rfeiller's-outdoor garden construction

[rfeiller]

thanks Stucco,
yes, love asparagus. one of the large GB's will have asparagus and yukon gold potatoes on an irrigation system in coir and perlite. i don't know how well it will do, i believe with irrigation it will do very well. when i tried some with a bell siphon, it did nothing. commercially roses are grown hydroponically in coir and perlite with timed irrigation. they are watered 15 times per day. of course the best fertilizer you can give a rose is water.
at my place in NM asparagus did fantastic in the desert. it does not like wet feet. so far the asparagus in the pots has been watered once a day. the nitrates in the Biopond is somewhere around 40ppm. way too low for asparagus. i am counting on the vermiponics to pull it off.

[rfeiller]

build a divider the width of the GB to allow sufficient flow of water to the drain.
add about 2" of red lava as drain rock.

[rfeiller]

install heavy pet proof fibre glass screen material over drain rock and divider. the screen covers one-half of the GB. on top of the screen i placed about 2" of chunky coir for additional drainage and air.

[rfeiller]

pH is down to 7, nitrates are up to about 80-100, temp 61 degrees. plants should be happy. hope to bring pH down to 6.5.
setting up last two beds one 120 gallon edpm linered 2x8' grow bed and one 4x4 grow bed.
picked up 1/2 cu. yd of red lava today for the last 4x4 which will incorporate a bell siphon.
2x8 will have a raft system

the other 2x8 GB has coir and perlite with one half of it planted in Yukon Gold potatoes and asparagus. i hope the asparagus will survive it is very dried out and late in the season. we'll see.

plants in 5 gal buckets are going crazy, added more food for worms tonight.

goldfish have settled in, have lost about 20 or so originally released 249 expecting since they are feeders that i would loose some.

[rfeiller]

a raft system set up. jiffy pellets are in pots, today i will seed the pots. once the roots entend down into the water i will raise this layer of styro and create an air gap between it and the water surface. one mistake i have been making that i was made aware of by a post by urbanfarmer a research article from university of florida the bottom of the net pot should just touch the water not submersed in it. this keeps the crown out of the water.

the drain is in the center of the GB, water is supplied at both ends to create a positive flow.

[rfeiller]

harvesting squash, rose flowers from buckets so far, tomato plants are full of flowers and small tomatoes.

[rfeiller]

another bucket picture

[samtheman]

Very nice setup !!!

[rfeiller]

Thank-you
It keeps growing trying to find a balance I need more grow beds

I've got this idea for adding real cheap GBs

[keith_r]

lookin forward to hearing about this idea!