I popped out to the garden tonight to feed the fish and spent a few seconds gathering ripe eggplant and tomatoes. As I passed the end of the garden, I caught a glimpse of "not-leaf" suspended from the edge, hidden by a curtain of leaves.
Oh. My. Goodness.
My daughter pointed out that August is host to Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbors Porch Day. To quote from the Holiday Insights page:
Experienced gardeners know that Zucchini is one of the most prolific plants in all of the gardening world...
By the time August arrives, gardeners are reaping far more zucchini than they can possibly use. Zucchini growers become desperate, as they try to give zucchini away to family, friends and everyone they encounter. By August, even non-gardeners have had enough. Everyone avoids you...
Desperate times calls for desperate measure. Its time to sneak over, under the cover of darkness, to your neighbors porch, and unload some zucchini.
Someone wondered why this "Zucchini... Day" is held on August 8. Think of 8/8, which is like infinity over infinity, capsized.
Luckily, I only had a couple of zucchini plants, so the harvest has been just right for us.
I went to the doctor today for my annual physical. When we got talking about whats going on in my life, I talked about my 3x5 aquaponics venture. Of course.
"Dont plant lettuce - plant cruciferous vegetables!" The doctor went on to extol the benefits of kale, Swiss chard, bok choi, gai lon - all of which the doctor grows at home.
Id been thinking cruciferous vegetables were necessarily varsity-level plants, ones Id want to attempt after thoroughly cutting my teeth on easy plants. But kale and chard and spinach seem pretty easy. Now to find a source for seeds this late in the year...
Update
The water is pretty clear now - you can actually see the fish swimming around all the time, now. The bell siphon goes off like clockwork. Now to start thinking about starting seeds - Ill blog about that tomorrow.
PS - Theres a nice list of Aquaponic Gardening Rules of Thumb over at Sylvia Bernsteins Aquaponics Community website - highly recommended!
Since Ive indulged in several documentaries talking about peak oil and food issues, Netflix now highlights other, similar, movies for me to consider. Todays recommendation was A Crude Awakening. This is not a comfortable film to watch, but its interesting to see that it came out in 2006 - the same year world-wide oil production peaked.
If documentary films about the screwed up food/energy/carbon situation depress you, dont watch this one. But if such documentaries energize you to live sustainably and work towards a peaceful post-oil future, then feel free to flex your brain with this particular offering.
From a film student perspective, its interesting to compare the 2006 A Crude Awakening with the 2004 documentary The End of Suburbia. The two films cover similar ground and lay out almost the same facts. But I think the 2006 film is better. More terrifying, but better.
The 2004 film End of Suburbia
When I am old and [more] gray, it will be interesting to look back and see how the reality compares to the messages we are being given circa 2011.
I wanted a record of this years garden. The foliage grew so thick in the hydroponic section I was unable to track down a leak. Usage became ridiculous and I ended up filling the sump twice a day with water rather than waste the hydroponic fertilizer.
The bioponic systems did well. Summer heat put a damper on everything including the tomatoes. Even the squash seemed to regain vigor once the 100+ days passed. Bell peppers in the hydroponic system did well, but failed due to blossom end rot in the bioponic systems. I found [this article about Blossom End Rot] that may be helpful.
One Earthan bed became clogged by a root and I lost all the flowers on my Tomatillo, but even though a second set of flowers came back, I doubts I will get a crop.
My wicking barrels did not wick quite as well as I would have liked. So Ill adjust the soil mix. These barrels did not get enough sun in this location, so I will have to find a different location. That is one of the best attributes of this simple low cost design. Relocation is not a problem.
The vertical section will get a modification to the water supply. I plan to install a check valve after the pump and a high pressure connection after that. When the 1/4" tubes clog I will simply give it a blast of fresh water. In fact this is how I will maintain the level in the sump tank. Each time I fill the sump I will be clearing the 1/4" lines.
The 8W Earthan Bed system performed well over the summer. Water usage was extremely low in both the wicking barrels and the 8W Earthan Beds. Without a doubt I feel these two systems hold the most promise. But one thing Ive learned is that any garden that relies on a mechanical system is prone to some type of failure which places the wicking barrels squarely in the best position.
I began the season using weed teas, fish emulsion, and kelp in the 8W Earthan Bed and the Vertical Garden, but the Vertical Garden was abandoned due to high maintenance (clogging).
After the other bioponic Earthan Bed clogged I began to fear that the system might become clogged, but I now feel it would have been okay since it was a root not muck that caused the problem.
But this caused me to switch the 8W Earthan Bed over to plain well water with an occasional slurp of fish emulsion and liquid kelp plus a little Fe DTPA, MgSO4, and HCl after only a few weeks. My goal for this system was to use no urine.
Clogging is a concern I will eventually have to face with all of the Earthan Beds as I doubt even the worms will be able to keep the rock bed clear forever. The advantage is that the water stays well aerated which should increase plant vitality and vigor.
Water use was extremely low in this systems even though I top watered every few days.
Im still enjoying handfuls of cherry tomatoes from every section of the garden everyday The soil less section of the bioponic system produced more cherry tomatoes than we could eat. This and the hydroponic section were the best performers. I credit this to aeration and high nutrient levels. The main bioponic garden (not the 8W garden) received about 50% of my fresh urine plus fish emulsion, kelp, Fe DTPA, MgSO4, and HCl.
