My buddy Graham with th SAGE Coallition in Trenton, NJ has started up a makerspace called The Hive. I believe there are at least 5 artists now using their warehouse space to create art, and awesome projects for the community. They have a bunch of IBC tanks, and a few South-facing windows, so Graham started constructing and IBC aquaponics setup. I came over to lend a hand one night and snapped a few photos. Enjoy!
I recently expanded the garden to make room for some more crops. I extended the existing in-ground raised bed, and dug two more. I planted lettuce and carrots in the 1st extension, chard and onions in the 2nd extension, and kale in the 3rd extension. Im seeing a lot of grass pop up in the 2nd extension, rather than chard and onions, but well see how it goes. The lettuce is growing well, and nothing yet in the kale bed. I pulled back the cucumbers, no more of those for this season. Im still harvesting chard, tomatoes, peppers, and sage.
Three new beds dug and planted.
Before the expansion
The basil seems to have some sort of nutrient deficiency. I thought it might be calcium or potassium, so I made a solution of crushed egg shells and water, shook it up well, added some wood ash for potassium, and poured that around the basil roots. It hasnt helped yet after two days. I think the other basil plant looks like it needs nitrogen, so Im going to get some of that in there (biochar charged with pee, or just pee).
Sad Basil
Happy Tomatoes
Fermenting Wood Chips for Stropharia
Hopefully Ill be seeing these in my garden soon!
Ive been interested in mycology for years, experimenting with oyster mushrooms, lions mane, and listening to lectues by Paul Stamets in my free time. I even got to see Paul talk at Burning Man in 2013. I saw him talk again in Philadelphia in 2014, and one of the things he talked about was his "mycototes." Its a system where he ferments wood chips, submerged in water, for about a month. Then he drains the water, and the result is a fungus substrate that can be rapidly colonized by mycellium, especially Stropharia, (garden giant, or winecap mushroom). I know some guys starting a gourmet mushroom cultivation business in Philadelphia, who traded me some stropharia spawn on sawdust for some bricks of coco coir that I had. I soaked some woodchips in a trashcan for about a month. The trashcan had a leak, so I had to refill it frequently, and occasionally the water level dropped and left the wood chips unsubmerged. However, the experiment seems to have worked. The fermenting woodchips were colonized with anaerobic bacteria, which died off when exposed to air after draining the wood chips. I filled a burlap sack with the wood chips, mixed in the stropharia spawn, dug a hole behind the shed, and dropped the sack into the hole, and covered it lightly with a tarp. Ive been watering occasionally, and the burlap sack is now filled with mycellium. Ill save some of this for future spawn, and Im going to mix the rest in around the woodchips in my garden. Hopefully well have lots of garden giant mushrooms popping up and going into our dinner!
Beautiful! Look at all that white stringy fungi mycellium.
Drying Herbs
My Girlfriend got me a dehydrator for my birthday, so Ive been drying herbs from my garden and my parents herb spiral. Right now Ive got some thick leaf oregano drying. Fresh herbs in homegrown tomato-basil sauce for the win!
Plans for solar dehydrator
I saw a neighbor of mine was getting rid of some old windows, so I grabbed one and am planning on using it to make a solar dehydrator like these here:
Sprouts
My girlfriend also got me a sprouting kit for my birthday. Sprouts are tasty on sandwiches, and can be grown year-round indoors without light. Super cool!
Back to the Roots sent me a new air pump to replace my original pump that died. They also sent me more zym-bac beneficial bacteria, and a large bag of wheatgrass seeds. They also sent some new instructions that say to place the air pump vertically next to the aquafarm and run the air tube into the aquarium. After setting it up, the water is flowing much better now, and I seeded all 5 pots with wheatgrass. Since my aquafarm doesnt get a lot of light (necessary to grow basil or lettuce), and I drink a lot of smoothies, I wanted to try to grow a bunch of wheatgrass to add to my fruit smoothies. Im glad the water is flowing, and the bacteria will be cleaning the water again. Ill keep updating with the results.
Recently, Bright Agrotech hosted a webinar for people interested in getting into commercial aquaponics. Bright Agrotech is a business in Laramie, Wyoming co-owned by Dr. Nate Storey, who is one of the best sources for information about aquaponics. He posts tons of educational videos that have helped me tremendously.
Heres the Commercial Aquaponics Webinar: http://bit.ly/1dsSXr3
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