Tricking my Brown Thumb

I carefully planted seeds in vermiculite and waited for seedlings to show.  The few seedlings I saw were quickly identified as products of a fall of elm seed disks from a huge elm tree in a neighbors yard, but no sign of the carrots, beets, parsnips, or tomatoes that I planted.  Finally I went ahead and purchased some weedy looking tomato plants for a deep discount along with dill and parsley that was similarly low in cost.  They began to thrive in the grow beds.  A week ago I tossed some year-old beets seeds in the beds, with a fatalistic feeling that since they werent getting any fresher, they were just as well off adding organic matter to the grow bed.  Surprise!  The beet seedlings are showing up as pretty little green leaves on red stalks.

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Tomatoes in December and a Primrose Bonanza

Through thorough insulation and the use of a small propane heater on nights that go below 30 degrees, we have been successful in maintaining growth in our mint, parsley and tomato beds, as well as some of the strawberry plants. As I worked in the greenhouse this evening I harvested a handful of cherry tomatoes from the somewhat struggling vines. Today we went shopping for some nitrogen absorbers. In other words, our fish are outstripping our vegetation. I have become familiar with the cold hardiness of primroses, mostly as I enter and leave the Provo LDS Temple where the winter plants of choice are the hardy little plants that almost seem overcome by a sharp frost or deep layer of snow, but which bounce back as soon as warmth returns, providing a green ground cover in the winter and giving a lovely floral display in early spring. Although so far I have avoided floral plants in favor of fruits, vegetables and herbs, our trout are growing and as they grow, they eat more and provide more plant food. Without an adequate amount of vegetation, they will end up with too much nitrogen in their water. Cooks nursery in Orem, west of the 1600 North interchange had mostly indoor plants and poinsettias for sale, however we found some flourishing primrose plants in a cool corner of a heated greenhouse. We placed them in the rain gutters that I used for float trays in the summer. I was pleasantly surprised to pay only a little over a dollar a plant for 18 plants.

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Larvae Harvest Plants thriving

First BFL harvest this morning!
I found three large larvae- 3/4" long and black, in the catch bin this morning.  I took them down and fed them to my chickens.  For the next few days Im putting the harvest bucket in a shady place near a spot where I put some food scraps under a layer of wood compost.  I plan to let any that come out of the bin in the next few days find their way to a place where they can become flies and breed.   It took a week from putting little white larvae in my collector bin to the appearance of the mature larvae.
Also, the grow bins in my aquaponics setup are doing well.  I planted various herbs, a squash and some tomatoes and all are apparently thriving five days after being planted. 

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Two Weeks and Fish are Thriving In Spite of Some Problems

When I was dealing with 20 cent feeder gold fish I didnt feel the economic pinch too much if a bunch of them floated to the top of the tank a day or so after I brought them home. I feared at first that I was responsible but a reliable source told me that feeder fish are notoriously infected with various things that make them short lived. The survival of two of the original gold fish through last winter, living on algae apparently, surprised me when I noticed them at last. The trout represent a greater investment. I paid for them by the inch as well as paying for delivery. Fortunately the delivery cost was split between me and another aquaponist in the area who ordered larger fish from the same trout farm. In addition, the man who delivered the fish threw in a few extra. Actually he threw in more than ten extra. But he didnt want to carry a load of water and a few small fish all the way back to his trout farm. Following his recommendations, based on the number of fish, I fed them about a cup of fish pellets from Intermountain Farm Association where I purchased 50 pounds for just a little over $35. Even though any remaining pellets should be discarded after 3 months, this still beat the price of fish food from the pet store. Then I discovered that my three hens are crazy about fish pellets. I had read somewhere that hens fed on fish meal produced eggs with higher levels of omega fatty acids, so I consider it a win/win situation. The fish pellets are twice the cost of layer pellets for the chickens, but with no need to worry about wasting the pellets after ninety days have passed, I figure all is good. At any rate, feeding the fish at the rate of a cup a day didnt work out well. The fish let a lot of the pellets sink to the bottom of the fish tank where they became food for algae. Suddenly my pumps seized up from algal clogging and the water in the system turned nearly opaque. After cleaning the pumps and getting them started again I put a piece of polyester upholstery foam in a rectangular plastic colander and set it beneath the outlet from the fish tank into the sump. The following day, Thursday, we didnt feed the fish. On Friday the filter was filthy, the water in the fish tank was crystal clear and the fish eagerly ate the handful and a half of pellets fed to them. No casualties were detected. I was happy to learn that even commercial aquaponists use chelated iron as a supplement. I have used it with good effect. My tomato plants had turned a sickly yellow green earlier this month but an application of chelated iron brought them back to a lovely green. Ill wait until the greenhouse gets too cold to support them before pulling them out and replacing them with cold weather crops.

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