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 enoughto survive.They’re starting to succumb tothe flies and are getting mildew on them.I’m probably going to rip them all out, and this winter drop the temp below freezingto kill off the bugs.Bring back DDT!;-)
There aresome stats near the end, so you may want to watch it in full-screen hi-def so you cansee the info!
I have had quite a few requests to provide some more detailed information on how well the wood burner works. I would like to share some temperatures with you using a AGPtek Dual Two Channel Digital Thermometer.
I have been very happy with how well this pool heater has worked for us this year. We have had such a cold summer here in Michigan this year and this heater has been one of the only reasons we have been able to enjoy the pool. Normally, the solar heater and solar cover can keep the pool comfortable but this year it has just not been adequate. I have run the wood burning heater only when needed, maybe once or twice per week at the most. We have been able to easily keep the pool temperature above 75 degrees so far this year.
The numbers and methods here are just for rough estimation of how well the heater works, this is not meant for the science books, but should hold true with a heater of similar size and efficiency.
I measured about 69 gallons per hour with a 33 degree average warm up to the water. This was with an average sized fire going as the temperature here will fluctuate as you add wood and let it burn through. I have seen it as high as 45 degrees and as low as 15 degrees, so it just depends on how much and what material you are burning.
Calculations I used: 15,000 gallon pool divided by 69 gallons per hour (filled one gallon in 52 seconds) gave me 217 hours to heat all of the water 33 degrees. Or if you reduce, it comes down to about 27 hours for 4 degree rise for the entire pool. You can also just divide 33/217 to get a coefficient that can be used to create a formula. Y = .15x where Y is the degrees you will heat 15000 gallons of water and x is the number or hours you run the heater. So if we plug in 24 hours for x we get y=3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
Hopefully that makes sense to be used as a ROUGH estimate for calculating how much you can heat a similar sized pool.
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This post has been shared at: The Homestead Barnhop, Simple Saturdays Blog Hop, The Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Natural Living Monday, Frugal Crafty Home Blog Hop
Its been a busy fall, what with creation of the Aquaponics Association (yours truly is Secretary of the US Chapter). But I finally got a chance during the holiday break to enclose my greenhouse. Not much growing going on, but the fish are all doing fine, even through the nasty cold snap that swept through the eastern United States in early January.
I shot a bit of video on January 1st, when it was cool (55 degrees) but sunny. With the greenhouse enclosed, it got up to 83 degrees inside. Nuts! Slipping into the greenhouse was a bit like getting off the plane in a tropical locale.
For the roof of the greenhouse I simply have a double thickness of 3.5 mil plastic - though I dont have this inflated, there is still insulation value from the small air pockets between the two sheets. This is a time when "rumpled" helps.
Ive been wanting to install some method of measuring temperatures, but the Stout family has collectively decided to be fiscally responsible in 2012. So no impulse purchases of environmental monitoring equipment for Meg. Ive gotten a kickstarter project approved which would let me ask the collective crowd to contribute to the monitoring experiment (for prizes!). Ill see about going live on that project in the next week or so.
Anyway, heres video of the state of things on January 1st, starting with a snippet of video from September to explain how I get 10 foot wide sheeting to cover a greenhouse.
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.
Unfortunately, I didnt get my two heating solutions finished before cold set in. With work, family, and short days, Ive not had the time Id hoped to finish things off.
Another concern Ive had is getting things too warm. Since my greenhouse is so tiny, I had visions of scalding water and melted plastic. So I wanted to measure temperatures with the rocket mass heater without it being connected to the greenhouse.
This past week I finally got the rust stripped off and painted the drum and lid (from a second-hand 22.5" Weber grill) with high temperature paint. The high temperature paint is supposed to be able to go to 800 degrees Fahrenheit without out-gassing or burning off.
Ive got a video here showing how I assembled the innards. I want to be able to disassemble the rocket mass heater, so making the components of cob isnt my first choice. If I had a chance to do this over, I would cut two 8 inch holes into the base plate or "lid" of the barrel.
Ive found that its a bit tricky getting these heaters to start. The method that ended up working for me is to start off with crumpled newspaper and a wax & eggcarton fire starter. Then feeding in small diameter sticks with the occasional piece of junk mail works great.
In my initial burn, I found that the top of the barrel (inside the domed lid) got to about 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The sides of the barrel warmed my hands when held about an inch away, and the top of the domed lid provided a similar level of diffuse heat.
If I had a greenhouse that was taller and could make a second version of this, I would consider having the heater inside the greenhouse. My greenhouse is short, however, so the roof plastic would only be a few inches above the domed lid. And this first version has the big rough rectangular hole for the exhaust, so I would be concerned about the exhaust fumes leaking in the enclosed space.
My next step will be constructing a nicer base out of bricks and connecting the exhaust to the duct work and structure inside my greenhouse.
Film maker Kirsten Dirksen produces videos on sustainability and better living and stopped by our place when she heard about the Aquaponic setup. Heres a video she put together about it.
For several months, I’ve been developing a plastic extrusion system that has been able to take virgin HDPE resin pellets, or shredded milk jugs, and properly melt and extrude them into a shape that could be used as a low cost growing media for my Aquaponics system.
There was a lot of trial and error to get to this point. The biggest problem is that the plastic retains little moisture. If the seeds aren’t directly placed in the flood/drain cycle, they won’t get any moisture to germinate. I typically grow in stone and some of the stone above the water line is able to wick and retain enough moisture to provide water to new seeds.
Another issue with HDPE is that it’s extremely smooth (again, works well to repel water). Even adding texture to the media during the cooling process, the media still is smooth, which makes it difficult for bacteria to stick to it. I was also a bit surprised to see that the roots didn’t really care to grow in it and they would grow around the edge of the net pot instead.
On the plus side, the plastic is light, fairly inexpensive, clean, and easy to work with.
I hope some of the info in the video is useful to some of my fellow aquaponic/hydroponic growers in their quest to find a better, more cost effective growing media.
EDIT: There is now a second blog entry with some more details about this.... Click on the "Newer Posts" link near the bottom.
Below is the transcript for the video…no need to read it if you’re going to watch the video… I just included it so some of the search engines could pick up on the keywords. ;-)
Hello Everyone. Today I’m going to show a plastic extruder system that I built. The end result was to produce a synthetic, cost effect growing medium for my Aquaponics system.
The extruder consists of a hopper for high density polyethylene pellets. An auger then forces the pellets through a dual zone heating chamber. The heated material is forced through a small die at the end of the chamber.
The temperature in each zone of the heating chamber is controlled by a Teensy AVR microcontroller which is monitored and adjusted through its USB port connected to a laptop.
The auger is driven by a windshield wiper motor and it is geared-down using an old bicycle sprocket and chain.
The hopper is filled with HDPE pellets where they are slowly forced into the heating chamber. It can also be filled with shredded milk bottles or shredded milk bottle caps to add color.
The heating chamber is covered in some fiberglass insulation to conserve heat. There are two thermal probes mounted near the middle and end which provides accurate readings to the controller as the material is heated. The heating elements draw around 16 amps at 12 volts.
The molten plastic that is extruded from the die is squeezed through a set of rollers which embed a texture into the material. A small tube blows air onto the pressed material to cool it, and to keep the rollers cool.
This is one of the rollers after I turned it on my lathe with a close-up view of the texturing.
And this is a close-up video of the material being extruded and pressed through the rollers.
Here is a close-up view of the finished material once it has been cut to length. There is a waffle pattern embedded into the plastic which provides plenty of surface area for bacterial growth. The media lies flat which helps to retain moisture during a drain cycle. The pieces have plenty of spaces between each other for water and root growth.
Most HDPE plastic is classified as food-grade. However, one problem is that nothing likes to stick to it. Even though a texture has been embossed into the plastic, a small amount of movement can disrupt anything that was clinging on it.
This is a time-lapsed video taken with my PlantCam over a 30 day period. There are 3 bean plants growing. I also planted lettuce seed which didn’t germinate, probably because the top inch of the media doesn’t retain moisture like stone or expanded clay.
After 30 days, I removed the beans from the aquaponic system. I had the net basket wrapped in foil to prevent the roots from wandering into the surrounding stone. The roots seem to have an aversion to growing in the plastic and mainly grew between the basket and foil.
Thanks for watching. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments section below. Also please subscribe to my YouTube channel to see future videos!
Its been quite awhile since posting any info about the geodesic dome greenhouse. This spring had more rain then usual and the site was too wet to run heavy equipment through. Were hoping to start digging for the footings in next week or so.
Ive started to experiment with rocket mass heaters and have had very good luck with running a good clean burn. It will be quite impressive to be able to heat the entire greenhouse without needing electricity to store heat in a thermal mass or run a blower for the burner. More to come!
How did the reclaimed pallet wood garden beds hold up? It has been a year since we have put these free raised beds into action and they have done us well so far. Throughout the last year this project has become fairly popular and there have been some common questions that I thought I would try to answer here.
Will the pallet wood hold up to moister over the long term? This is a very valid concern and one that I, quite honestly, shared as well. They have only been through one year so far but as far as I can tell they have held up perfectly. I do not see any signs of rotting where the soil has been in contact with the wood and the outside of the wood has aged nicely. Only time will tell the full story here but I would guess we can get about 5 years out of these before we start noticing any issues.
Arent pallets treated with chemicals that are unsafe for your garden? The wood that we are using from the pallets was all heat treated and this is something you should look for when using it for food production. We also lined the first set of beds with greenhouse plastic since the wood had some oil staining on it we didnt want in the soil.
What soil mix are we using? Last year we decided to try the square foot gardening method with these raised beds. With that came using the Mels mix soil mixture that consists of 1/3 compost 1/3 peat and 1/3 vermiculite. This is a very nice soil mix however it can get pretty expensive to fill beds of this size and vermiculite is hard to source locally. We ended up having to order ours online and it was not cheap! In an effort to keep costs down after we had already ordered the vermiculite we ended up probably not putting in enough compost and good nutrients and added more peat as a filler. Needless to say in the end the growth we had was not stellar. We were happy with our little gardens but this year we want to focus on filling them for less and increasing production.
I will have another article soon with our new method of soil fill for the four new pallet beds that I have just built, stay tuned for more on that. We are focusing on locally sourced and bulk materials rather than as much big box store products.
Do you put landscape cloth in the bottom of the beds? This question comes up often and then answer to that is yes and no. With the two original beds I put together I did line the bottom with cardboard before I filled it up. However, I do feel that this is largely unnecessary and I dont think it really serves a purpose.
Would you use screws rather than nails to construct these next time? I was surprised at how well the nails held up with the original two that I constructed and so I continued to use nails with the rest that I have built. The fact is, I suppose screws would hold better in the long run but that brings up the cost significantly since you need quite a lot of screws for each one. I used drywall nails that I had laying around for the first few and some roofing nails for the rest and they seem to hold up just fine.
Phew! Its been a busy week with the holiday, normal chores, and getting our "new" camper trailer ready to take up north this week. Now, everyone who lives in Michigan knows what we do, but for those of you who do not live in Michigan, we like to go up north every chance we can. Whats up north, you ask? Lakes, campgrounds, seasonal resort towns, trails, rivers, cabins, and a whole lot of nothing, too. You cant ask for a more relaxed, laid-back vacation than in northern Michigan and its Upper Peninsula. Torch Lake, UH-mazing. If you havent been, you should visit Torch Lake at least once in your life. And Copper Harbor, there are no words to describe that part of our state. Its perfect and gorgeous and just so awesome up there.
So, I have been patiently watching the slow progress of our square foot gardens over the past few weeks. I cannot tell a lie, we are not impressed by their growth. I honestly think our aquaponics system may have ruined us for gardening in dirt. Notice the 8-inch tall tomato plants in the square foot beds above. Now, look at this baby.......
Almost 4-feet tall! This tomato plant was started from a clipping of a tomato plant growing in our aquaponics system. All of our cloned tomato plants are flourishing, and fruiting. My husband calls it his Clone Army....he thinks hes so funny. Heres another one of our pride and joys.
It has been cooler here in Michigan than whats normal for this time of year, so maybe thats why the garden is slow to grow. But we are enjoying the benefits of not weeding and the moisture retention in our square foot garden beds, thats for sure.
Would love to hear from readers about your garden growth so far! Anyone out there square foot farmin?
This post has been shared at: Homestead Barn Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, Simple Saturdays Blog Hop, Natural Living Monday
The chickens are almost four months old now. They have been healthy, and seem to be very happy. The automatic waterer and feeder in the coop have been working out great, so great in fact, we took a four-day vacation last week and didnt have to ask a neighbor to feed them.
ISA Brown chickens are known for their high egg production, approximately 300 eggs per year per chicken. Because we were told they wouldnt start laying until they are around six months old, we never check their nest boxes. Last night, Todd and I walked out to the coop to close them in for the night. Todd opened the nest box lid for the first time in awhile and discovered 14 eggs! We were shocked! The girls came screaming out of the house they were so excited.
They do seem to have faces only a mother could love. And this one appears to have cataracts already or something. But we do love them and are very grateful for the eggs they are now providing.
We hope this encourages anyone out there contemplating raising chickens in a subdivision, or small backyard. If we can do it, anyone can.
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Still sleepy but couldnt wait to check for eggs this morning.
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This post has been shared at: The HomeAcre Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, The Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Front Porch Friday
Its been a really long time since Ive done an update on the greenhouse so I put together a video show the various plants that are growing the summer.
Hello Everyone,
I’m a bit overdue with an update on the aquaponic setup in the Harbor Freight greenhouse.
Cucumbers love the heat. These older leaves have some brown spots from aphids but the rest of the vines have grown up into the cross braces and make a really nice canopy area. This year I’m only growing the smaller pickling cukes. They grow fast, produce a lot of fruit, and are resistant to powdery mildew. Last year we had 264 cukes from 2 plants and are on target to have a higher yield this year!
The cherry tomatoes are also doing very well. This one plant has huge clusters that contain about 50 tomatoes each. There are about 250 pieces on this one plant with more areas starting to flower. The clusters have gotten so heavy that I had to tie each one up to the main support line so that they don’t tear themselves off of the stalk.
Last year I grew an heirloom tomato called Brandy Wine. They were huge and delicious, but were prone to cracking and getting mold in the cracks. This year I’m trying Amish Paste tomatoes. I like them much better since they are far smaller and haven’t been cracking. The vines probably produce the same amount of weight, but there is a higher quantity spread out over time. There are 2 plants in the greenhouse and they are on target to produce 50 tomatoes each.
Each year I grow a couple of bell peppers. They grow well, but don’t produce any more than a few peppers each, which is on par with our regular garden.
This is the second year I’ve tried growing eggplant. They grow well and produce flowers. Then the leaves start turning white and the plants eventually die off. I’m not sure what is cause of it is.
It’s too hot during the summer to grow lettuce so I let this one plant go to seed. It will produce more than enough seeds to use for the fall planting and also for next spring.
The strawberries were also done producing in the spring. They are now sending out runners which I will let them take root, producing more plants for next year. Once I get enough runners, I will start cutting any others back so that the energy will stay in the main plant.
In the original 8-inch tube grow beds, I planted carrots again. This time I’m trying a Danver’s half-long variety instead of the standard length. Hopefully they won’t hit the bottom again!
The automation system is still working well including the 6-way sequencing valve. The automatic fish feeder is also working well with just a few signs of rust. The fish are fed just the right amount based on the water temperature.
Thanks for watching. I’ll leave you with some underwater footage of the fish. Please subscribe to receive updates about future videos!
A quick update on the Geodesic Dome Greenhouse project. The site clearing is nearly done. The hardwoods will be used as firewood. Some of the pines will be cut into lumber while the rest will be ground-up and used as ground cover and erosion control. Next step, stump removal and then the foundation!
Site before clearing trees.
Site after clearing the majority of the trees.
130 +/- year-old tree. Each tack is 10 years. Where were you in 1880?
We have loved having this pool heater available to boost the pool temps a bit in the spring and fall. It has worked great although over the last year and a half has lost some efficiency. Taking the advice of some great feedback on the first build I am going to try a few new ideas with this and see if I cant get a more efficient heat transfer and boost the temps up even more!
The most common feedback I received was "Why dont you wrap the copper tubing around the outside of the barrel?" This is a great idea and one that I had considered before I started the first version of the pool heater. I ended up deciding to put the tubing on the inside of the barrel because I wanted it to be engulfed in the flame with no tubing exposed to the outside air and I also didnt like the look of the tubing on the outside. In the end this is what I have found...
The coil on the inside is much more efficient at absorbing the heat; however, it does not hold up as well over time since it collects soot and creosote over time and becomes less efficient. Overall this is the best approach but you will need to take the coil out each year and clean it up.
The second approach was to wrap the coil around the outside of the barrel. This also works very well but in order for it to be most efficient it will need to be covered in some sort of insulation to keep the heat around the tubing. I noticed that the outside area of the tubing is actually working like a heat sink and cooling the outer side. With good insulation wrapped around the barrel with the tubing in between the heat would be trapped and provide the best heat exchange to the water. I am currently looking for some good outdoor insulation that I can use for this application.
In the meantime I have both the coil on the outside and the one on the inside in use and the temps I am getting are fairly close to what I had when I first started the project last year.
This has been such a fun project to work on and experiment with and I am excited for the winter season so I can test its use heating my garage again! Stay tuned for updates on that and thanks for stopping by!
Soldering equipment -
Spark start torch head - http://amzn.to/1BMl54f Mapp Gas cylinder - http://amzn.to/14G5DdF 1/2"-3/4" pipe and fitting cleaner combo tool - http://amzn.to/1BSy2ao Tight spaces pipe cutter - http://amzn.to/1y0INKD Pipe cutter - http://amzn.to/1xP2qDj Lead free solder - http://amzn.to/1wGPqvL Flux - http://amzn.to/1yPxXqA
The Vogelzang single barrel kit can be purchased here - http://tinyurl.com/onurub9
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