Aquaponics Update

 Looks like the strawberries are quite happy in their semi-aquatic home! This is my first aquaponic flower and, with a little luck, will turn into my first aquaponic strawberry fruit.Some leaves have been turning brown slowly from the tips but there have always been 2 new leaves to replace each old one so I haven't been that concerned. I've been adding just a little bit of Maxicrop liquid seaweed fertilizer once a week. The purple basil is starting to take off too and I'll likely have my first harvest in a few weeks.

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Nano-Aquaponics

The system in all its glory!

Purple basil sprouting after directly sowing into the bed

I figured it is about time the fish in my freshwater tank started pulling their own weight and, after visiting a friend's aquaponics set up, decided it would be worth a shot to make one myself. Aquaponics (a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics) uses waste from fish and other aquatic organisms to feed plants, forming a more closed nutrient loop that benefits both fish and plants. So far I've been rather happy with the results. So, how does one turn a 15 gallon fish tank with a few guppies into a food producing power house? Well, I have yet to actually harvest anything but here is how I made my system and a few pics from the 3 weeks it has been running.

The first step was visiting the local hydroponics shop and picking up:

• a small pump (you don't need anything too beefy as it only is pumping the water about a foot and it doesn't need to pump that quickly)
• an ebb and flow plumbing kit which contains a bulkhead with screen for the flood portion and then a drain portion with a riser and screen on top of a bulk head
• a length of 1/2" and 3/4" tubing
• 10L of hydroton (I already had mine but you'll need it or 3/4" pea gravel works as well)

I stopped at the local hardware store and picked up some Tristar strawberry starts and a 3 gallon Rubbermaid bin. If you don't have it handy, you'll also need a small clamp light with a 26W daylight CFL, 2 lamp timers (15min increments for at least one), some 2x2 lumber, and some wood screws.

After gathering the supplies, I cut some of the lumber into 6 2' lengths. Four of these lengths were screwed into a square that will be the light support. I drilled an appropriately sized hole for the 2 bulk heads in the tub and unscrewed, attached, and rescrewed them on.  I then attached the 1/2" hose to the inflow at one and and the pump at the other. I put the 3/4" hose on the outlet (to muffle the sound of outflowing water). I washed the hydroton (important step!) and then put it in the tub and set the tub on top of the light stand and other 2 pieces of lumber that I'd put across the top of the aquarium. After setting one of the timers to be on for 15 minutes and off for 45 minutes, I plugged it in and set the other timer to run on for 12 hours and off for 12 hrs. I'd intended to let the new system cycle for a few weeks so that bacteria could take over the new grow bed but became impatient and planted 3 strawberry starts in the bed, carefully making sure that the crowns were in the dry portion of the hydroton. The plants responded well (easily 2-3x the size of the other 7 starts I planted in a strawberry pot after 3 weeks) and so, as part of an experiment, I started some purple basil seeds in rock wool, on a heat mat in my seed starting chamber (description coming soon!), and directly in the hydroton bed. While the seeds in the seed starting chamber came up first, the ones in the aquaponics system have caught up and look like they're about to put out their first set of true leaves. I may change out the wood for an aluminum frame in the future and might add a few worms from the worm bin as the system matures. I know it isn't the prettiest system but it will look much prettier with delicious sweet strawberries included. In short, if you have a tropical fish tank already set up, this is a great way to recoup some of those costs, help keep your fish happy and healthy, and grow some food in a relatively small space. I'll be sure to make an update when I'm swimming in strawberries and basil! Does anyone else have a an apartment aquaponics system going?

Jaboticaba Update

Happy Jaboticaba plant 2of3

Happy Jaboticaba plant 1of3

Looking over my blog, I noticed that it has been almost exactly six months since I potted up my jaboticaba plants. While their growth isn't nearly as explosive as my cherimoyas (updated to follow), they certainly have put out quite a bit of foliage! There was a bit of browning on the tips of the older leaves but I attribute this to the low humidity my apartment experienced (despite having a fish tank and humidifier in the room). These plants seem to love water and the more I water them, the happier they seem to be. Based on this and their slow growth, I think they would make an outstanding specimen for an upcoming project, "Paludarium Redux".

LED Bloom Booster

The recent warm weather in Wisconsin has me back in the gardening mood and I'm working to finish up some of my Winter projects. One of my more fun projects has been trying to coax my miracle fruit into blooming indoors. Currently, there is a 150W HPS and a 13W 6500K CFL, neither of which emits much light at around 660nm, the photosynthetic sweet spot associated with flowering. So, soldering iron in hand, I went about my attempt of bathing my plants in some red wavelength light. DISCLAIMER: This stuff can be dangerous. You have electricity and humid/wet environments which can be dangerous! If you don't know what you're doing, please, either read till your eyes bleed/you know what you are doing or consult a professional. I am in no way responsible if you harm yourself or start a fire or any other bad stuff. Alright </scary stuff>.

So, here is first light of my lamp -->
Wow that is bright! So how did I do it? Well, there is a great web resource at the  Green Pine Lane Forum with enough reading to keep you busy for a very long time! A simple walk through of what I did though:

1. Attach 9 1W ~660nm to 3"x4" finned heatsink using arctic alumina (Note: most high power red leds are 625nm, there are only a few companies that make 660nm leds and even fewer that make fairly efficient ones).
2. Solder LED's in series 
3. Connect to LM317 circuit with resistor to make a simple constant current driver. This isn't the most efficient system but, I had all the parts handy.
4. Connect the circuit to a 24V power supply. I used one that outputs 1.1A which means I'd be able to very comfortably run two of these lamps off of this supply, if I so desired. 
5. Splice 80mm computer case fan to an old 12V wall wart DC adapter
6. Attach fan to the top of the heat sink and use a fair bit of wire to create a hanging mechanism. 
7. Plug in the fan and power supply and bask in the eerie red glow!

LED light is on the right

I certainly learned a great deal about creating LED lamps with high power LEDs and am fairly certain this won't be my last one (in fact, I already am scheming for a the next one). I'm hoping to boost the overall efficiency of this system but first, I'd like to see if this has any marked effect on miracle fruit production! If so, I may have some seeds to sell in the near future. Stay tuned for updates on this and my other adventures in indoor tropical gardening in the Wisconsin tundra.

Miracle Fruit Update

It has been a bit since I've updated due to work but the new grow box is doing wonders for the six miracle fruit plants! I'm not sure if it is 150W HPS light or the new fertilizer routine (I'm now using Blue Mountain Organics and loving it) but in the past month, the plants have grown more than in the past year. I've also got another round of buds forming with my latest count at 3. I've added in 20W of halogen light (lots of far red) which I hope pushes more blooms. Now, here are the latest pictures!

The 6 plants only take up about 1/3 of the floor space, but that is about all that the 150W lamp covers directly, anyway.

The brownish looking leaves are actually the new, red leaves. Look at that growth!

Soon to be fruit?

New Grow Box!

I've been contemplating building this for some time and decided my Christmas present to myself would be my new grow box. It is made out of 1" PVC pipe, 6mm black and white film, and white duct tape.

A bit out of place in my small apartment!

Oooo... fog!

It measures roughly 4' x 3' x 7.5'. Right now, I have a 150W HPS light hanging in there and will likely supplement this with some more CFLs. The film is great (super easy to work with) and except for a few seams I need to put a bit more tape on, makes a light tight enclosure. My miracle fruit plants will go in here so I need the humidity to stay nice and high. To do this, I used a ~20 gallon tote with a CPU fan and an ultrasonic fogger on a wooden float which seems to keep things at over 80% humidity. This will likely be higher once the plants are in there transpiring. I was seeing great growth under the HPS in the paludarium but there was just not enough room for the plant and my other enclosure is getting over crowded as well. With a little luck, I'll have all my plants happy, growing, and flowering/fruiting in their new home soon!  Happy Holidays everyone.

Another Update

Happy Holidays again and time for one more quick update. The aphids seem to be beaten and the pepper plants promptly responded by putting out a flush of new flowers. This may also be a response to adding a sprinkle of Osmocote 14-14-14 to the top of the soil as the plants looked like they could use a boost. A week later, they’re certainly boosted! I’m fighting some yellow leaves on one miracle fruit plant in my old set up but hopefully it is a heat issue and the small heater I have will keep the temp up a bit more over night. There seems to be a TON of new growth (pictures to follow) on the MF plant in my 55 gallon enclosure under the 150W HPS light. Not sure what did it but all of the sudden, it looks like there are new leave shoots (and possibly flower stalks!?! fingers crossed) coming out every which way. I have some new MF organic fertilizer on its way from Black Rivery Nursery so hopefully that will also help with fruiting. The non-traditional Christmas tree is mostly built and I’m waiting on my lettuce seedlings to get big enough that I can try transplanting them into the system. If the lettuce grows well, I’ll do a full write up. The hardest parts so far have been 1) keeping the water in at the grow sites; and 2) figuring out how to make my old Windows 98 laptop control relays to turn the pump, lights, and Christmas lights on and off. Please don’t try this at home (and don’t forget that GFCIs are your friend, especially when it comes to mixing home hydroponics and home made circuitry).  The lettuce likely won’t be ready by the 25^th but hopefully I will at least be able to transplant it by then and have it have some decent growth so that the white buckets look green and tree like. I’d forgotten how nice it is to have a lovely plant room with full spectrum lights and tropical plants all around you while outside, it is snowing and freezing!