• Still love okra flowers!
• Okra, cherry tomatoes & Mexican sour gherkins are growing in the aquaponics system.
• The water in one of our ponds completely evaporated. So, I took advantage of it and troweled out much of the duck sludge. This was literally a crappy job. But, I’m so glad I did it.
• Basil growing next to an herb barrel.
• The ladies are continuing to lay well, so I’ve been making lots of hard boiled eggs.
• Awhile back I ordered hatching eggs. Things didn’t go as I had planned and only one black copper marans hatched. Not that it’s a few weeks old, I noticed it has a few white feathers. Ugh! This was a damned expensive chicken for it not even to be breeding stock.
• Zucchini has been blanched and frozen.
• The tomatoes have been transformed into sauce. One batch has Italian flavor. The other has Mexican.

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It has been a few months since I last posted about our aquaponics system. I am happy to report there haven’t been any major problems with the system in general. The fish are swimming, the plants are growing.

Grow Bed #1

Back in April we planted bush beans, romaine, and kale in this grow bed. They all grew well and we enjoyed them for a couple months.

The other day, though, I ripped nearly everything out of this grow bed. With a clean slate, I will replant soon.

Grow Bed #2

This bed is primarily out of control tomatoes.

Tomatoes don’t love lots of water, so I don’t recommend growing them in an aquaponics setup. They tend to be mushier than tomatoes grown in good ol’ dirt. We do pick ’em and eat them, though. One day I even picked enough to make a nice batch of marinara.

Eventually we’ll take them out. But they grow well, which is good for the ecology of our set up, so they stay.

Grow Bed #3

This bed has 2 different items growing in it. One of them is an Asian eggplant. It is actually the same plant Farmer John planted last year. It is doing very well. I adore the purple flowers. Many of the eggplant are ripe and ready to be picked.

The other thing in this grow bed are Mexican sour gherkins. They continue to grow like crazy. I’m sure the vines would be happy to take over the entire greenhouse if we let them.

Aquaponics + Mexican sour gherkins = a good combination.

Clean Up

The harvesting is fun. The clean up – not so much.

Having out of control tomato vines next to even more out of control gherkin vines has resulted in a tangled mess. I gave them both a good trim the other day. But, it should be done more often.

This is a root mass growing around the pipes. Not a good situation and a bit difficult to clean up.

Wild Things

Snakes. An entire colony of snakes have decided to make their home in the greenhouse.

I am not a snake enthusiast, but we have an unspoken agreement. They leave me alone, I leave them alone.

They are rude guests who don’t clean up after themselves.

One snake thought it would be fun to explore the pipes. Not a wise decision. He got caught in the pump.

Tilapia

We primarily feed our tilapia pelleted fish food. Sometimes they get duck weed, and occasionally other greens.

Sitting on the bottom of the tank are sections of pvc pipe. The tilapia like to hide in them.

In the next few months we’re talking about changing some things in the system. The ecology seems to be in good productive order, so I don’t want to mess with it too much. But, there are a few things that could be done differently. We will iron out all the details and get to work…

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• Flowers are blooming.

• Tomatoes in the greenhouse are ripening.

• The lighting on our patio is up and it’s beautiful. We did sparklers already.

• Many snakes have been calling the greenhouse home. I’m assuming they enjoy the warm temperatures. Unfortunately, one didn’t make a good choice in his exploring. The pump on the aquaponics system wasn’t running, which is always a big concern for Farmer John. When he investigated, he found a snake had climbed through the pipes and got caught in the pump. The outcome was not good for the pump or the snake.

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Thankfully, we had a mild spring. So, planting the garden early worked out perfectly. Everything has gotten off to a fabulous start. Some things are even ready to enjoy.

MAIN GARDEN AREA

Well, it’s not our most beautiful garden. Parts of it are horribly overgrown. It needs weeded. But, the majority of the produce is growing well.

Zucchini

In a separate bed, I recently planted rows of squash, pumpkins, and gourds.

Since I started the herbs early in the greenhouse, the cilantro has already flowered… oops. It will need to plant more seed. I love cilantro.

The raspberries are starting to ripen. Yay!

Some of the lettuce and kale could already be cut.

The tomatoes have lovely, yellow flowers. This is the beginning of my impatient waiting for the onset of glorious, red tomatoes.

This was fun to watch. One cedar waxwing shared its red berry with its friend.

FRUIT TREES

Apples and plums are doin’ their growing thing.

AQUAPONICS & GREENHOUSE

In the greenhouse we have tomatoes at varying stages, an Asian eggplant is flowering, lettuce and kale are ready, Mexican sour gherkins are ready to be picked, and a few beans are making an appearance.

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• It might be a tad late, but I finally got our squash and pumpkins planted.

• I love cedar waxwings and they’re here. Woop, woop! Farmer John has a different opinion of them, though. They are eating our raspberries and when he went to shoo them away one pooped on him – and pooped raspberry goo on him.

• This mess in the upper right photo is the mat of roots that get caught in the aquaponics pipes.

• We spotted a baby bird on the ground the other day. Mama bird was busy chirping away.

• The Little’s enjoying feed, oyster shell, and grit

• A colony of ants decided to stake out in the game cam.

• Mexican sour gherkins are going crazy in the greenhouse.

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• A pile of feathers is never a good sign. Somethin’ got one of our free range roosters. From the way the feathers were spread out, I’m guessing it was a bobcat. They tend to leave piles of feathers in various places as they’re carrying the bird away.

• Lots of goodies are off to an early start in the greenhouse – like the Mexican Sour Gherkins.

• The swallows are still busy darting around. Love them.

• A few weeks ago Farmer John cemented posts in a bucket for me. However, once he learned I wanted to plant herbs around them he decided the pressure treated boards weren’t the best option. So, he redid the buckets with metal posts.

• The first mowing of the year was needed.

• We had a four legged visitor this week while our friends were off soaking in the rays in Hawaii.

•  A number of our hens are going broody. When a free range hen goes broody, we don’t tend to disturb her. However when one goes broody in one of our coops, it tends to throw off egg laying for many of the ladies. So, the broody’s have been relocated to the chicken tractors.

• I’ve been pulling weeds by the bucketfuls. I am never caught up, but every little bit helps.

• 2 white leghorns just chillin’ midday.

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Nothing has changed in the aquaponics system. The only new additions are a bunch of plants enjoying the greenhouse conditions.

Outside

Grow Bed #1

The first grow bed has left over swiss chard and one pepper plant. They are there mainly because we needed plants growing over the winter and they are doing alright, so they stayed to help out the aquaponics ecosystem.

Bush beans, kale and romaine seedlings are newly planted right in the grow bed.

A few herbs and tomato seedlings in pots are placed on the grow bed simply because I want them in the greenhouse and we don’t have much shelf space. So, they are sitting in the grow bed for a short time.

Grow Bed #2

This grow bed also has leftover plants from last year – kale and tomato.

I’m also using this bed as a shelf to hold herbs and tomato starts in pots.

Grow Bed #3

Bed number 3 only has plants from last year – sour gherkins and eggplant. Both are producing new goodies for us to eat.

Growing in the Greenhouse

Scattered throughout the greenhouse are even more herbs, veggies, tomato, and flower starts.

Tilapia

The tilapia are doing their daily routine of swimmin’, eatin’, and poopin’.

The post Aquaponics Update – April 2016 appeared first on .

Happy Spring! We officially made it through another winter. Our winter wasn’t too cold, but it was rainy. Very rainy.

• Spring has sprung and our Leonard Messel Magnolia is blooming. The tree itself hasn’t grown much in the 7 years we’ve had it, but the blooms are gorgeous.

• The Marans are laying again after their winter hiatus. I love their dark brown egg. Notice the stink eye I’m getting from her majesty. Truth be told, I feel the same way about her.

• The fodder we started last week isn’t doing much. Not sure what our problem is, but this isn’t as easy as I thought it was supposed to be.

• Seeds and seedlings are gathered in the house, garage, and greenhouse. I’m hoping for a good tomato crop this year.

• While we were away camping this weekend a chicken got nabbed in the backyard. The game camera shows a coyote and bobcat wandering nearby. Ugh. However, mostly the camera snaps pics of the neighborhood deer.

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The months of January and February have been slow in the greenhouse. It’s not really a bad thing. It’s nice to have some down time. This also means we haven’t had any problems, which is great.

Outside the Greenhouse

We did get a hole in the greenhouse plastic. But a quick patch job fixed it, for now. When Farmer John built the greenhouse he knew this plastic wouldn’t last forever, but it’s what we had so it’s what he used. Soon it will be time to do something more permanent.

In the Grow Beds

Most of the plants in the grow beds are past their prime, so the last couple months we haven’t harvested much.

The kale is coming back nicely, though.

We planted seeds of a few items that will eventually end up in the grow beds.

Tilapia

The tilapia appear to be doing well.

The post Aquaponics Update – February 2016 appeared first on .

The aquaponics system seems to be in a self sufficient state right now. We had one little snafu, but for the most part it’s been running smoothly this month.

In the Grow Beds

The greenery in the grow beds is still going strong. However, the produce production has slowed down.

Uh oh, the fish are behaving differently

For a couple days, I noticed the fish just hanging out near the bottom of the tank. No swimming about. No rushing to the top when I dropped food in the tank. That’s weird. They always come splashin’ to the top when it’s time to eat.

Eventually, I figured out that the outlet the heater was plugged into wasn’t working. The water got down to 60°, which is almost too cold for tilapia. They started to slow down to compensate for the cold water.

I’m so glad I caught it in time. Had the water reached 50°, the fish probably wouldn’t have survived.

Tilapia

After a near mishap, the fish recovered and were swimming and eating like their normally do.

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