Robert T Gasperson's Garden Diary for 2009

I have a lot of plans for 2009. The first one I want to share is the hydroponic cucumber I plan to grow. Below is a drawing of the plans for the idea:



You may remember my first attempt at a hydro-cuke 2 years ago. The results of that experiment can be found at http://roberttgasperson.com/articleblog/2007/05/16/how-to-grow-hydroponic-cucumbers/.

I will place an aquarium in a sealed storage container, cut a hole in the lid for the pot with the plant in it. There will be fabric that will suck water out of the aquarium and into the pot to germinate and water the cucumber plant. I will tie some twine to the container and string it to a nearby tree. This will give the vine something to climb. I also plan to limit the plant to one and will pull any suckers I find so the plant can produce more cucumbers.

I am not sure if the aquarium is really necessary. some people believe there are toxins that can be absorbed from the plastic of the storage container. That is part of the reason for the glass aquarium.

What do you all think of the idea?

 

Sorry I can't help out with your nutrient problem but my idea is that:
once your plants are established and are tall enough, try letting them climb up on twine or some other means. You should get better quantity and straighter cucs. We had ours climb 2 years ago and had so many we pickled them. Hope this helps in some way.

 

absolutely. Think I am going to have them climb some twine this year.

 

Good to see you again Robert. I'm looking forward to following your cucumber.

 

No clue about the aquarium. But really enjoyed your previous experiments and will be following this one closely. Good luck.

 

Wow. It is so exciting to see that people remember me from last year and the year before. I love the comrodery here. You guys just make me want to succeed.

I think I am going to try the hydroponics in the storage container alone. When I did it last time, the first few cucumbers that came off the vine tasted great. The ones after that were bitter because I addd more fertilizer. I'm not going to do that this year.

There are a few other plants that I am going to grow this year. My sister gave me a windowsil box and a bunch or herbs. I am excited about growing those. I am going to have to find a lot of great recipies to use the herbs in.

I am definately going to grow my tomatoes again this year. I also want to grow the bush beans again. I might try peppers again, and I still have seeds for sunflowers and I am thinking about broccoli. Should be an interesting venture.

 

Changing Hydroponics to Aquaponics

I was thinking about adding some fish to the equasion. If I can use the Fish to add nutrients to the water for the hydro system, I would not have to buy fertilizer (just fish and fishfood). I'm not sure I will be able to scrape the funds together for this one, but maybe someone else might want to run with the idea.

 

Welcome back rgasperson. I'm relatively new and from coastal NC. We're are currently experimenting with self-watering boxes outdoors. Good success so far. Good luck with yours and let us know how the fish do. That's an innovative idea.

 

It wroks

your idea is a great one and they actually use this idea in large commercial greenhouses. Using talapia in large tanks....the runoff is circulated into the hydoponic troughs and lettuce tomatoes etc are feed with the tank water. Monitoring ph and calculating the amount of fish needed will be the tricky part. Average consumption + average output of excrement= appropriate nutrient levels. I wonder why they use talapia instead of goldfish? Ammonia levels differing betwen species in their excrement? Great topic!

 

I have been studying Aquaponics for a couple of years now. I just need to try it. There are lots of pictures on the forums at http://www.backyardaquaponics.com

They use Talapia because the goal is to be able to eat everything. Talapia is great for eating. That and they need very little space to grow. I believe you only need 1.5 gal of water for each fish. That means if you have a 100 gal tank, you can have 75 fish. I might be slightly off. I will have ro find that info again.

 

zoysiafarms.com

Anybody heard anything about http://www.zoysiafarms.com and the grass they sell? Their ad has me interested. I am thinking about buying some to see if I can get it to grow here.

 

I am starting my windowsill box

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I planted Broccoli, Spinach and Apple Trees. We will see what comes up.



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Yay!!! I have leaves. This is either broccoli or spinach. I believe it is spinach figuring the germination time is shorter than broccoli. I just don't remember which side is which. Guess I should have marked them.