Tuesday, October 30, 2012

I guess I can add some of the things I have learned so far. I found out, when the large exhaust fan's motor quit that I really didn't need to waste the electric running it. The greenhouse temps got up around 120'F in the daytime. I had a problem with with the lettuce, it wilted during the day.  The rest of the plants did fine. I believe it was the fact that the root systems stayed cooler in the rock and water. The evaporation rate of the fish tanks was high enough that I was adding makeup water every morning, and that in turn kept the tank temps under control.

I have lost just about all of the catfish over the last two weeks. The only thing that I can figure is the water temp dropped too fast. Even with a wood stove running the water temp has dropped from around 75' to 56'. All other parameters are the same, so for now that's the best idea I have.  The bluegill doesn't seem to be bothered by the drop in temperature, other than they have slowed way down on their food intake. They are in tighter schools than when the water was warmer though.

I am ready to start planting lettuce again. The new seedlings are up. I picked the chili peppers today, so I will pull the plants out and replace them with lettuce tomorrow. I harvested a two gallon bucket of Juliet tomatoes, and nine nice green peppers.
I will have to cut back the Juliet's in order to have room to plant the fall crops, as the beds are full of tomatoes right now.

Another thing I have learned is when using 4" pipes to grow in, the plants should be a short season variety of whatever is planted. Once the plants reach maturity, the root ball will block the pipe and slow down the flow of water to the rest of the plants. Also, the pipes need to be flushed out about every three weeks to keep sediment from building up.

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