Aquaponics As a Food Source

[Irving]

So the idea is that some of the roots will be submerged, but not all of the root at all times? That makes more sense.

[GilpinGuy]

I have sprouts in the wicking bed!


Sprouts for bok choy, lettuce, bell peppers and broccoli all popped up today. Very cool. Also planted were basil, onions, carrots, peas, cabbage and tomatoes. Kind of a shotgun approach. Just plant a bunch of stuff and see what works.

I jumped the gun and planted the seeds while still dialing in the vent/heat timing cycle. It got pretty darn cold in there a few nights, like 50F or so. Not the best conditions for germinating seeds. But the water in the system is over 70F and the room the last few days was kept pretty warm, so I guess I didn't kill everything. Warm water flowing through the system must have helped a lot.

A dehumidistat should be delivered Mon or Tues, so that will be the next step in dialing everything in.

In the ebb and flow bed, I put in a ton more of the garlic cloves. The greens from them are delicious and grow incredibly fast. The green onions too - they grow about an inch a day.

Some interesting stuff:
We put 3 baby bok choy plants in there directly from the supermarket (we didn't take any leaves off before planting). They looked good for about a week, then two of them suddenly looked real bad. I yanked them out and the stump had no roots at all - just a clump of brown, nasty gunk. They got tossed into the forest. The other one looked great with roots growing, new growth up top, etc. This morning it looked awesome. This evening it was totally wilted and laying flat on the clay. WTF? Weird. Again, into the forest.

I had a few lettuce heads get the same brown gunk on the bottom and not grow roots. Others took off and are growing well. I guess it just depends on what you get at the store as far as age, quality, organic vs. non-organic, etc. I know some veggies get sprayed with a chemical to prevent sprouting and root growth while at the grocery store, so organic stuff is what you should buy if you plan to plant it eventually. I forget if the bok choy/lettuce I got was organic or not.

The cilantro I tried was a complete fail, as predicted. I have some in a glass of water now to let roots grow first, then I'll put them in the ebb and flow bed.

I also took a head of romaine lettuce, stripped off all of the good leaves for eating, sliced about 1/8 inch off the stump and put that in a glass of water to see if roots will grow. It seems to me that going directly into the bed would be better, but why not see if it grows some roots this way first to jump start the process.

Oh yeah, our electric bill went up about $10 since starting this whole deal. I thought it would have been more than that, so that's good. If I can make this all work, it will pay for itself. I'll do a ROI analysis eventually. I've saved every receipt for everything I purchased for this monster.

Irving: as far as the moisture level in the soil and stuff, I'm still learning about it all. Some folks say you should pull the stand pipe and let the whole bed drain for a day or two to allow some O2 in and prevent anaerobic crap from starting to grow, which makes sense. The frequency of this is debatable. My guess is that the plants are pretty freaking smart and will spread their roots out along the barrier between moist and saturated in a way that benefits them best in between the drainings.

The experiment continues....

[Mtneer]

Organic doesn't mean the veggies haven't been sprayed with anything. For example, potatoes at stores have growth inhibitors, no matter the marketing label. It doesn't always work so results will be unpredictable. Garden centers sell starts for many veggies (onions, potatoes, etc) that will give more consistent results.

[Irving]

How well has the barrier in the wicking bed been working so far? Meaning, have you noticed any sediment building up in the fish tank at all?

I tried to put worms in my clay pellets. I don't know if it did anything, but I figured if any escaped it'd just be a treat for the fish.

Sounds like you've got good results so far. Looking forward to seeing how full those beds are in about three months from now.

[GilpinGuy]

The barrier works well. On start up, the water got a little stained but it cleared up after a few days.

I'll put some worms in it beds eventually.

I had a few cabbage sprouts pop up over night. 😁

[Irving]

Radishes grow unbelievably fast like that. Like two inches tall before other seeds even sprout when they were planted at the same time.

[GilpinGuy]

Update:
I hooked up a dehumidistat to the vent fan and that made a huge difference (thanks to whoever suggested that!). The humidity is now under control and stable. Even with the below zero temps here lately I had little condensation on the windows. I did have to have the heater running more than normal but that's to be expected. Today it was almost 40F and I had no condensation at all and the heater back to the normal 1/2 hour on and 1 hour off cycle.

Every type of seed I planted in the wicking beds sprouted, some better than others. The bok choy, lettuce and broccoli went totally nuts right away. I'll definitely have to thin the herd there. The cabbage is going awesome now. Yesterday the carrots and onions sprouted, and there are lots of sprouts. I only got 3 tomato and 1 bell pepper sprouts, but I have more seeds so they'll go in soon. 3 of the 4 pea seeds sprouted also.

In the ebb and flow bed, I've had awesome basil, green onion and garlic greens production. We eat a ton of this stuff so this is good. For the basil, I just got a few "living basil" packages from King Soopers, rinsed off the roots and planted them. I've cut them down 3 or 4 times now and they are growing like crazy. Basil is money at the store. It's amazing what they get for a few leaves of a plant.

The baby bok choy was a complete fail. 2 of the 3 heads I planted got nasty brown crud on the root stump after several days and just wilted. The other head looked great and had awesome roots growing. Then one day it was flat on the clay and completely wilted. Weird.

I had similar results with lettuce. Some will regrow well, some just get the brown crud and don't work. I'm trying another way to get lettuce to go, so we'll see how that works.

[Irving]

I was just about to ask about an update. Sounds like both beds are working so far. Is the wicking bed the preferred bed so far, or is that just the way I read your post?

[GilpinGuy]

I was just about to ask about an update. Sounds like both beds are working so far. Is the wicking bed the preferred bed so far, or is that just the way I read your post?

I really can't say what is the preferred bed. I'm a total noob to all of this and it's all a big experiment. That's why I did one ebb and flow bed and one wicking bed. We'll see what works best.

My guess is wicking bed for most stuff. Plants naturally grow in soil, so wicking beds seem obvious. Some plants do better in ebb and flow or even raft beds (lettuce), so I'll go with that for them. For example, my basil grows so fast in the ebb and flow bed that I'm trying to give some away, so I guess it likes it there.

[Irving]

I'd really like to have another small garden inside to grow herbs again. They are so expensive at the store.

I made this basil pesto this last summer with my own Thai basil and garlic from my garden and it was insane! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-dOZezSwwM