This Lucky Bamboo Plant was not Very Lucky,  They Had It Marked down in Price due to It Was Half Dead.

I have been wanting to play around with aquaponics for some time, So Here Is My First Simple Test.

I have noticed It Is Doing Very Well, But I will Be Doing more On This Topic Later This Year.

Here All I did Is Remove my Filters in my Fish Tank Water Fall.

I do not Know The ID of this Plant, But It Is a very Nice Vine That Has been In Our Family For Over 20 Years.

A Easy Shine mix for the leaves is a 50/50 Mix of Miracle Whip and Milk, and simply wipe down the leaves, No smell.

I have not Shined the leaves of this Plant For Over 4 Months and Still not 2 Bad looking, But Could Use A shine.

Simply Use a Soft Cloth and wipe down the leaves with the home made mix.

Starting a New Vine Is Easy,  Simply Trim off the End Of One That You Want Cut Back, Or A Old Vine That Don’t Look Good Any-more, After The Vine Gets OLD it will Be Just Vine and no Leaves At  the Base.

After you cut it at a Rib, Set It In a Cup of water for a week or 2 to get the roots to Start “White Roots”, Then Plant Back into the Pot or Start A new Pot.

This One Is Ready to Be Planted.

These Pictures are from Mar 25 2010

Pictures of the plants from our First Planting This year.

They are doing good!

And here is a few Pictures Of things Starting to grow from the 2nd planting

Onion

We had so many Onion seeds we only used a flat, no tray’s, and filled it with dirt, and Planted like we would Grass seed.

We did get a call back about the local Midland, MI  Farm Market, and found we do not need a licence as long as we do not Serve the produce right there on a plate ready to eat right there.   But there are a few other things we need to get in line.

A booth will be $25 a day,  We are thinking going on Monday Nights.

And last but not least, here Is a Picture of a little Tractor I build as a Decor for our Flower bed this week.

It is made all of metal and painted flat black from junk stuff setting around the gradge.

If anyone wants a PDF E-book or more Pictures of How to Build one, Email me.

I just got this installed last night, I found the full system for a Total of $158

Dual outputs, 6-stage 85 gal/day Reverse Osmosis Water System+DI filter (for drinking and aquarium use, include pressure tank and faucet

Model:  RD-106

This system is a brand new system made by WaterGeneral Manufacturing Co.

I  Only have 20 PSI coming from our well, but here next month we will have a New 5″ well out down with about 65 PSI, So I’m not sure if I will get a Booster pump yet or not.

I run of 5 gallon, and even with my 20PSI  It still was 0 PPM on the water test.

Granted, I should not run it long at the 20 PSI, My filters will go bad faster.

I just did a trade for a dozen snails for This Coral, He is still Pissed off !!  When ever he gets better from being Fraged he will get about 10″ Tall and Look Like a Tree with no leaves

I don’t Think He Is a Kenya tree or a Colt Coral.

Sorry For the Bad Picture, I’m still Playing with the camera to Figure out how to take Pictures of Stuff in my tank.

A few people from michiganreefers think it is a Sinularia.

I found a google search that said.

“Colt Corals are very feathery while Sinularia Corals are not as feathery.”

I re-attached It using a saltwater glue.

I really hope it don’t die, It was about 10 inches tall when I got him.  But the guy I got him from used a Ice cube to get him off the rock.

Not much going on yet, but here is a quick update Mar 16 2010

Nothing yet from our 2nd planting

The Tiller I found at the home depo looks like it might do a good job.

The same day shopping, ” not garden related” but The Wife come home with this.

I like the TV and all, but I think I got the better Deal with the tiller

And as I went out the the Green House to water today I find I soon will be installing This Blower for cooling very soon.

Temp was over 90f and had to leave the door open to cool the Green house down.

I added Price’s up today to see how much we have into things this year.

Green house Basic build $150 every thing from home depo

25 flats w/trays for $10
20 pound for $2.25 each ” 14 total bags for all 26 flats” $31.50
Potting Mix Miracle-Gro $5 each ” 7 total bags for all 26 flats” $35
gurneys $37.75
burpee $85.00

—————————-
Grand Total $349.26
not including a heater or cooling blower

My heaters was givin to me
and the cooling blower fan, was givin to me.
It’s amazing what you can find if you just ask around to people you know.

But this is our first year going this big, so in my opinion $349 bucks is not to bad at all. next year the only things we will need is seeds and dirt.

*** My wife made a good point.
At our local green house farm, they sell flats @ $16 each 36 plants or $14 each for 26 plant flats. Well at that price of $16 for 36 plant flat x 26 flats would be around $416 Even building and buying everything we still saved cash…

set #2 Finished

Grand total 26 flats
936 Total Plants

Each Flat is 36 plants

Out side temp 43f   2:30pm  It has been cloudy and soft rain all day so far,

Inside Green House  70F

This is what we did  to hold so many flats, Next year I’m thinking on making it out of 1″ pvc pipe and running water threw the PVC Rack system to water the plants when needed.

Side 1

Side 2

It has been about 5 gallons water used for each time I water, I also add a little Miracle gro to the water, I’m not sure if i really need it but i had it, so i figured i would use it.

These little tray  tags I did not wast my money on buying, we bake things that need frosting every so often, so I use the cake frosting cans and cut them up.

Here is a Picture of the Flats used

I think they are a little over kill, but we got them on the best deal we could find.  25 flats w/trays for $10

They hold 36 plants, here is a few Pictures of how big they are.

about 3 1/2 inch deep

and 2 inch by 2 inch

The soil blend we used was about the best price we could find at the time and has been working very well so far.

It was a 2 bag to 1 bag, and just filled 5-6 flats perfect, If you pack the soil 2 tight you would only have about 5 flats .

We used 2 of these bags,  20 pound for $2.25 each   ” 14 total bags for all 26 flats”

It is a all purpose potting soil from the “dollar general” store

and 1 bag  8 quarts of Potting Mix Miracle-Gro  $5 each from the “dollar general” store

” 7 total bags for all 26 flats”

We Mixed 2 to 1 on the floor and come up with a Nice mix.

I will keep Updating on how every thing is coming along, This is Just the Start to a Long Year of learning new things as we go, and ALOT of shooting from the hip!    But all our Flats are planted, the only other seed we have left to plant it the stuff that gets planted directly in the garden, but we have a while before that.

Mar 11 2010   in Green house 80F

Yesterday was Rain, so I never even went out to the green house,  But 2 days ago Nothing was up yet, So In the last few days This is what happened. 

Even a little water Mellon starting

one to two Roma tomato

The stuff that come Up that I could see.

Cabbage , kohlrabi, cantaloupe, both kinds summer & winter squash,  1 water Mellon, a few roma tomato’s, red lightning tomato, cauliflower, broccoli.

Tomorrow  We are going to Start the 2nd planting for the other seeds

Here is a List of Seeds I have for this year.

CUCUMBER STREAMLINER
TOMATO STEAK SANDWICH HYB
CORN SILVER QUEEN HYB
TOMATO RED LIGHTNING HYB
HERB DILL
BEAN BUSH TENDERPOD
BROCCOLI GREEN GOLIATH
CELERY TALL UTAH 52-70R IMPRVD
ONION RED DELICIOUS HYB
PEPPER SWT CARNIVAL MIX
PEPPER HABANERO
LETTUCE ICEBERG A
PUMPKIN PRIZEWINNER HYBRID ( I wanted to Try The 300lb Things )
TOMATO SUGAR SNACK HYB
CANTALOUPE SWEET N EARLY
WATERMELON GURNEY’S DELIGHT HY
CABBAGE GOLDEN ACRE PKT
LETTUCE LEAF GREEN ICE PKT/G
CAULIFLOWER SNOW CROWN HYB. PK
KOHLRABI EARLY WHITE VIENNA PK
CARROT SUGARSNAX PKT.
CHARD SWISS LUCULLUS PKT.
SQUASH SUMMER BLACK MAGIC ZUCC
SQUASH WINTER BUTTERCUP PKT.

And a few others seeds.