Hello from Kearney MO

[misterguppy]

My name is Tom and my family and I live in Kearney (sounds like "car knee") Missouri. We live in town, in a subdivision, on a large lot (.48 acre) and are trying to practice a form of urban agriculture. My wife and I are both educators and we have been growing fruits and vegetables for many years. I would not call myself a "prepper" as we have been gardening and canning our whole lives. A more appropriate term would be perpetual food storage. We have been studying aquaponics for a few years and have taken great leaps into it this year. In march we bought our first fry of blue tilapia with the intent of them becoming our brood stock. Over the summer my sons and I built a 16x32 greenhouse, grow beds for our ap system in the greenhouse, and a stand alone system which is now operating in the garage. Here are a few pics of the greenhouse:

http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/o778/misterguppy/Photobucket%20Desktop%20-%20C02HF94EDJWT/untitled%20folder/IMAG0420.jpg

http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/o778/misterguppy/Photobucket%20Desktop%20-%20C02HF94EDJWT/untitled%20folder/IMAG0422.jpg

http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/o778/misterguppy/Photobucket%20Desktop%20-%20C02HF94EDJWT/untitled%20folder/IMAG0421.jpg

Here is a pic of our grow beds:

http://i1342.photobucket.com/albums/o778/misterguppy/Photobucket%20Desktop%20-%20C02HF94EDJWT/untitled%20folder/IMAG0427.jpg
We used barrels because we were able to get them free. We built three tables like this to go along the south side and then will hook into a raft system along the west side and north side.

I don't have pics of our stand alone system yet, but will get some on later. I am sure we will have a ton of questions as we go along. We are looking forward to meeting you all.

[bcotton]

living the dream, dude.


brian

[davidstcldfl]

Hi Tom, welcome to the forum... :)
Nice looking green house...so are the raised beds... 8-)

[urbanfarmer]

living the dream, dude.


brian
My sentiments exactly! :mrgreen:

[Lordshandyman]

I love your greenhouse and your raised beds look wonderful.

Welcome to the forum. People here sure are friendly about answering questions so ask away.

Your growbeds look very well designed and sturdy.

I am in Naples Florida, and am raising blue tilapia as well. We hardly ever get a freeze and my system is just sitting outside... but I found out that I do need to heat it a little bit for the tilapia. They don't like it when the water gets below 50 degrees... actually I noticed they quit eating good when the water temps dropped below 70 degrees. This created an unexpected problem for me. The winter in Florida is the prime growing season... and my fertilizer machines (aka: fish) are practically hibernating. In the summer, they are eating and pooping machines, but I don't have too many veggies I can grow successfully then. So... I am beginning to wonder if tilapia is the right choice after all... I did however discover that Okra is excellent stir fried (used to only eat it deep fried smothered in batter, but have changed my ways recently so had no use for it until now), and that it loves the hot days and tolerates hot water on its roots, so now between sweet potatoes and okra, I will have good summer filtration. Anyone living with nematodes in their soil and have had trouble trying to grow okra should do so in an aquaponics system... the okra grows phenomenally this way.

Of course, in Missouri, your prime growing time would coincide with the high tilapia activity, so if you are willing to heat the water to keep them alive during the winter, then they should work out for you ok during the summers. I suppose if you heat the greenhouse and the water during the winter, then you could grow year round.... but the cost would be great!

Look forward to seeing more pictures.

[misterguppy]

I will not have the ap system running in the greenhouse this winter. My thought was to have two sets of fish for winter and summer. I would use a solar heater for the water in the winter to allow me to get the tilapia out in march/april and grow out until end of november. Bring larger brood stock into garage system for breeding and maybe a hot finishing tank for the ones to slaughter. I would then move my catfish/bluegill from my outdoor ponds to the greenhouse and keep only greens growing as long as possible. I did not want to heat the greenhouse, but just extend our growing season in there. Too much $$$ to heat it. Any thoughts or ideas? I am learning that there is a learning curve to ap and sometimes you just have experiment as each situation is different.

The fish tanks aren't set up yet. My plan was to have a sump tank (about 7x7x3) sunk into the ground with a deck built over it with 4 IBC totes (possibly) to use as fish tanks in different stages of growth or varieties. Right now I have a free 300 gallon cone shaped tank and stand and 55 gallon drums to use. I was hoping to invest my tax returns if we have any this spring into plumbing and tanks. This is a debt free project that I build as I can afford. This winter, I am planning on getting the rain gutters/water storage system set up and power run out there.

Thanks, for the "living the dream" comments, but sometimes it seems more like "slave to the dream" or "living the workin' my butt off" LOL

[davidstcldfl]

Thanks, for the "living the dream" comments, but sometimes it seems more like "slave to the dream" or "living the workin' my butt off" LOL

:D .... :lol:

[JCO]

Welcome and don't be a stranger...more photos please :mrgreen:

[bcotton]

The water will act as a thermal mass and may help keep the inside of the greenhouse warm longer than you think. The water will continue to store heat on sunny days and release the heat at night. The more water you have the better. I doubt you can keep year round tilapia but year round growing seasons is on the table.

Can also use composting as a cheap/free heat source.


brian

[bbikebbs]

And the water doesn't have to be part of the AP system. I've got a couple of 55 gal drums full of water that are completely separate from anything else. They just get hot in the day and radiate the warmth during the night.

[dead_sled]

Great looking set up. Welcome to the forum from Kearney, NE.

[Lordshandyman]

got any updates?

[misterguppy]

Sorry for being such a slacker. At times, life takes a set of strange twists and turns that can beat us down or give us opportunities to learn new things about ourselves. I have chosen to learn. At the end of december, I fell down the deck stairs heading out to the greenhouse and destroyed my knee. After surgery to clean up shattered bone and reattach the patellar tendons in my thigh, I have learned that I must be patient and content with the new slower me. Never said learning was easy. With that said, I am well behind where I wanted to be, but I am making progress. Today The permanent power to the greenhouse was turned on. Yeah, no more extension cords running across the yard. I have 12 half barrel grow beds that are plumbed and running, filled with media, but no plants. I am still fine tuning the loop siphons. I have a 4x10 dwc raft table that is working great with a few tomatoes and peppers in there. I have 2 330 gallon conjoined ibc totes buried in the ground as my sump system, and two 330 gallon IBC tote fish tanks. The tanks drain into a radical flow filter barrel, then into a vortex barrel and then back into the sumps. Like I said, I have made progress, but not as fast as I wanted too. A lot of friends want to learn about aquaponics, but when it comes time to dig a 4x8x4 pit to put the sumps in, they are all busy. AP is a passion. A lot of people tell me how easy it is, but they don't have a system they are working on. They see a little on youtube and they are instant experts. Aquaponics will challenge you, and you have to think outside the box many times.

I have included some pics from this spring. I will take some new pictures tomorrow and get those uploaded soon.

God Bless to all,
Tom

[Aloha Don]

Sorry to hear about your fall but ...WOW!!!
You are doing more in an injured state than most people do all their lives healthy
Praying for a speedy recovery and looking forward to seeing the progress on your AP addiction.
Great Job!!!

[misterguppy]

Thanks. I like to keep busy. I tell my wife it keeps me from chasing women! LOL

[JCO]

Tom you are an absolute inspiration to us all. The world should think as you do. Thank you for gracing this forum and be careful with that leg. No more Spiderman antics. 8-) :mrgreen:

[eddiemigue]

Sorry to hear about the knee, but wow, I share the sentiments of others - quite the impressive job, and more so b/c of the injury. Beautiful work all around. Please keep us informed - for myself, I will follow your updates with interest.

[misterguppy]

I know how I like pics, so here are some pics from back in June when I was laying out the sump, fish tanks, media beds, and filters.

[misterguppy]

Here are pics from today. Media beds are mostly running (need to fine tune a couple), sump, fish tanks, filters and DWC raft table all flowing. Now to start charting water chems, sprouting seeds for fall crops, go trap some native (channel cat and bluegill) fingerlings, etc., etc., etc.. Plan on using fish tank on left (North side) for natives, and right (south side) for Tilapia.

Any questions, comments, and critiques are all welcome. Thanks for looking.

[JCO]

Looking great..how long before we see some veggies? :mrgreen:

[misterguppy]

Got some cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, and peppers to transplant. Will be sprouting seeds this weekend. Going to sprout a bunch of different things that should do well thru the fall, lettuces, herbs, tomatoes, peas, beans.....a little bit of everything.

[eddiemigue]

What zone are you in? In in 7a and just started sowing much of my soil fall plantings.

[Aloha Don]

Great looking setup!!
If you dont mind...why did you decide to run input to your GBs up and into the middle-ish like that?
Does that take away from your GB space?
Thanks for the updates...

[misterguppy]

Don I was worried that if I went from one end to the other with the flow of water, the drop in pressure as I adjusted each of the grow beds would cause a ripple effect. I was just trying to engineer out any problems before building. I figured if I came into the middle, then the flow rate would be more balanced. Maybe it is me just worrying too much, or my perfectionism. Perfectionism I have learned is an evil mistress, but it runs deep in me for good and bad. :)

[misterguppy]

Eddie according to the USDA we are 5b. Our spring crop of cold weather veggies in the garden was poor at best this year. Too much rain in the spring and then it heated up too fast. Very small cabbages if the heads formed, and the broccoli flowers started to yellow at a very small size.

[eddiemigue]

This was a tough year, with the cold spring and then a heat wave. I put in much more effort this year, am much more knowledgeable than last, and the crop has been much less.

[wilderguide]

Just joined form so a little late in response... all I can say is you've build my Dream Greenhouse! and Veggie garden in general
Keep on
WG