No News is Bad News

My cats ate the plants from the grow bed. The fish have been doing very well, until this morning, when one of the cats managed to catch one of the fish... I found that fish, intact and mostly unmarked, covered in shed fur. I think the cats had no idea what to do with it once they got it out of the tank.

So, I'm down to two fish and zero plants. I need to pick up a plant from Home Despot and gently remove the soil from its roots, so I can put it in the grow bed.

It's been a couple of weeks

Time marches on.

It's been a few weeks since I started my plants. As you can see from the photo, they're doing pretty decently. The plants on the right half are tomato, the left half are the sweet peppers. I managed to kill off the mint. I think I'll do a 'ponics rig specifically for mint.

Frustrated

If it's not one thing, it's another.

So, I remembered to bring the spigots for the pump, this morning. Hooray! I got to the house, did some puttering around, and then started to hook up the hose to the pump, set the pump in the fish tank, and turned it on.

The pump's instructions say to start it at full blast, and then reduce the flow if necessary. Since the pump is rated for a 10 gallon set-up, and mine is 2 gallons, at best, I knew I'd have to reduce. Still, I followed the instructions, and once the flow was flowing, I reduced it to minimum.

Sprout Transfer

We puts the seedlings in the gravel and sprays it with the water

Yesterday (16 May 2011), I picked up the hose for my water pump. Today, as I was getting things set up, I realised I left the spigot from the pump at the other house. D'oh!

Regardless, I drilled holes in the bottom of the grow bed, 1 in each corner and 1 in the middle. I poured the remaining gravel into the bed, and then decided which plants were getting transferred.

Everybody's Working For The Weekend

The fountain still isn't running

I still don't have the water pump running, and had to change the water for the three fish. Their names are either Manny, Moe & Jack, or Larry, Moe & Curly. I still haven't assigned which fish gets which name. I'll leave that for my 7 yr old son.

Spring is springing

Less on the 'ponics side of things. Squeeing with delight at plants

A couple of days ago, I posted a picture of my 3 little plant pots. At the time, only the tomatoes has sprouted. Now, all three have sprouts, even though the pepper sprouts haven't quite come above the surface of the soil. I could see an unfurling stem.

As this is my first time trying to grow plans on purpose, I'm a happy camper, that plants are actually growing! No, I'm not counting my tomatoes before they've fruited, but the fact that I'm that much closer to having my own veggies makes me wriggle in my seat with a happydance. Look beyond the cut for macro photos of my little vegetative minions.

D'oh.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

I picked up a hose for the fountain pump, yesterday. Today, while on break from cleaning house, I wanted to continue assembling the fountain assembly, maybe get it started so it'll settle in and I can get fish on Friday.

The hose is too narrow. I'm fairly certain it's the same size hose as the air hose for the bubbler. D'oh.

This will serve as a reminder to bring the male adapter with me to Home Despot in order to make certain I get the correct size hose. I think I'll do that later today, to fix into place tomorrow.

On the bright side, my strawberries have sprouted, and 3 of the tomato sprouts are an inch long! Dang, those grow fast!

Progress is slow

Hurry up and wait!

So, I started all this last week, without really taking the fact that we were going to Bats Day at the Fun Park into account. I picked up a bunch of supplies on Wednesday or Thursday, and had the fountain pump delivered Friday morning. I realised when the pump arrived that I didn't have the right sized hose to feed the water into the grow bed. Not a big deal, when all is said and done.

Today, Tuesday, I went to Home Despot to pick up some PVC pipe for the grow bed, a plug-cap for the pipe, and an elbow joint so the hose will have a place to empty into. I also remembered to pick up PVC cement, to secure all this together. I'm so clever.

In the beginning...

This is what I have, so far.

I have been itching to start my rig for well over a week. Unfortunately, my husband was not quite so enthusiastic. supportive, but unenthusiastic. That's okay. I downloaded a couple of books to my kindle. I read through a number of websites about aquaponics. I looked into vacant land near my house, for installing a greenhouse. I talked with my mother-in-law, about demolishing her dilapidated yard shed and letting me put a greenhouse there.

Fishes and Plants and Info! Oh my!

Starting something, hopefully fun, interesting, educational, and tasty.

In late April 2011, I learned about "aquaponics." It looked intriguing, and I decided I wanted to give it a try. Since we were finishing the renovation of our house in South Pasadena, California, this seemed like a good time to start.