|
|
Post by oldmobie on Sept 26, 2017 22:49:38 GMT -5
Scored a box of edging at the second hand store for $5.  Too flimsy to drive into my soil, I'd have to dig a trench, drop in the edging and backfill. But, as I supected, it's tough enough to drive into wet sand.  It seems that sand won't stack into a vertical "cliff". Or at least it won't stay like that. It kinda slumps down, getting lower and wider. In my case, the bottom of the slope was submerged when the pump ran. I couldn't plant there, the water would eddy around anything that disturbed the smooth "floor", washing out a hole, if the object didn't wash away. It was wasted space. Now the edging lets me go vertical. I was able to add half a bucket of sand to utilize that space.  Also found my first cucumbers while I was working. Before frost. I'll not get too cocky until they're a little bigger.   |
|
|
|
Post by philagardener on Sept 27, 2017 5:41:57 GMT -5
Nice looking cuc! They fill out quickly. Are you pollinating by hand, relying on the bees, or is it a parthenocarpic variety?
|
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on Sept 27, 2017 11:20:07 GMT -5
Nice looking cuc! They fill out quickly. Are you pollinating by hand, relying on the bees, or is it a parthenocarpic variety? I'm hoping for bee polination. They're from my own saved seeds, parents were Joseph Lofthouse 's and a handful of storebought varieties I've been mixing up for three or four generations. (Boston Pickling and Burpless are the names I remember.) I've never bought any parthenocarpic, so they won't be that unless the genes came out of Joseph's. |
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on Oct 4, 2017 23:51:09 GMT -5
I have little to no weed load so far, but this may be the first. Is this mimosa?  Nope.  I think it was this. Other than the poison and growing a little smaller, not much different from mimosa, which grows readily here. (As it does on most of the earth.) I pulled it out so it won't get a foothold. |
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 5, 2017 17:54:44 GMT -5
My first guess would be lentil.
|
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on Oct 5, 2017 21:40:40 GMT -5
My first guess would be lentil. Wow, never thought of that. I only grew lentils once. Dried, from the grocery store. They didn't produce much, and to my untrained eye they looked a lot like hairy vetch. I've read mixed reports about vetch's edibility, so I didn't plant again. I don't remember what that one bloomed like. |
|
|
|
Post by prairiegardens on Nov 17, 2017 22:13:48 GMT -5
So how are things going?
|
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on Nov 18, 2017 19:53:51 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by reed on Nov 19, 2017 7:52:15 GMT -5
I guess trying to make good soil by adding wet fish crap to sand misses some of the finer points. Who'da thought? In the pics you'll see a terra cotta pot of potting soil. Do you mean adding organic matter to your sand? My set up is very different but the plants I grow in the moving stream section are planted in nothing but pots of clean gravel. They grow in just the moving water pumped up from the fish pond part. Just the bottom of the pots sit in the water, the gravel is mostly to hold them down good. Roots exit the drain holes and build up under the rocks in the little stream. I have to clean it all out once a year cause of too much dead plant material from the stuff that's not winter hardy. I'm sure there is a balance in there somewhere, just like in a good aquarium set up. Fish poo feeds the plants, plant roots clean the water. |
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on Nov 19, 2017 20:12:04 GMT -5
Do you mean adding organic matter to your sand? That's what I've been considering, but I'm a little reluctant. Other people don't seem to want residual OM in their aquaponics. Sure, the fish waste is OM, but mobile and largely dissolved. If a plant dies or too many roots are left behind, they put in worms to eat that stuff or just dig it out and remove it. I guess it needs more research and/or experimentation. I might try mixing sand and different amounts of OM in pots and see how things grow in those, before contaminating the whole bed. |
|
|
|
Post by aufin on Nov 21, 2017 11:48:59 GMT -5
Do you mean adding organic matter to your sand? That's what I've been considering, but I'm a little reluctant. Other people don't seem to want residual OM in their aquaponics. Sure, the fish waste is OM, but mobile and largely dissolved. If a plant dies or too many roots are left behind, they put in worms to eat that stuff or just dig it out and remove it. I guess it needs more research and/or experimentation. I might try mixing sand and different amounts of OM in pots and see how things grow in those, before contaminating the whole bed. Adding/allowing organic material to flow in an aquaponics system can be a good or bad thing depending on the style/type AP system one is operating. As to what mobie is playing with, adding the organic material to your sand is exactly what you want/need to do in your situation. You are "dancing around the edges" of an iAVs type aquaponics setup. You really should read up on iAVs and get a better understanding of how how the system works before things start going sideways you get discouraged. IAVs does work really well once you get set up within the right parameters and the system gets seasoned. |
|
|
|
Post by walt on Nov 21, 2017 13:27:59 GMT -5
I guess what I'm doing is borderline aquaponics. I decided to root cuttings from seedling sweet potatoes and put them in my 40 gallon aquarium. The cuttings are taped up near the light and the roots hang down into the water. I'm just hoping they winter over. Low expectations. I'm not after production, just survival.
|
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on May 28, 2018 5:01:04 GMT -5
 Not looking too bad this year. I suspect it's because things are living off of food stored in their seeds, tubers, etc. The potatoes have the whole tuber in the ground. The beans and sunflowers have just germinated. The sweet potatoes were starts, (in a 6 pack) so they have a bit of soil among their roots.   The possible exception is these little purple guys. I think they're amaranth. Amaranth seeds are tiny. If I'm right, these must be getting enough (or nearly enough) organic matter from the system! I'm likely gonna add a wicking bed. (Jack Spirko style) I'm also thinking of pushing sticks into the sand. Or burying them. Kinda borrow the hugelculture idea. Organic matter, added with minimal disturbance of my current plantings. |
|
|
|
Post by oldmobie on Jun 4, 2018 22:49:22 GMT -5
 Aquaponic peanuts started blooming two days ago.   My aquaponic sweet potatoes have little bud things. Maybe blooms? Hope I get to join the TSPS club. |
|
|
|
Post by reed on Jun 5, 2018 2:27:01 GMT -5
I had an aqua grown sweet potato a few seasons. It was a variety not know for blooming but it do so abundantly. It did not make any storage roots at all and it was a kind that is know for that. It did not make any seeds.
|
|
