NY Times Article

I'm quite excited to say that my Aquaponics greenhouse was featured in an article in the NY Times!

Click here to view article

Things we do to pass the time in winter

There isn't a lot of gardening to do in this time of year when the highs are in the low 20's....

In the backyard, we like to set up a 45x80' skating rink each year. I made up this Zamboni ice resurfacing machine to keep the rink nice and smooth.

I've also included a link to a video of it in action!

Click here to view

Another winter update....

Made a quick video of our greenhouse in the winter...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_3o9EbtvX8

Enjoy!

Winter Update

It's been awhile since I've posted any updates about the greenhouse. We're now in the blistering cold of winter. This is the first year I've heated the greenhouse.....it may be a costly mistake. Here's a little scientific data to ponder:

From Misc

1) 2:30pm: Sun starts to set (yellow) and the greenhouse has no solar gain and the temperature starts to drop (Orange & green lines)

2) 3:45pm: Temperature goes below 40F (4.5C). Heater is able to turn on/off as it maintains the temp at 40F. Ceiling temp (light green) jumps a bit as the heat rises....

3) 9:15pm: Outside temperature (Red) goes below 20F (-6/7C) and the heater no longer can keep up with the demamd. Temperature slowly declines to around 38F (3.3C). The outside temp is 13.3F (-10.4C)

4) 9:15am: Heater turns off once the sun comes out the next morning. Total run time is roughly 17 hours.

There are 2 electric heaters totaling 2400 watts. After all the fees and taxes, we pay $0.20 per kilowatt:
2400watts & 17 hours = 40.8 kilowatts
40.8kW * 20 cents = $8.16 to keep it heated for the night!

Since we are getting so little sun and it's cold, the lettuce is growing very slowly. There's one tomato plant that I started in the fall still doing OK but needs a lot more light. I had a few cukes growing, but the consistent cold has killed them. I am not generating $8 worth of veggies/day. Perhaps it's time to invest in a propane heater to lessen the heating costs....or just shut it down for the winter..... Jan & Feb will be even colder!

Greenhouse update

Just a couple of update pictures of the greenhouse aquaponics....

Found this giant walking stick on the pepper plants last night:



This is one cucumber plant! I don't have an official count, but I've picked at least 20 cukes from it. My dirt garden produces no more than a half dozen per plant. On this plant, the spots where I've already picked, it's now sending out TWO new cukes. It's awesome!



This is one cherry tomato plant. We've been keeping an official tally sheet on it. So far, we've picked 185 and there are 100's more on there. Sorry about the "burnt" look of the leaves. After I killed all my fish with the seaweed meal, I think they got a bit nutrient deprived, but all the new growth looks good. My garden cherries are doing terribly since most of them have the "potato famine" blight....

Time-Lapse plants

Here's a time-lapsed video of my greenhouse aquaponics transformation. Sorry about the changes in the camera angles and the lighting variations - it's a really crappy webcam. The last frame does have less plants in it since I just ripped out all the beans and started a new batch. I think I may get three growing "seasons" of beans this year.

greenhouse tour

threw together a little video of my greenhouse setup. For a HQ video, click on the link to go directly to youtube