The end of the normal growing season

Today marks the end of the season for the “sustainable” greenhouse. Last night was the first night the heaters needed to run to keep the plants from freezing. (The heaters are programmed to turn on at 36F). My outdoor growing season ended just shy of 2 months ago so I’m still quite pleased with the extended growing season!

My definition of “sustainable” for this project is not having to add extra heat or lighting for the plants to grow, The other electricity for the pumps and automation is an integrated part of the greenhouse Aquaponics system and I classify that as part of the normal functions. ;-)

I still have peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce growing which should survive for the winter. Of course the cost to keep these plants alive will now skyrocket in electricity costs, but it’s still a nice treat to get a few fresh veggies during the winter.

Already looking forward for spring!

The last of the great cucumbers

I picked my last cucumbers today. The official stats are:

• 3 plants yielded 330 fruits for a total of 116.3 pounds (52.8kg)
• First fruit was picked on May 31st, last on Nov 7^th. Even though peak production was during the summer, this averages to around 2 fruits per day.

As a comparison, my regular dirt garden had 6 plants. I didn’t keep official results, I got no more than 20 fruits before the plants died off.

Overall, I was overwhelmed by this year’s results. Looking forward to next year already!

Aquaponic Greenhouse Fall Update

I finally had some time to make another video update of my greenhouse. As you can see, I’m still suffering from a white fly problem and the strawberries just aren’t strong enough to survive. They’re starting to succumb to the flies and are getting mildew on them. I’m probably going to rip them all out, and this winter drop the temp below freezing to kill off the bugs. Bring back DDT! ;-)

There are some stats near the end, so you may want to watch it in full-screen hi-def so you can see the info!

Leopard Frog

This large leopard frog has been hanging out in the greenhouse for a couple of months. At first he would jump into the sump pump area whenever I would go in, but now I can walk right up to him and he doesn’t even care. Luckily, he’s too large to get sucked into the impellers of the pump!

Problem Solved

I was able to build a new wireless bridge. I was given a Linksys WRT54G2 router that "didn't work". These don't have a setting to run in bridged mode, but the firmware can be replaced with the open source firmware from dd-wrt.com. (This firmware has far more features than the one that Cisco provides!)

Next I removed it from its shell and placed it in a surplus NEMA box. The antennas were simply hot-glued on to the circuit board. Working great!

Problems in the greenhouse

Anyone that has watched my greenhouse videos (Click for video) has seen I have it fully automated - I LOVE automation! The best part is I can spend very little time in there dealing with the vents, checking water levels, or even feeding the fish. I can easily disappear for several days and not worry about the system. Well, not really, I always worry about it. I just have to trust it keeps working!

The other day, my web site that collects the data stopped receiving information. I use a Wi-Fi access point (AKA Wi-Fi bridge) that transmits the data to our house - then to the Internet site. Upon closer inspection, the bridge wasn't powered up. I checked the power supply and it was good, then decided to pull apart the bridge. This bridge is designed to be used in the comfort of your home, not the harsh conditions of a greenhouse. It's easy to understand why industrial controllers can get quite expensive. Next time around, I'll probably get the same cheap bridge, then throw it in a NEMA (waterproof) box and try to figure out how to get the antenna through the case....

Tomatoes!

Picked these 3 bad boys out of the greenhouse today. They weigh a pound each! These are the Brandywine heirloom variety.