Catch up Time Aquaponics Chooks a wander through the veggie patch

Has been a while since I ventured over here to blog land so thought I would do a bit of a catch up post..Think we shall start with he Fish..

Aquaponics...
I did a "What is Aquaponics" style clip a few weeks ago to help a friend explain aquaponics to her family members.. Not a real in depth one but it will gives a rough idea on how the system works including the relationship between the fish, bacteria & plants.. It also shows a bit of the growth in the system if your interested on how its looking at the moment..

Not much has happened with the aquaponics of late which is a good thing on one hand but frustrating on the other... The fish are all well & happy (so they tell me) with the growth in the beds travelling along fine.. The celery is still being picked every couple of days & the strawberries have been fruiting well..

Harvested our first aquaponic pepino last weekend which was great.. There are a load on there with a few easily 50% larger than the fruit above :D
Really hoping to get the grow beds sorted out into their new positions by the start of spring.. First a wicking bed needs to be pulled down & the ground levelled to make room for them.. The new configuration should free up some space to try out a few new ways to grow plants with the system..

Hanging with the Chooks...
The chooks are at the top of their game at the moment.. Greedy decided to moult at the start of winter, which was a bit of a concern to us, but grew back back a fine set of feathers just in time for the few cool nights we have had this winter.. Have started to make up 2-3 lots of sprouted wheat a week for the girls.. I think they now recognise the sprouting jar as there is much flapping & excitement when we go wandering down to the pen with it.. Have also had a go at growing them some wheat sprouts as a fodder crop in the aquaponics but have shelved that idea for a little while :)

Hope to make a start on the modified feeder & shall do a bit of a report on that once it is done for those interested..


Wandering the patch...
Have got stuck into a few jobs around the place of late getting the patch ready for the warm season crops.. There are some tomato, eggplant & capsicum seedlings that have just started to germinate which is a great sight to see..
 

Some water chestnuts have also made it into some small 100mm pots to give them a bit of a head start before going into the sedge bathtub bed that will be set up near the aquaponics..

 The yacon are starting to throw up shoots  & I think we will have more than enough for our purposes this year.. Have quite a few earmarked for other people & have already given a fair few away.. 

Made a decent start in setting up the new front yard garden beds as well.. There are now 4 IBC wicking beds along the front retaining wall with another 4 going in over the coming weeks.. The first 2 beds have the asparagus in them with some heirloom corn planed for at least one of the other beds..  Hope to do a post on them by themselves once they are in & growing :)

Garden walk around clips..
Have a couple of clips on whats happening in the patch at the moment... The first is of the front yard last week before the new beds went in..

The pigeon pea still havent been harvested but when they have I shall post about our attempt at making humus with them...Should be interesting methinks..


The second clip is of the backyard patch with a bit of a quick look at the 2 new pineapple flowers that have just started to form :)

Hope to make a proper start to the insect house extension soon as well (looks at list of jobbies).. After last seasons success with keeping the fruit fly out I think we might finally get a chance at growing some decent tomatoes & capsicums :) 

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Well that brings us roughly up to date... Shall post some project updates over the next few days to bring the blog up to speed all proper like ;)
Hope all are well & happy out there & have been having fun in the garden..
Cheers,
Rob..

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Better late than never A quick catch up for October

Decided that my scratchings in the note book really arent a great way of keeping tabs on what is happening in the patch so have once again made a vow to myself to keep this blog up to date so I can keep track of any mistakes & successes we have in the patch while sharing it with the world, umm, a few others as well.. I might even learn a thing or two which would be nice..

Catching up on the patch...
I think the easiest way to bring you up to date is via a quick walk through of the veggie patch & aquaponic system.. I tend to do a garden walk through one week & an aquaponic one the next... I have posted the latest of each here for anyone interested..
The aquaponic one is up to date as it was filmed late last week..

We are expecting to have the sparky turn up first thing in the morning so by lunch time the aquaponics should be right to plug into its very own power source..

This garden clip was shot on the 5th of October... A new garden walk through will be shot later this week..

I always find it interesting to see the growth in the plants from fortnight to fortnight.. Some plants like the zucchini & pumpkins just grow so fast.. 

Seeds & seedlings...
A fair bit has been planted out over the past few weeks...

The list of seeds that we have been sown out were being listed in the "Planting Diary" but now I shall be listing them on the weekly blog posts instead..
Seedlings...
On the 13th of October we planted out...........
3x bush beans (Ipswich Twilight markets) into Bed#4
1x bush bean (Ipswich Twilight markets) into aquaponic bed
3x Bulls Horn Capsicum (saved seed) into Bed#1
3x capsicum (Diggers 7 colour mix) into Bed#1
2x capsicum (Diggers 7 colour mix) into Bed#2
3x lettuce (Ipswich Twilight markets) into IBC wicking beds (Aquaponics area)
1x lettuce (Ipswich Twilight markets) into Aquaponic constant flow bed
2x lettuce (Ipswich Twilight markets) into Bed #4
1 nasturtium (Ipswich Twilight markets) was planted into each of the following beds,spice wicking bed (aquaponics area), spice IBC (behind chook house), pumpkin IBC & under the Kaffir Lime tree..

Seeds...
Today (16th October) saw us planting out a few seeds..
4 lots of seed were planted into coco peat pellets (thanks again Watsamadoing),
7x Purple Vienna Kohlrabi (Eden Seeds)
7x Osaka Purple Mustard Greens (BOGI)**
7x Tall Utah Celery (BOGI)
7x bok choi (BOGI)

**(BOGI = Brisbane Organic Growers Inc)


Garden Pond...
About a month & a half ago we decided to plant some water chestnuts into a bucket & keep it in a bathtub pond under the lemon tree at the back of the patch.. Probably wasnt the best idea in hindsight.. The pond had 8 White Cloud Minnows in it when the bucket went in but we quickly noticed a fair amount of leachate coming from it as well as finding a few deceased fish :(» The bucket was quickly removed as were the fish into a fish tank & the whole pond got a good cleaning from top to bottom.. The fish were quickly returned without the chestnut bucket & appeared to be doing rather well.. Well, they were that is until a White Faced heron decided to snack on 2 more.. We dont know for sure that it did but it was seen taking off, rather awkwardly, from the vicinity.. That left us with 3 minnows & little hope of their survival, until the other day that is......

We are rather pleased with this result & were surprised by finding even more over the past few days...

I suppose thats about it for now... Shall be back early next week with another planting update as well as any other interesting Bits from Out the Back...
Have a great one..
Rob...
: )»

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Catch up time

Have been doing a few small bits & pieces around the patch since I last posted...

Wicking Bathtub...
An old bathtub came up for offer on Freecycle  a few weeks back so we grabbed it to try turning it into a Wicking Bed...

 I wanted to set the bed up as a Thai curry bed but as we have enough Chillies already for what we need a Capsicum was planted in there instead...

 Seeding & planting update...
The morning the Bathtub bed was made we went to the local markets & purchased,
2 x Thai Mint, 1x Giant Capsicum & a Calendula seedlings... They were fairly advanced & very healthy looking so a bargain for $4 all up (if memory serves me right)... 1 of the Basils along with the Capsicum went into the Bath along with the volunteer Lemongrass we had growing in a pot...

Last Sunday (16th Oct) Bianca & I potted up all the seedlings that were advanced enough into 10cm (4inch) pots to allow their roots to develop a bit more & for us to make space around the place or find new homes for the leftovers... We now have the below thriving quite happily in their new pots,
Eggplant, Long Thai Purple  x 6
Eggplant, Udumalapet x1
Eggplant, Rosa Bianca x 2
Tomato, Black Russian x 6
Tomato, Brandywine Pink x 6
Cucumber, Mini White x 3
Rockmelon, Minnesota Midget x3
 The remaining Mini white Cucumbers & Minnesota Midget Rockmelons (3 each) went into 2 different barrels with cadges on them.. The Cucumbers should vine up alright & it will be interesting to see how the Melons will go...
B? also planted another 4 Amish Paste Tomato Seeds as we are really enjoying the ones we have already eaten fresh & turned into sauces.. The plants in the lime beds just are not doing as well as they could so we are going to try them in a Wicking bed where they will have constant water & see how they go.. Just need to find the room now... 

Aquaponics...
Not a lot has been happening with the IBC system other than the occasional Yabbie shedding its exoskeleton &n an influx of Mozzie wrigglers.. Some of them were taken care of quickly today after we introduced about 30 Firetail Gudgeon feeder fish into the Sump Tank... The Yabbies were put in there a few weeks ago & the Goldies from the house were put into the Barrel system along with the Pacific Blue Eyes we had in the Barrel pond in the patch... The Barrel system has still only got a trace reading of Ammonia & no readings that I can see for Nitrite or Nitrates... The tank is being supplemented with Seasol as well as Chelated Iron while the pH is above 8 as high pH locks out Iron which can appear as a yellowing of the leaves like a nitrogen deficiency...
I have been collecting bits for the plumbing work & think most of what is need has been found as well as buying a 2500LPH back up pump that is running during the day at the moment... 
Did a bit of rearranging of the AP site today & will be trying to knock off the rest of the set up in the next few weeks...


Potato update...

We have had a few problems with a Spotted Potato Ladybug infestation in the Kipfler drum... They are on all of the plants but really hooked into the barrel plants.. We started to spray all the plants with Neem & these are the only specimens I could find today but from the 

shot on the Left you can see the difference between the 2 plants...
I think we may just harvest the Barrel this weekend if the plant dies back to much... The Kipflers on the right in the shot have been left alone for now so we will be keeping the Neem up to them until harvest time...




A little Carrot experiment....

Mmmmmm.... Well, I did try to save to poor little feller...
The results can be seen at the start of the clip below.. : (»

Garden Walk through...

Tried to cram in as much as I could but still miss a fair bit out... The Patch just keeps growing which I cant really complain about..

New project....
Here is a sneak peek of a new project we will be starting today or on the weekend...

Going to be fun, messy but Fun....

Have a great one all....
: )»

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