Solar Pumping (hydroponic or use for a ?)

[JeffW]

I still love this guy's video and the design (perfect)

[video:1j2e96eu]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2hm5o5NjOs[/video:1j2e96eu]

[badflash]

Wormoponics. Gotta love it. Too bad it won't work for fish, but it is an awesome concept.

Anyone tried using BSF juice on plants?

[coledexter1920]

I also took a look of his video and must say you are right here; he has done a wonderful job with the designs and sounds. Can you suggest me some good companies for buying solar mirrors.

[bsfman]

Anyone tried using BSF juice on plants?

Yes. I use it to fertilize my duckweed pond and also as a soil drench on my mango and carambola trees. Though it's anecdotal evidence at best, I do have a young carambola tree that was on the verge of death that has made a remarkable comeback after being soil drenched bi-weekly with a quart or so of BSF effluent for the past 6 months.

I would be circumspect about using it undiluted on any potted plants though. It's loaded with anerobic bacteria which could have harmful effects. Though I have not tried it, substituting the bsf juice for vermi-effluent in a worm tea recipe where aeration is used might be beneficial.

[sanford]

hi bsfman, now that you are mentioning the bsf juice on plants,i have a tote 40"long x 16"wide and 16"high and am thinking of putting 1 or 2 inches of soil on the bottom and putting in some bsf larvae and feeding them and as the soil gets full of waste using the soil for plants. i read you used soil in your system due to it being on the ground, does there seem to be any smell since the worm juice does not flow out. also, on your bug box system how do you populate it with new eggs from flies?

thanks bsfman for all the help!!
sanford

[bsfman]

hi bsfman, now that you are mentioning the bsf juice on plants,i have a tote 40"long x 16"wide and 16"high and am thinking of putting 1 or 2 inches of soil on the bottom and putting in some bsf larvae and feeding them and as the soil gets full of waste using the soil for plants. i read you used soil in your system due to it being on the ground, does there seem to be any smell since the worm juice does not flow out. also, on your bug box system how do you populate it with new eggs from flies?

thanks bsfman for all the help!!
sanford

No need for the dirt in the tote bottom, Sanford. It does nothing for the BSF.

My large bins are open bottomed and rest directly on the soil - hence, excellent drainage. Though I add a couple inches of soil to these open bottomed bins, I do so only to seal the seam where the wood rests on the ground to prevent larvae from escaping.

My smaller bins all have drainage into collection containers. Eventually, the filters clog and the residue gets anerobic. This holds true with both models of BioPod as well as my home built systems with drainage. The collected effluent is particularly funky smelling, but typically the bins are not - even when the lower layers of residue become anerobic. When you clean out a bin that is filled up is when you will notice the smell from the bottom layers.

Though I use what effluent I collect, it's basically just to dispose of it. I think the residue is far better as a soil amendment than the effluent. If I were youand experimenting with a tote as a bin, I'd drill numerous small holes in the bottom and rest it on soil and forget about collecting the effluent.

If you are in zone 6 or below and below 2000 ft elevation, and not in a desert area, you can probably attract native BSF once the daily high temps in your area are consistantly 80F or higher. Bait your bin with kitchen garbage or even dried animal feed you have soaked in water to a mush-like consistancy. You will first get fruitflies and housefly larvae, but within 3 weeks should see BSF. Once the BSF arrive, your other fly larvae will disappear. The BSF will continue to keep your bin populated through egglaying.

Hope that answered your questions:)

[sanford]

hi bsfman i live in sunrise fl so maybe some bsf here. thanks for the info will see what happens

sanford

[bsfman]

hi bsfman i live in sunrise fl so maybe some bsf here. thanks for the info will see what happens

sanford

If you're in Sunrise, you definitely have 'em! Soak some feed in water (you can even use dried dog or cat food), let it get funky and set it out in your bins. You should have BSF larvae visible within 19 to 21 days. I'm a bit north and west of you (Cape Coral) and have had egglaying for several weeks now. This early 80 plus degree weather is helping for sure!