Originally Posted 20-August-2009

What a difference 2 weeks makes. The fingerling's appear to have doubled in size and are frantic feeders. No loses since treatment and very active fish. The kids love to watch me feed morning and night as they just boil the surface when I feed. Compared to the Bluegill, these guys grow like weeds.

I had some problems with the cucumbers losing the baby fruit and growing tips slowing down. I was not adding enough calcium and potassium. Since my PH is always high and I add phosphoric acid to bring it down, the calcium need is greater than if PH were going low and I was using calcium hydroxide to bring it up. I'm using the Calcium Nitrate at a rate of about 3 tablespoons per week (its 19% calcium 15% nitrate). The system is converting it well, nitrates are staying low, there is sufficient plant load to take care of it and the fish waste. Cucs are growing and setting well again and tomatoes set 6-8 fruit per node.

I also add chelated iron and magnesium. The Iron is the one I struggle with, the plants need it, but it turns the water red so that you can't see the fish well in the tank. Half the fun of having a system is watching the fish. I always know it's time to add iron when I can see the fish well again. Sigh . . . I'll keep looking for an alternative, but for now, red water and happy plants.

I've been experimenting with COS (Romaine) Lettuce varieties. During the heat of the summer (even though the water temps were below 72F (22C), all varieties were leggy and bolted. It has cooled down a little (68F-20C max) and I revamped my seed starter trays to have 18 hours of light within 6 inches of the tray. I have several varieties of Cos types that I'm testing now and they appear to be growing more as expected with tight compact bodies, some are doing better than others (Paris Island still bolt, Jerico is doing the best, others are in between), I'll do a report in a couple of months on the varieties and which work well in my system. My main stay are Butterhead varieties Laurel P and Rex. Also the common garden variety Prize Head (a multi-colored leaf) does very well. I also do a red leaf Amadine, but it is slower to grow and less full heads, but adds some color. I'm looking for other red leaf. I did not have good luck with the head types. I may try again now that it's cooler.

I grow a mix (red leaf, green leaf, butter head, romaine) in the DWC tank to make a nice mixed green salad, starting 10-12 heads each week, they are inside in the starter tray and lights for 2 weeks, then I move them out to the raft for the last 6 weeks. I water the seeds with tank water. Also, I start 4-8 celery plants each month. they take 3-4 months to grow out and we only use one now an then. I rinse the roots off in the DWC about every other week, probably more often than needed, but no problems with older plants stopping growth or slowing down. It seems like watching the lettuce that the first 6-7 weeks they barely grow, then the last week they just bolt to full size.

Summer is over, the days are getting shorter. Soon I'll take the shade cloth off the green house to get more light and in a couple of months I need to get some grow lights installed to extend the day and keep things growing quicker in the winter.

The tomato and cucumber plants are 8-10' long now. I have trained them all over the greenhouse, it's getting out of hand. I think I need to start some new plants and start rotating out some of the older vines. Now that it is cooling off, I'm going to try cabbage in the grow beds again.

All in all, I'm very happy with they system. The outside garden is in full production as well. My parents that live nearby prefer the aquaponic tomatoes to the garden tomatoes. The garden tomatoes have such strong acid flavors (which I like) that it hurts my dads mouth and causes sores (he has chronic fatigue and other age related health issues) and the aquaponic tomatoes have great flavor, but are not as acidic. The European cucumbers (burpless) grow massive 18-24" long 2"+ diameter excellent fruits. They tend to want to pull the vine off the twine they are wrapped around. It's great to walk in and see these massive cucs hanging and big hands of roma and full size tomatoes growing.

Pests have been manageable. every couple of months I order more lady bugs and aphid predators. A spot may flair up for a week or two, then the predators knock them back.

We harvested a big load of figs off the 1 tree in the greenhouse and my wife made a wonderful jam that tastes like raspberry jam.

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