Last Saturday, I stopped by Valley Nursery to pick up some plants for the indoor aquaponics system that I just finished building. I bought small packs of red romaine, red leaf lettuce, and bok choi. I wanted to also find a basil and dwarf cherry tomato, but they are ordering for folks who plant outside. It's just too chilly here in the Pacific Northwest to plant those sun-lovers outside yet. So, I'll have to keep looking for those.
Here are the plants in the indoor aquaponics system. I planted them in 5-inch net pots. I've also got three Smartpots with mini-bell peppers that I grew from seed that I bought from Territorial a few years back.
I chose to fill pots with Hydroton instead of just dumping the Hydroton into the grow bed and planting directly in that. Because this system is indoors, I want to be able to easily pull the plants out so I can wipe down the grow bed if it starts to get slimy (and smelly).
I chose to fill pots with Hydroton instead of just dumping the Hydroton into the grow bed and planting directly in that. Because this system is indoors, I want to be able to easily pull the plants out so I can wipe down the grow bed if it starts to get slimy (and smelly).
I had some plants left, so I planted them out in the hoop house. Here are the lettuces. In the middle of this pot is a chinese cabbage that I planted a few weeks ago. Oh, and look, there's a tiny volunteer tomato coming back from last year's crop.
You can see that I've been dealing with slugs. One of the great perks of growing indoors will be the absence of those pests. We have free-range hens so I can't put out poison. Instead, I just go out at dusk and hunt for them. The extra bok choi plants are sharing other containers that also contain garlic, Walla Walla onions, and arugula.
You can see that I've been dealing with slugs. One of the great perks of growing indoors will be the absence of those pests. We have free-range hens so I can't put out poison. Instead, I just go out at dusk and hunt for them. The extra bok choi plants are sharing other containers that also contain garlic, Walla Walla onions, and arugula.
Last night, I was noticing that the plants in the aquaponics system appeared to be larger and more lush. So, I got out my trusty tape measure. The plants in the aquaponics system are a quarter-inch taller than the ones in the hoop house -- same plants, planted at the same time. Of course, to be a truly scientific study, I'd have to hold all variables, such as light and temperature, constant so I could measure the true impact of circulating the fish water past the roots of the aquaponic plants. But, I'd say the other variables are somewhat similar in this case. The hoop house stays pretty warm and we've had sun up until yesterday. I do have high hopes though that the grow light I purchased for the aquaponics system will really boost vegetable growth.
Here's a picture of what's going on inside the hoop house. I bought this from Steve's Greenhouses in Castle Rock, Washington about 6 years ago.
We had originally built it at our farm in Sandy, Oregon. When we moved to Kitsap County four years ago, we disassembled the hoop house and tossed it into the moving truck.
It has fared very nicely. We do pressure wash it each year to remove the build-up of green gunk that coats most garden sheds in the Pacific Northwest. Next year, I expect I'll have to replace the plastic as it's becoming brittle.
There are a lot of baby plants coming up from seed in the pots right now. I've also got some plants that stick around year to year: blueberries, strawberries, sage, lavender, chives, and strawberries.
We had originally built it at our farm in Sandy, Oregon. When we moved to Kitsap County four years ago, we disassembled the hoop house and tossed it into the moving truck.
It has fared very nicely. We do pressure wash it each year to remove the build-up of green gunk that coats most garden sheds in the Pacific Northwest. Next year, I expect I'll have to replace the plastic as it's becoming brittle.
There are a lot of baby plants coming up from seed in the pots right now. I've also got some plants that stick around year to year: blueberries, strawberries, sage, lavender, chives, and strawberries.
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