Working in the greenhouse
I've been working on the interior of the greenhouse for the past week, a bit at a time. I can only do so much before my lower back starts protesting too much, but I'm making progress anyway. I've been removing the topsoil and replacing it with gravel for better weed control and so I can put in pavers for the main walkway. Along with that, I've been planting tomato plants in big pots along the south wall of the greenhouse. These plants will stay in the greenhouse all summer. They like the heat, and they get more of it in the greenhouse, especially at night. The greenhouse doesn't cool off as fast as the rest of the garden.
I use 15 gallon greenhouse pots, the heavy duty ones, for the tomato plants. I've learned that anything smaller doesn't have enough room for the root system and requires a lot more feeding, which leads to other problems. I got a good deal on a couple of 20 gallon pots that the hydroponics store wanted to get rid of, so I bought them, even though they're bigger than the other pots and don't fit in with the 15 gallon ones. I'm a bit obsessive that way...
On the left hand side of this picture you can see a couple of my 5 gallon self watering buckets that I made several years ago. Those have sweet banana peppers in them. The pepper plants don't seem to need as much dirt space, so they grow well in a 5 gallon bucket. As you can see, I have more work to do on the floor on that end of the greenhouse.
My aquaponics setup is not very big yet because I still have all the other tomato plants in the small pots waiting to be planted outside when the weather clears up. As you can see, the cherry tomato plant that I put into the aquaponics planter box is doing really well. It must like all that water being available to the roots. The marigolds are waiting to go out with the tomato plants. They get planted in between the tomatoes to repel some of the tomato bugs. It seems to work pretty well.
Anyway, that's my greenhouse update for now. :-)
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Looks great, I love the tomatoes I get from my aquaponics and they usually grow quicker for me than in dirt.
My cherry tomato certainly seems to be growing faster in the aquaponics setup than the tomatoes that I have planted in dirt. I don't know if I have enough fish in the tank to produce the amount of nutrients necessary for several tomato plants, they can suck up a lot of nutrients.
Yeah if all that's in your pond is a few goldfish you might want to supplement. I think I will have to supplement this year due to losing a few large koi last fall, I hope by using organic foliar feed I can avoid nitrite spikes in the pond. I always supplement iron in the aquaponics, I strongly recommend putting an old piece of iron somewhere in your tank to slowly rust and dissolve.
A piece of iron in the water sounds like a good idea. I'll have to try that.
Looks like a nice clean setup. What do you have stocked for aquaponics? I've always wanted to do a system but never got around to it.
I just have goldfish in the tank. They can handle the cold water and I just feed them pond goldfish food. I thought about growing talipa but they're a tropical fish and need warmer water. I have no desire to heat the water to 70 or so degrees just to raise them, that costs more than I'd want to spend on this setup.
Agreed. I am interested to know how you've set up your greenhouse along with the aquaponics and hope to see more posts soon. Have a bountiful harvest!
I like how organized you have everything. You've got a lot going on in a small space, but it doesn't seem like it would feel cramped to work in there. Oh, and the flooring choice is well thought out. A little extra work upfront to save a lot of hassle later on is so worth it! Well done!
Thanks!
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