Tomato Heaven...

Tomato Revolution

Hello all,

As I stated in my last entry my posts will be few and far between.  I have to comment on a few things especially my tomatoes.  Tomatoes are one of those plants that have been one of the most difficult for me to perfect as a conventional gardener (planting them in the soil).  I have always had ok fruit but they can be very finicky when it comes to water requirements, sun, pests, etc.  Therefore, I continually each year try something new to continue my quest towards tomato nirvana.  

But.....  it seems that things are about to change due to my aquaponics system.  As most of you read in my earlier posts I had trouble with the first planting of my tomatoes.  They had a bunch of brown spots on them and then they withered and died.  I was bummed because I thought my new system would give me the best tomatoes ever.  I tried again late in the summer and things are looking really well. It is, December two weeks from Christmas, and I am about to harvest, what appear to be, the best looking tomatoes and tomato plants I have ever grown.  This plant has taken over the end of my trough and there is no end in sight.  I am very excited for my Christmas salsa I will have with my tomatoes.

Green Leaf and Red Leaf Lettuce (pictured above)

Tomatoes, almost there (Pictured above)

Citrus Hill High School AquaHawks Update

The Citrus Hill HS AquaHawks project is in full swing. We recently went down to San Diego to visit Tilapia Mama to obtain a breeding colony of Tilapia (three females, five males) so we can begin the process of breeding our own fish.  The students are also in the process of germinating and growing lettuce, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and beans.  Lastly, the team has broken into three groups for our end of the year AquaHawks competition extravaganza.  The groups have been given criteria and are designing there own aquaponics system to be judged.  They are also inspiring students at the lower grade levels like Gelyca Arce who has embarked upon her own aquaponics journey. Here is her blogsite:  http://www.gelyca4greenenergy.webs.com  

Good luck teams.  Remember, finals first!!!

Here is the Citrus Hill High School AquaHawks Website

http://www.valverde.edu/chhs/pages/academics/ah/index.asp 

Last Shout Out...

I just want to say thank you to Tim from Friendly Aquaponics.  He has been a great source of help for our Citrus Hill High School team and for my self personally.  They, Tim and Susanne, are very helpful and have a heart and passion for helping others.  The system I have at my home is their design and I am extremely thankful for their help.  I look forward to the future relationship with them as we carry this vision into the future.  Thank you.  http://www.friendlyaquaponics.com/

Lettuce, Swiss Chard, Green Onions (Pictured Above)

The Tomato plant taking over (pictured above)

Green Onion, look at the size of that baby (pictured above)

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FALL UPDATE....

IT'S BEEN A WHILE......

Hello, my friends!  Yes, it has been a while.  What a wonderful summer I had with my family.  Many of you may have been asking, "What happened to fishboy?"  Nothing.  Everything is running wonderful.  There were a few hangups and some plant issues but for the most part a successful summer harvest.  I am transitioning to the fall harvest and look forward to my new crop. Tomatoes are starting to really take off.

The intention of this blog was to chronicle my journey of building my system and the initial maintenance.  I now have minimal maintenance and vegetables are growing.  Therefore, the blogging will be very sporadic and less often.  I am very happy with my initial run and look forward to continued experimentation and growth.  I will give you some updates and pictures and say hasta la pasta for a while.

My goal this fall and into next spring will be to grow these vegetables and perfect them in my system.

• lettuce, Swiss Chard, tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, and spinach.

CITRUS HILL AQUAPONICS BLOG

I do want to share with you the blog site of our Citrus Hill High School aquaponics site.  Things are really beginning to move and the kids are building away.  We now have plans for a permanent greenhouse which will house phase II of the project.  Please follow and support them.

 http://chhsaquaponics.blogspot.com/

PICTURES OF MY SYSTEM

 

Vertical Structures, Filters, Salsa, and Painting....

I have not posted in a while and therefore will include many small updates on the project.  I am almost on vacation and although I have had more time, I have not posted to my blog recently. I have found that I work best when I have more things to do.  That is why I may never retire, just begin new "adventures," if you will. Anyways, enough rambling, on to the post....(s)

VERTICAL STRUCTURES

I have been meaning to build structures to allow certain plants grow vertical such as, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, etc.  I did not intend one my pepper plants to fall over.  Therefore, I built one of the structures.  

Below you can see the pepper plants that has fallen over it needs support. 

I began by painting 1x2x8's and then screwed them together as below.

I then had my helpers assist.

 Leveled and screwed into the trough 2x4's

 Drilled small holes, ran twine through them, and then tied a washer onto the end to hold.

I then drilled four holes in the top 1x2, tied a washed on the end and then tied the four vertical twines to the horizontal twine at the bottom.

 Lastly, I wound the plant around the twine.  Now my pepper is supported.

FAILED PEPPER SALSA

I cannot explain what went wrong.  The finished Banana pepper salsa was very bitter.  I will try again later.

I used thirteen Banana peppers, five Anaheim chilies, four cayenne peppers, one green onion, and cilantro.  I broiled the peppers and then put them in our old baby blender (I love this little gadget).  I then chopped up the green onion and cilantro added salt and pepper to taste.  


Yuk!  Too bitter.  I tried to balance it by adding vinegar but it did not work.. Bummer.  I will try again.


BUT.... all of these ingredients were from my garden!

SPROUTING TABLE PAINTED AND NEW PLANTINGS

I painted the sprouting table white. My son helped.  He made a mess as you can imagine.  He would just dip the roll with globs of paint dripping on him, the drop cloth, everywhere. Nice....

It looks much better in our backyard.  I know my wife love this.  

I also planted more tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, pak choi, and spinach,.  I have not had much success with efficient sprouting and therefore will continue to try new methods.  I need to get the leafy greens sprouting constantly to supply a consistent harvest.

NEW FISH TANK FILTER

This was another project that needed to be tackled.  My initial filter design was poor.  It was a PVC pipe with holes drilled into it and then a mesh cloth bag placed over it.  Problem was that it would get clogged too much.  Therefore, I took the mesh bag off and had no filter.  Everything was able to run into the plant trough except the fish.  I would have fish waste, food, and bigger particles flow into the plant trough.  This was unacceptable.  

But.... the main reason I needed a new fish tank filter was due to the potential new fish that I may have at anytime.  Tilapia take about 8-9 months to mature and begin to have babies.  If I left the PVC pipe with holes then many of the new fish would flow down into the trough and then wreak havoc on the plants roots or get stuck in the pump intake.  Below is my design.  I bought 1/4" metal wire frame and aluminum screen.  I then shaped the metal wire frame in a circle around the PVC fittings, wrapped the aluminum screen around, and then fastened it with pipe clamps.  It turned out very well.  I will use the same material to create a barrier for my new fish fry once they hatch in the tank.  More on this later.....

NEW PLANT TROUGH FILTER AND MY FROGGIE DEATHS

To those of you with a faint heart do not read below.  I will attempt to be brief.  We had frogs living in our plant trough.  They would swim in the water and hang out near the base of the plants on the rafts.  The frog was so loud at night.  My mother-in-law and wife wanted me to move the frog(s) because they were so loud. I said no because they help eat all the bugs and they are a part of my mini ecosystem.  I should have listened to them.  

My wife called me at work and said that the pump was not normal and that I needed check it out asap.  I figured something may have been clogged in the pump due to the fact that there is no filter at the outlet of the trough to the pump.  My kids were with me when I assessed that something was indeed clogging the pump.  No water was entering the fish tank.  I began to take apart the pump assembly and I found the culprits........

Two frogs got stuck inside the tube, died, and then clogged the pump.  Not good.  I killed the frogs.  All of that to say I now have a filter that will stop frogs  and other bigger creatures from entering the pump intake. 

My bad.....
  
LAST NOTES

I am having problems with my squash and tomatoes.  I believe my tomatoes, after further research, were attacked by a bacteria that resulted in little brown spots that eventually took over the plant.  I also saw the same spots beginning on another different plant which led me to believe it was not the tomato but a bacterial infection.  I destroyed the plants and have began new tomatoes. 

I also think that some of the issue was lack of the nutrients iron, calcium, and potassium.  I do not have a refined system for adding these nutirents yet but I have added them.  All the plants looked better since the addition of the nutrients.  More on this topic later...  for now....

I am out....

Lou

Sprouting table, update, and veggie sandwiches....

NOTE:  To those that read this post on your phone, through school, or email you may not see the pictures in the post.  To see the actual blog you need to go to:  http://www.theaquaponicsproject.blogspot.com/

UPDATE POST


I needed a sprouting table.  So, I built one.  It took me about an hour.  I used 1x2x8's and small drywall screws.  I needed to have an area for my seedling to grow.  The ground out back was not cutting it anymore. 

My wife now has summer plans for me to build her some inside furniture.  No, not with 1x2x8's

The next few pictures are some of the plants at this time.  The peppers seem to be doing really well.  The zucchini and Swiss chard are doing well.  The tomatoes are not.  You can see in the picture they have dark brown spots all over them.  My preliminary research leads me to a Calcium deficiency.  I have placed a small filter with calcium carbonate inside the hole that will slowly diffuse calcium carbonate where the tomato sits to see if there is any change.  In order to truly test this I either have to add calcium throughout the system or take the tomato out into a testing area.  We will see which direction I go.

Bell Peppers

Anaheim chiles

tomatoes.  No bueno

brown spots on tomatoes. 

Swiss chard

zucchini

Below is a harvest of some vegetables.  I have Swiss chard, Pak Choi, and a tall Romaine lettuce stalk.  The Pak Choi were over harvested.  The Romaine grew too high due to overcrowding.  I have different spacing setting in the rafts and obviously it was too close for the lettuce.  Good to know.  The Swiss chard I cooked up and added it to one our summer favorites, veggie sandwiches.

Swiss chard, pak choi, romaine, pak choi (left to right)

summer veggie sandwiches

The system is continuing to do well.  I have started some other lettuce, pak choi, Swiss chard, leeks, and cucumber seedlings.  I am going to try and get down a rotation for lettuce to harvest it constantly.  That is my next goal.

PS:  The recipe for our summer veggie sandwiches.

Ingredients:  

sweet potatoes

zucchini

onions (caramelized)

olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper

dressing to your liking (mustard, hummus, ranch, tapatio, etc..)

Swiss chard (only because we harvested it)

Good heavy bread

Prepare a bowl with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  Cut sweet potatoes and zucchini into 1/4 inch thin "steaks."  Fire up the barbeque or broiler. Toss the zucchini and sweet potatoes in the oil vinegar medley.  Inside begin to reduce the onions to caramelize.  Start with the sweet potatoes and grill until soft to touch with tongs.  Now the zucchini.  Do not overcook the zucchini, they should be on the precipice of soft and firm. Now the bread.  I either brush or dip the flat side quickly into the olive oil/vinegar and then toast on the grill.  Lastly I cut the chard into small slices and cooked in a frying pan over heat for about five minutes until wilted down.

Build your sandwich.  Quick note.  My wife is a no fat vegan (tough), therefore with her vegetables and bread I do not toss or brush them in the oil/vinegar mix.

Enjoy.......

School Fieldtrip

NOTE:  To those that read this post on your phone, through school, or email you may not see the pictures in the post.  To see the actual blog you need to go to:  http://www.theaquaponicsproject.blogspot.com/

The Fieldtrip

I want to keep this post short.  Last Friday fourteen students (6 high school, 8 middle school) and three teachers stopped by my aquaponics project on the way to their fieldtrip destination.  A group of our highschool students are researching a future aquaponics project for our highschool. 

They arrived in the morning as I explained the set up I had created.  They were taking notes and asking great questions.  What an exciting morning!  Here are some pictures.

My daughter had crazy hair day at school

Our first harvest of Romaine lettuce for our Vegan tacos