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