical filter, and the growbeds are doing a pretty good job keeping the water clear for the tilapia. I have roughly 100 pounds of fish weight in a 650 gallon wading pool fish tank. Total system water is about 850 gallons.

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/aquaponics/IMG_0042.jpg

[urbanfarmer]

Very nice! Those radish look like they want some iron foilar spray! :-)

[bsfman]

Very nice! Those radish look like they want some iron foilar spray! :-)
I added a quart of Maxicrop Plus iron late last week. They've started greening up already. Might have to add a bit more this week.

[davidstcldfl]

The new bed is looking nice.... :)

Nice looking papaya tree BSF. I find papaya seeds sprout 'real easy' in media beds...and boy do they grow fast... :)

[FreyaFL]

Great video and setup! Thank you for posting this. (I love how you painted the cinderblocks, I'm going to have to do that with mine.)

Also, thank you for having my daughter, my friends and myself out to see your setup. You were a great host! (Though, I suppose you could have done without my daughter passing out from the heat. :shock: )

[alex281]

That looks amazing!

[bsfman]

Great video and setup! Thank you for posting this. (I love how you painted the cinderblocks, I'm going to have to do that with mine.)

Also, thank you for having my daughter, my friends and myself out to see your setup. You were a great host! (Though, I suppose you could have done without my daughter passing out from the heat. :shock: )

Yeah, I gotta admit it freaked me out when your daughter passed out! Glad you were next to her to catch her before she clunked her head! Thankfully she rallied pretty quick once she had a glass of sweet tea and was inside in the A/C!

About painting the blocks - I used Rustoleum spray paint from Home Depot. And just for planning purposes... each can of spray paint covers about 16 square feet and each block painted on four sides is 2 2/3rds square feet. So it takes one can of spray to paint 6 blocks. You can figure how many cans of paint you need based on the number of blocks you are painting and add one more for touch-up work and you'll be good to go! :)

And post pics of your work in progress too! I'm jonesing to see what you have underway! 8-)

[bsfman]

That looks amazing!

Thank you Alex! :)

[bsfman]

The new bed is looking nice.... :)

Nice looking papaya tree BSF. I find papaya seeds sprout 'real easy' in media beds...and boy do they grow fast... :)

Thanks David!

I have tried sprouting Papaya and transplanting them in the past, but no longer do so. Now I just direct seed right into the soil. I think the plants are more vigorous that way.

Papayas are kind of a freaky plant. There are males, females (which require a nearby male for pollination) and hermaphrodites which are self pollinating. The hermaphrodites tend to put out oblong shaped fruits (like the fruit in the photo) and the females put out a more round fruit. You want to plant hermaphroditic seeds so as to get more hermaphroditic plants (as opposed to more male and female plants).

The plants will fruit their best crop in the first year. They may fruit in subsequent years, but the fruit tends to be smaller and fewer. I normally chop them down with a machete after the first crop and replant from seed for the next year. (The plant in the picture is just one year old.) The trunks are hollow and I've always thought they would make great barrels for building a Didgiridoo (assuming you have an overwhelming desire to own a Didgiridoo)
http://didjiman.com/didjeridu/didge-make.htm

I like to pick the papayas right when I see the orange color covering about one third to half of the fruit. If you try to let them tree ripen, there is some sort of insect that lays eggs in them which causes rotten spots. Also the rats and raccoons like to climb the trees and munch on tree ripened fruit. The flavor of the half-ripe fruit is better tasting to me when ripened indoors in cooler temps anyways and the flesh of the fruit stays firmer.

If you save seeds from a fruit to plant, DO NOT allow them to dry out or they won't germinate nearly as well. I save them in a ziplock sandwich bag along with a little pulp from the core until I'm ready to plant in order to keep them moist. I never buy Papaya seeds either. Just pick up a nice oblong shaped plant from the local grocery store and use those seeds! (You get to eat the fruit and free seeds that way too!) 8-) I mulch them fairly heavily with BSF residue and cypress mulch and water them with water containing abundant tilapia turds rinsed from my mechanical filter media. Keep the mulch a foot or so away from the trunk or else the trunks tend to rot out at ground level - especially when heavily laden with a fruit crop!

[davidstcldfl]

Wow, that is big, for a one year old tree... :)

We have one at the farm that came up on it's own (my buddy spilled a few seeds) It seems to have the oblong fruit. We've been planting seeds from it.

My buddy normally lets the seeds dry for a few weeks, before plannting. Wenormally just dump them in a media bed and a lot sprout. Never really did a germination count.
Will have to mention what you do to my buddy, with keeping the seeds moist and give that a try.. :)

[bsfman]

Just got back from a five day trip to Atlanta and first thing I did on returning home was to check my ap system. I was freaking AMAZED at the explosive growth that happened in my absence! I'll take more pics in the daylight tomorrow, but just had to share these. The new GB is looking good too. Pics of that one tomorrow too.

This is my cukes and corn (and two tomatos)...

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Aquaponic%20rebuild/IMG_0190.jpg

And this is the cukes and corn on the left hand GB and tomatos and radishes on the right hand. I swear, i can almost HEAR the plants growing! :)

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Aquaponic%20rebuild/IMG_0189.jpg

[davidstcldfl]

I swear, i can almost HEAR the plants growing!
:lol:

[FreyaFL]

Wow! And that was almost 2 weeks ago. Need more pictures!