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.

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Our aquaponics system went through a real test this month. Our family went to Europe for two weeks, which meant Farmer John wasn’t home to constantly babysit the systems every need. Was the system set up well enough to not need constant care? We really didn’t know. There are a number of things that could go wrong. We crossed our fingers, gave our friend who was watching our critters a quick aquaponics lesson & hoped for the best.

TILAPIA

We did have one mishap in the system while we were gone. The water in the system evaporated (or possibly has a tiny leak that we can’t find) quicker than we anticipated. The day before we got back our friend noticed the water in the lower tank got too low. He did what he could to fill it back up with warmish water. However, a few of the larger fish already suffered. The water was so low that the top of their fins were sticking out. Within the next few days, four of our largest fish in the lower tank died. Since then, we’ve raised the normal water level for that tank.

IN THE GROW BEDS

The geraniums have gone absolutely bonkers and are taking over the entire left grow bed.

The nasturtium seeds I placed just below the top of the clay pebbles sprouted and grew well while we were in Europe. Yay! I was hoping, but I wasn’t totally sure it would work to germinate them this way. I’m so glad it did.

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Woo hoo! Spring has arrived and our fish & plants have survived their first winter in the greenhouse. We are starting to switch gears and think about what we would like in the grow beds during the summer months.

TILAPIA

IN THE GROW BEDS

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Another month has gone by & things are still chuggin’ along in our aquaponics system. The fish continue to grow, although at a slower speed than we were expecting. But, the plants in the grow beds are growing very well.

TILAPIA

IN THE GROW BEDS

Left Photo: Geraniums & duck weed
Right Photo: Kale, that continued to grow from our summer garden. Farmer John transplanted it into a grow bed. The aquaponics water may have been too warm for it though, as it flowered very quickly.

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We are smack dab in the middle of winter, the first for our aquaponics set up. It’s been an extremely mild winter so far, and we aren’t experiencing any problems due to the season. The fish are growing. The plants are growing. All seems well.

TILAPIA

IN THE GROW BEDS

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We have had a fairly warm December, so we haven’t had issues with things getting too cold in the greenhouse. The aquarium heaters are keeping the water warm for both the plants & fish.

TILAPIA

GROW BEDS

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Not a lot of new things are happening in our aquaponics system this month. We’re continuing to let the geraniums, tomatoes & tomatillos grow. Farmer John is still working on the best way to heat the system, since tilapia need at least 70° water and preferrably 80°+.

TILAPIA

HEATING THE WATER

Left Photo: Aquarium pump & titanium submersible heater in our sump tank
Right Photos: Thermostats for aquarium heaters. The 1000 watt (bottom photo) is our best heater to keep all 500 gallons of water warm.

THE GROW BEDS

Left: A geranium I transplanted to a grow bed is blooming!
Right: Part of the tomato plants need trimming.

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In the aquaponics system set up in our greenhouse, the tomatoes, tomatillos & tilapia are all doing fine.

FEEDING THE TILAPIA

Our fish have a few items in their diet. One thing we give them is Flock Raiser Crumbles. Yep, we’ve been feeding our fish chicken food. Sometimes ya just gotta use what you have around. And, we always have chicken feed around. The crumble is small – perfect for the small size of the tilapia when we first got them. It’s also high in protein. Now that the fish are bigger, we also feed them from a bag labeled “fish food.” They also get duck weed, which they love.

IN THE GROW BEDS

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We are still working on fine tuning all the details in making our aquaponics system run smoothly. A little at a time we’re figuring it out… then a new problem arises…

POND PUMP

Because it’s what we had on hand, we’ve been using an ordinary pond pump in the sump tank to keep the water flowing.

PLUGGED DRAIN PIPES

Tomato roots grew down the drain pipe and plugged it. Apparently, that’s something we need to keep an eye on.

LIME

Our water tends to lean towards being acidic. We sprinkle small amounts of this hydrated lime to hopefully remedy the problem.

GROW BEDS

In one grow bed I transplanted geraniums from our garden. I’m hoping they will survive the winter in our greenhouse and next spring I can move them back outside. The middle grow bed has long & lanky tomatillos and tomatoes.

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Not too many changes or happenings this month in our aquaponics system. The fish and the plants are growing nicely.

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