Gardening for Old Folks (Adaptative)

[CapricornFarm]

I did it !!!

Welcome to the garden thread. Everyone is welcome to join. I used to live in Bradenton, and DS lives in Riverview.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Sorry, just had to share this for any who haven't heard it, this thread reminded me of it.
View attachment 1208355

 

[rjohns39]

Please, more details about how you have your system set up.

What is the size of your beds? I'm particularly looking at the application rate of borax per sq. ft. Have you ever had your soil tested, particulary for Boron? I had never heard of mittleider gardening. Need to do more research. Name of book please? Or resource? Rodale and Mother Earth are the gardener's bible of the granola days. Good stuff that never gets old.

My hydro system starts with the planter in the picture. 5 gallon buckets with river rock in the bottom to about a 1/2" above the drain. Drain is 1/2" pvc with a rubber gasket. The bucket is lined with a paint strainer/filter and filled with perlite. Plants are planted in the perlite and lid closed to stop algae formation. All of the 1/2" drain lines gravity feed into a 2" pipe that returns to the reservoir.

I use one of those black tubs from lowes/homedepot with the yellow lid. I think about 25 gallon or so. In my last setup, I buried the reservoir, but since on rock this time, its packed with sandbags to help maintain water temps. I feed the reservoir from a 55 gallon drum on the deck piped in with 1" pvc and a float valve in the reservoir.

I use an 800+gpm submersible pump in order to move the water to the top of the planter (head height is the primary issue). I use 1/2" tubing from the pump for my main water feed lines, which run above and behind each row of buckets. Off the 1/2" lines are 1/4" flexible tubing connected to staked free flow emitters in each bucket.

Under the planter, I have a second reservoir fed by a 5 gallon bucket for my greens. I use a similar size pump and 1/2" lines to feed each plant. I've used pvc fence post covers with 2" holes for my plant cups. this area will probably get redesigned in spring as it didn't survive shipping well. A lot of people put their pumps on times, but they don't draw that much electricity so I just run them all the time.

I have two 4'X12' and one 4'X20' beds.

Here's a link to the mittleider gardening method. I had horrible soil in VA and couldn't get anything to grow and what I found was this was a good method for building soil. After 3 years of using this method and adding organic matter to my beds I had developed a really rich loamy soil. So after that, I maintained it with OMRI products with equal or better results from the previous years.

I have not had this soil tested yet, but will in spring and adjust based upon the findings. To me, the soil science remains a bit of voodoo so I'll provide the test results to the Fertrell folks and amend as they recommend, after double checking with my extension agent. I couldn't handle the freight for good fertilizer last year, but when I order my feed products, I'll include the fertilizers on the same pallet. It costs me $200 to get the pallet shipped to my co-op or if I can have it sent to a dealer, it's like $50.

Sorry for so many words....

 

[rjohns39]

Welcome to the garden thread. Everyone is welcome to join. I used to live in Bradenton, and DS lives in Riverview.

Funny, I retired in Riverview... Almost starved to death.

 

[lazy gardener]

Thanks for the info re: your hydroponic set up. I have hydro or aquaponic plans setting on the back burner/bucket list. I would like to start with a super simple aquaponic system in my basement, including grow lights, 20G or so sized reservoir, with gold fish, perhaps worms, most likely water circulation on a timer. Hopefully to keep hubby and I provided with salads through the winter. It's a project for the future.

Have you ever had issue with your hydroponic system backing up/overflowing due to pump malfunction/poor filtration?

There is a new Aquaponic/hydroponic supplier about 1/2 hour drive from my home. I am guessing they cater to the pot growers in the area, but also have a fair market share of normal veggie gardeners! I went in there last weekend, and came out all charged up!

 

[rjohns39]

Thanks for the info re: your hydroponic set up. I have hydro or aquaponic plans setting on the back burner/bucket list. I would like to start with a super simple aquaponic system in my basement, including grow lights, 20G or so sized reservoir, with gold fish, perhaps worms, most likely water circulation on a timer. Hopefully to keep hubby and I provided with salads through the winter. It's a project for the future.

Have you ever had issue with your hydroponic system backing up/overflowing due to pump malfunction/poor filtration?

There is a new Aquaponic/hydroponic supplier about 1/2 hour drive from my home. I am guessing they cater to the pot growers in the area, but also have a fair market share of normal veggie gardeners! I went in there last weekend, and came out all charged up!

hydroponic, no. Aquaponic, yes. But I think part of the reason is I try to maintain total volume in the system, below what the reservoir holds and only refill from the drum when water is about 1/2 full. Well, if you want to start simple and fairly cheap, check out aerogarden as they have some inexpensive starter systems that are turn key. DW uses a 3 cup system in her classroom and the kids grow lettuce and spinach. Aquaponics, works and works well as long as everything remains balanced, but it can go sideways in a nano second. And it will never happen when you're home. I think there is a law or something.

 

[lazy gardener]

Yep, there's a law. You are speaking to the lady who had CO2 and VHO lighting in a huge, very well planted fish tank in my living room. Every month or so, I would take a bucket full of plants and live bearers to a local pet shop, just to keep the populations in check. Then... my angel fish decided to breed. So... I decided I could raise angel fish. And sell the babies to put my son through college. Good idea, cause all the pet shops said they'd buy all the angels I could produce. 900 angels, later... 14 tanks of angels later... continuously raising brine shrimp to feed all those babies, lugging buckets of water to change out water in all those tanks on a weekly basis... Babies ready to go to market, and not a single buyer in sight... Yep keeping ammonia levels, pH balanced, nitrogen cycles healthy... yep... it's a balancing act. But... aquaponics with a single tiny little tank... only one tank... how hard can that be? Don't answer that! Let me live in my own little demented world! That angel fish experience is what just may have been the reason for my shoulder and hip issues!

ok, my apologies for the thread jacking. Back to your regularly scheduled program.

 

[rjohns39]

Yep, there's a law. You are speaking to the lady who had CO2 and VHO lighting in a huge, very well planted fish tank in my living room. Every month or so, I would take a bucket full of plants and live bearers to a local pet shop, just to keep the populations in check. Then... my angel fish decided to breed. So... I decided I could raise angel fish. And sell the babies to put my son through college. Good idea, cause all the pet shops said they'd buy all the angels I could produce. 900 angels, later... 14 tanks of angels later... continuously raising brine shrimp to feed all those babies, lugging buckets of water to change out water in all those tanks on a weekly basis... Babies ready to go to market, and not a single buyer in sight... Yep keeping ammonia levels, pH balanced, nitrogen cycles healthy... yep... it's a balancing act. But... aquaponics with a single tiny little tank... only one tank... how hard can that be? Don't answer that! Let me live in my own little demented world! That angel fish experience is what just may have been the reason for my shoulder and hip issues!

ok, my apologies for the thread jacking. Back to your regularly scheduled program.

You're giving me flashbacks.

 

[nminusyplusm]

Aquaponics, works and works well as long as everything remains balanced, but it can go sideways in a nano second. And it will never happen when you're home. I think there is a law or something.

LOL, so true for hydro as well. When I got really really sick and was in the hospital my SO tried valiantly to maintain the windowfarm in the largest window of our tiny NYC apartment but he finally gave up after there was an uptake tube clog. When I got out I came home to a forest of dead tomato branches, herbs, etc. and a tank full of sludge.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Yep, there's a law. You are speaking to the lady who had CO2 and VHO lighting in a huge, very well planted fish tank in my living room. Every month or so, I would take a bucket full of plants and live bearers to a local pet shop, just to keep the populations in check. Then... my angel fish decided to breed. So... I decided I could raise angel fish. And sell the babies to put my son through college. Good idea, cause all the pet shops said they'd buy all the angels I could produce. 900 angels, later... 14 tanks of angels later... continuously raising brine shrimp to feed all those babies, lugging buckets of water to change out water in all those tanks on a weekly basis... Babies ready to go to market, and not a single buyer in sight... Yep keeping ammonia levels, pH balanced, nitrogen cycles healthy... yep... it's a balancing act. But... aquaponics with a single tiny little tank... only one tank... how hard can that be? Don't answer that! Let me live in my own little demented world! That angel fish experience is what just may have been the reason for my shoulder and hip issues!

ok, my apologies for the thread jacking. Back to your regularly scheduled program.

Yikes, I got big into fish keeping but never had the patience for involved stuff like planted tanks. You're amazing.