Worldwide Beekeeping
Sustainable Living => Gardening => Topic started by: rrog13 on May 05, 2014, 10:00:56 pm
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How are those hydroponic gardens going?
I’d love to see some pictures.
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Mine is doing good I think, already got 4 heads of lettuce we are enjoying and the tomatoes are blooming.
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs3.postimg.cc%2Fyxl37cs8f%2F002.jpg&hash=15fd82f5e7bd5a3da620d9328883d4973b6fe025) (http://postimage.cc/)
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Had to add some pictures of my bee hives.
Ken
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Do not know what happen to pictures, cannot enlarge and took me 4 times over 4 hours to try to post, got a era saying severe was down.
Ken
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ken,
it may be that post image's server was down. sorry you had trouble, i just uploaded a picture through the post image application with no problem. try again, or send me your pix through a link if you have another photo upload site, and i will upload them for you ;)
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Trying again.
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Both of yours are looking great! Luscious, full and green.
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Thanks blueblood, it is doing petty good, planning on expanding it next to twice the size so I will have plenty of vegetables to even can for the winter.
Ken
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That's looking good Ken!
... planning on expanding it next to twice the size
lol......yeah, hydroponic gardening is almost as addicting as beekeeping. ;D
I'm thinking of designing another system myself.
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Latest pictures of my setup.
Summer Squash and Cucumbers - Once the plants got to a decent size, I started adding some KoolBloom to the reservoir. As you can see, these are beginning to really push out the blooms.
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Tomatoes - tip....If you start seeing the start of blossom end rot, add some Epsom salts to the reservoir.
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Nice to see I'm not the only one playing with this. Tilapia don't tolerate North Texas winters, so I have had to redo the whole arrangement. For now I'm doing a keep the plants watered style of aquaponic that involves dirt around the roots as there are no fish in the pond I use for veggies...
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Mine is doing petty good, as you can see in the pictures I have fruit as well as flowers and the bees were working the flowers on the cucumbers. rrog13 I see what you mean by the tomatoes using so much water I am having to fill in the morning as well as evening. I notice that you had or looked to be larger one, could you tell me where you purchase your from. I found a 54 gallon one at home depot but it was to flimsily I think to hold water. There will be 3 or 4 changes to mine next year on what I have learned from it this year.
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs9.postimg.cc%2F6yivpfwob%2F001.jpg&hash=56b450cc92502462cdb059bc51ad3e5eb1fa42fe) (http://postimg.cc/image/6yivpfwob/)
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My tank is a 110 gallon stock tank that I got at the feed store, probably made from recycled tires (some aquaponics sites worry more about that than I do, but ya know, take it into account. Made in USA, only ran about $70 to $80, new ones have a drain valve on the side with brass fittings pre installed.
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Ken,
I use a 27 gal. Strong Box Plastic Storage Tote from Home depot. I've installed an auto-fill valve and keep it connected to the water hose. It's well worth the effort for the benefit of ....no more watering! 8)
Here's a link to the tank I'm using.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-27-Gal-Strong-Box-Plastic-Storage-Tote-in-Black-and-Yellow-207585/202328879 (http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-27-Gal-Strong-Box-Plastic-Storage-Tote-in-Black-and-Yellow-207585/202328879)
Also, I noticed the clear plastic cups in your pictures your using to filling the empty spots. You may want to switch those out with some blue solo cups or something that blocks out the sun light. You want to deter algae growth as much as you can.
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Ok I did put a automatic float fave in my old tote to see if it would work, great it did, I bought a new 50 ft hose, the most I ever spent for one and glad it was on sale,10 dollars cheaper at 29.99 and rated at 500 psi, reason I needed one like that is because I am almost at the end of the water line and have high water presser and laying out in sun dosen't help either. Home depot had the tote you recommended on sale for 9.97 so I got two of them and thinking that next year of putting the together with a pipe at the bottom with one with the float and return and the other with pump so I could get in easier to add the fertilizer in. Here are some pictures of it.
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Forgot to mention that the totes are petty strong, stood on top of it and just a little give, but I only weigh 130 lbs anyway, Oh and I took the clear cups out and put duck tape over holes.
Ken
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Glad to see it's working out for you Ken.
With my systems, I find I have to add pH-Up on a regular basis to keep the pH in the 6.5 range. In my attempt to be a lazy gardener, I decided to play around with a pH drip to help manage this. When the pH gets too high or too low, the plants won’t absorb the nutrient. I mix up a high level pH solution in the PVC pipe and slow the drip to about 1 every 45 seconds. Since my initial testing provided such good results, I thought I’d pass on the idea. This will give me more time to get the weeding done. :laugh:
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Glad to see it's working out for you Ken.
With my systems, I find I have to add pH-Up on a regular basis to keep the pH in the 6.5 range. In my attempt to be a lazy gardener, I decided to play around with a pH drip to help manage this. When the pH gets too high or too low, the plants won’t absorb the nutrient. I mix up a high level pH solution in the PVC pipe and slow the drip to about 1 every 45 seconds. Since my initial testing provided such good results, I thought I’d pass on the idea. This will give me more time to get the weeding done. :laugh:
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Interesting...... But from keeping large ponds in the past, I can tell you a great PH buffer is a sack of oyster shells.
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Ok Zulu.....I'll bite :)
I've never heard that before. How easy would it be to maintain a 6.5 pH level using the oyster shells. I can definitely see putting some shells in the runs and/or the return tank if can keep the balance in that range.
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You may want to try sprinkling hydrated lime on your plants. It is a great insect repellent, and raises the ph at the same time. Safe for the bees, too.
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Oyster shell is basically calcium carbonate, so if the PH drops the resulting carbonic acid will release calcium carbonate... Raising the ph.
In ponds they are looking for 7.2-7.4 I guess in hydroponics we want a bit less, so would have to experiment I bit more.
The other fight we face, In ponds as the algae grows with the heat of the day you can see a PH rise during the day as the algae eats up the dissolved CO2 , by increasing the level of hydroxide. So having good buffers becomes important.
Took long while to balance a pond , but one balanced is easy to look after.
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I'm defiantly going to look into this further. Thanks Zulu!
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anyone else picking tomatoes and peppers off their hydroponics yet?
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Yes, I have been now about a week and half now and they are delicious, it is finally paying off, been getting a lot of cucumbers also and strawberrys and the lettuce which is here and gone.
Ken
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anyone else picking tomatoes and peppers off their hydroponics yet?
Picking tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, green beans, squash and soon ....icebox watermelon.
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wow. watermelon!