Happy Harvest Friday! When we last left off, our aquaponics system was up and cycling, but the water levels weren’t quite ready for fish yet. Now… we officially have fish!
So far, we only have 10 goldfish (including Captain Blackfin and Albie– who isn’t gold, but an albino white) and 2 plecostomuses (Bert and Ernie), which isn’t many for a 275-gallon tank. The water is kind of murky and the tank is dark, so I really only see them when it’s feeding time and they come up for food. We started with just a few to make sure they didn’t croak. I’m happy to report they’ve been alive and well for almost 2 weeks. So, now it’s time to order tilapia! I guess I can’t name those guys, since eventually they might be dinner.
As for the plants, they are doing really great!
This bed includes curly kale, rainbow chard, basil, Thai basil, dill, mache, red leaf lettuce, spinach and super overgrown microgreens (in other words, just greens).
It’s our first time growing dill, so I’m excited about that one. I hardly ever use it when I cook (and by hardly ever I mean never) but I’m excited to incorporate it more recipes.
I’m also really excited about the spinach. We tried growing it outside a couple years ago but it was so dirty and got so many bugs that we didn’t even eat most of it. It’ll be so much better growing it in the greenhouse.
Speaking of bugs, we had a minor incidents with aphids and slugs in the greenhouse. They were both on plants we had transplanted from the garden. So we definitely shouldn’t have done that. They probably came in with the eggs/slugs already on them. Luckily I was able to get rid of the aphids in a couple days before they spread to anything else (using this method with water and dish soap), and I found and removed 2 slugs and haven’t seen any more slug poop since. We ordered some ladybugs just in case the aphids come back. They feed on them without hurting your plants.
In the other raft bed, we’ve got butter lettuce, romaine lettuce (the huge ones), Russian red kale, beets and cilantro.
I’ve never had luck with growing cilantro. It always bolts fast and furiously before I’ve used hardly a few sprigs. I thought I’d give it one last go and see if the greenhouse and/or aquaponics environment helps. I also bought a slow-bolt variety, so hopefully that helps. I make Mexican and Thai food all the time so I use tons of cilantro. It would be great to not have to go to the store for it!
The grow beds are coming along nicely, too. Check out how big my teeny tomato seedlings have gotten in 2 weeks. And can you spot the cucumber trying to grab onto him? This weekend we need to figure out how to train the cucumbers onto something they can grow up.
As for the regular garden, there isn’t too much to report. I am still getting boat loads of kale. My broccoli has all flowered and I need to pull it out (I’ve left it for a bit because it’s pretty and the bees love it).
My brussels sprouts are officially a bust. I think our “winter” was too short and too warm for them. All the “sprouts” are starting to flower! I guess that’s the one thing we cannot grow in this area!
My mint plant is coming back nicely for the third year in a row.
And so are my chives (nestled behind some massive kale).
I love perennial herbs. They are the gift that keeps on giving! My sage is also coming back, though it’s off to a slower start.
In other fun gardening news, I planted some cat grass for my furry friend, Cali. She ate all our seedlings one night while we were asleep. The next time I was shopping for seeds, I spotted cat grass and thought I’d try it. I wasn’t sure if she would like it because we bought fresh catnip from the farmer’s market last year and she had zero interest. Well, as you can see from the chewed off tops, she LOVED it! She mowed it down so much, I had to bring it back out into the greenhouse to let it regrow a little bit.
I have soooo been slacking on photographing my harvests! Mostly because they’ve all been the same– a lot of kale and lettuces, from which I’ve made zillions of salads and omelets. Seriously. Nick was gone for 3 weeks and I pretty much only ate garden salads and kale & quail egg omelets. We produce WAY more food than one person can keep up with!
The salads start with a base of mixed greens… kales, lettuces, microgreens, broccoli leaves… and sometimes even a random radish that resulted from an overgrown microgreen!
I also harvested the last cauliflower and the last of the sugar snap peas. And all those plants were pulled up to make room for summer crops.
We’ve got lots of work to do on the traditional garden beds, so until next time… happy growing!
Yay fishies! I’m glad they made it two weeks – that seems like a good sign to me! I don’t use much dill either, but my mother-in-law does. She most often pairs it with fish – perfect for y’all!
Yes!! It’s really good with salmon! I pickled a lot of veggies last summer, so I think I’ll use some in there too…. Dill pickles, yum!
Wowsers have you ever got a great set-up? Ben actually built me a hydroponic herb garden a few years back, and it worked so well we could barely keep up with it! Glad your little fishies are doing well!
Awesome!! Everything is definitely growing really fast. We have to eat salads at least one meal a day to keep up!! Haha!
I love reading these! I am in major gardening mode, so I’m reading and learning as much as I can. I just love your aquaponics system! Too cool!
That’s so exciting about your fish, Jess! I hope they continue to do well. And your herb garden looks amazing! I would love to grow some mint, too. Maybe next year! 🙂
Mint is seriously the easiest thing to grow, EVER. It’s actually a little too easy, which is why we have it in a pot. If you put it in the ground it will spread like wildfire and take over everything. It’s also fun because it comes back every spring!
I’m excited for your spinach too! I tried growing spinach last year – I got a handful or two that as good for a salad but it didn’t go very far.
Jess,
My wife and I are also in California and started an Endless Food System aquaponic garden as well. We got our system up and running at the end of January this year, so it looks like we are running fairly parallel for cycling and getting the system going.
It looks like you guys are running your in a greenhouse. We are in southern California and we have ours outdoors. Our system cycled pretty slow because our water temperature didn’t get above 70 degrees until the beginning April, but we have been fully cycled for about a month now. However, my plants are only just now showing signs of life. Until the last week or two, the best I could say is that half our plants were at least surviving, while it looks like yours are thriving.
All that background just to ask what is your pH level out of the tap/faucet? The pH out of our tap is 8.2 and I suspect it is too high for my plants to absorb any of the nutrients. It has only been in the last week that I have noticed it finally start to move downward.
Great blog and thanks in advance for answering.
Hi Mike! I would guess water temp is your biggest issue here. Our water temp has been at 80-82 pretty much since we started. Our tap water (are you dechlorinating yours? They have attachments for your hose) is super basic as well, also around 8.2. No matter how much vinegar we added at the beginning, we could not get the pH down, so we eventually bought some powdered acid buffer. However, plants do like a high pH and we planted our plants when our pH was still very high and even before we added any fish. They don’t absorb all the nutrients, which is why we have a lot of yellowing leaves, but for the most part that didn’t seem to affect their growing. You want it neutral because the bacteria like it acidic. So it shouldn’t totally affect the plants except that there aren’t enough bacteria in the water yet. Before we got the pH under control (and even now occasionally) we were adding nutrients to the water and also spraying directly on the plants.
I am guessing that your bacteria just aren’t growing quickly because the water temp is lower. It’ll get there. When you say “fully cycled” I assume you mean you have nitrates in the system. From what we’ve read you won’t actually be “fully cycled” for 6mos to a year, meaning it’s going to take some finessing until then. I’d just give it some time and wait for the water temp to come up. Do you have a heater in the tank? We do, which is how we got the water temp up. Though you probably don’t NEED it in SoCal (and it was definitely apparent on our electric bill!). So all that to say, I think you just need to give it more time for the bacteria to multiply and once it warms up that should happen more quickly. You will want to get the pH down as well, though.
By the way– it took about 2 weeks of adding acid buffer every day to get our pH down. When it finally dropped, it dropped FAST and killed our fish. Luckily we had a feeling this might happen and had only added about 10 goldfish. (Not sure if there is a way around this happening, but Dr. Google might know.) After it dropped, we had to dump some of the water and add more basic tap water to get to the magic number. Ever since we got the pH on track, it has stayed there. Now our only issue is not having enough fish so still not quite enough nutrients in the water. But getting there!
Let me know if you have questions on the specifics of any of that… also want to say, we are learning as we go and definitely are not experts!
Jess,
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. It’s nice to hear from someone at the same stage in the aquaponics system that we are. Couple quick follow-ups:
(1) Yes, we are dechlorinating.
(2) We also started with feeder goldfish. I was impatient when we started, so I put 20 goldfish in after only 1 week and they all died within 48 hours. A week later, I put 20 more in (they’re only $0.10 each), and only 1 survived after 3 weeks. Then I put another 15 in the tank and only a couple of those have died two months later and they are getting big fast. I added tilapia about a month ago along with a few algae eaters and they are all getting noticeably bigger and I haven’t lost a single tilapia yet (that I know of).
(3) I thought about a water heater, but decided against it because I wasn’t sure if they would do much on a 275 gallon system that is outdoors.
(4) I added some vinegar at first, but was afraid of crashing the system, so I decided to just wait out the pH. So, other than putting some goldfish in too early, I haven’t had any extinction-level events.
Like you, I have spent some significant time with Dr. Google and his right hand man, Mr. You Tube. I have also found the videos and information from Dr. Nate Storey at Bright Agrotech to be very helpful.
Thanks again.