Issue 29
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Table of Contents:
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1. Check out this new hydroponics hobby site
Since ordering you book "How to Start on a Shoestring and Make a Profit from Hydroponics" (see http://www.mayhillpress.com), I have started to pursue a business venture in hydroponics. I have created a web site that currently contains only hobby information at the moment. It is a work in progress, so I do not have much at all up on it yet, but wanted to show you and others what is possible in small systems. I later intend to grow much bigger and with different systems.
One thing I am going to add is the greenhouse control system I am working on. It will allow me to make adjustments to the nutrient tanks and plants from anywhere in the world via the Internet. My dosers are a couple of surplus PCA medical pumps I am hacking to control conductivity and pH control.
Please check out my site a http://www.LouisianaHydroponics.com
Thanks,
Brian Gracia
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2. Interested in wildflowers? Here's a new site.
Though this subject has little to do with hydroponics, I just couldn't resist giving the site a boost as it is very comprehensive and wildflowers have been and still are to a degree one of my passions. ...Bob Saffell
Catch it at (http://www.easywildflowers.com). Unfortunately our readers from abroad will not get too much out of this because the site is devoted to Midwestern and Eastern United States.
Easyliving Wildflowers provides native wildflower seed for with color photographs, species growing requirements, natural distribution, hardiness zones, and information on invasive plants, he problems they cause, and methods of control. Wildflower seeds are our business, but our dream is to introduce native wildflower growing practices to property owners everywhere thereby providing essential native food sources for wildlife, especially butterflies, hummingbirds, and songbirds. We are also hopeful that our site will assist those who are interested in starting a wildflower garden to get over the initial hurdles associated with landscaping and gardening.
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3. Build a simple Aztec or Inca floating hydroponic garden and other interesting information
A. If you're interested in floating hydroponic gardens, try an idea that is more than 500 years old. Yes, the Aztecs and Incas had them that long ago and most likely many hundreds of years prior to that. I think I read somewhere that Mexico City was once an island on a floating mass of reeds and mud in the center of a large lake.
Anyway, find out how to do it yourself on a much smaller scale at the following site: http://liveoak.ifas.ufl.edu/float_system.htm
B. In Dade City Fl, Hans Geissler practices his religion through his Morning Star Fishermen, a ministry set up to teach people how to raise tilapia and grow hydroponic food along with the fish. He hopes to show people, namely the poor, how to feed themselves and/or be in business for themselves.
C. Think you live in too harsh a climate to do hydroponics? Consider Bay Produce. This commercial grower does very well for itself in its location at Superior, WI, a town on the banks of Lake Superior where winter is not an easy thing to endure.
D. Want to construct your own NFT gullies? Here's an example of how to go about it. First of all, don't scrimp. Get the best in lumber and plastic. The plastic should be what is known as Panda film. This material will be able to resist the corrosion of the nutrient passing over it.
A wide gully gives room for mature plants. So make the bottom board about 10 ft x 9 inches x 3/4 inch. The side and end boards should be 2 1/2 inches by 3/4 inch. Two of these boards should be ten feet long while the two end boards should be 2 1/2 inches x 10 1/2 inches x 3/4 inch.
Use a good primer for sealing the bottom and side and end boards.
Screw the boards together with stainless steel screws (to resist corrosion).
Finally line the inside of the trough with the Panda film. Now you need a cover. Any type of light boarding will do just so it is free from toxics such as asbestos. Cement-fiber sheeting does well for a cover.
Now you're ready to drill some holes in which to place plants.
This is just an example of what can be done. Lots of commercial growers use PVC pipe and or troughs which are obtainable from suppliers.
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4. Tropical hydroponics: Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana)
Suriname on the North South American coast has plenty of natural beauty but very little arable soil. So it made good sense to a company named Ingo and Rosita to begin a venture in hydroponics and aquaponics. With hydroponics they intend to raise pak choy and lettuce. With aquaponics they intend to grow shrimp. All in one floating hydroponic nutrient system array.
With success from this venture the company intends to also expand into growing pharmaceutical and exotic plants.
he company started out with two empty warehouses comprising 15,000 square feet. They took the roof off each warehouse and recovered with 30% shade cloth to allow ample sunlight to filter through. The interior walls were then painted white to reflect sunlight back onto the growing area.
As an aside here, some of my readers have asked about converting buildings to hydroponic or even aquaponic uses. Here then is a prime example of how to do it. However, each situation differs according to climate in your area. My suggestion would be to replace the roofing with plastic film as in the usual greenhouse structure. Shade cloth, unless you live in the deep south, shouldn't be necessary.
Floating raceways was the design that the Ingo and Rosita company decided to use. These raceways were to rest upon concrete blocks. With the help of a hydroponic consultant living in Miami, Florida, they came up with the following setup.
Concrete blocks for support were laid out upon the existing concrete floor. The entire floor has to be covered with plastic in order for the nutrient to reach all plants. Also the impermeable plastic must reach all the way up the four sides to keep the nutrient in. Such a set up will entail a lot of initial nutrient but can be easily aerated and replaced with pumps. The Japanese have been doing it for years. Seem my book at: http://www.mayhillpress.com/hydroponics.html
Each 1000 foot raceway was 2 and 1/2 feet wide and 2/3 foot deep. These raceways were then wide enough to hold growing boards made of Styrofoam. These boards will float down the raceways when the nutrient has been fully installed. The boards will have holes 1 and 1/2 inches wide drilled at appropiate distances from each other. Paper sleeves are inserted into the holes to support the seedlings
When planting time comes, the first board is planted with its quota of seedlings. A rope is attached to its far end and then its is pushed down the raceway. Subsequent boards are also fully planted and pushed down after the first board. When harvest time comes, all the worker has to do is to pull on the long rope attached to the first board now at the far end of the raceway. This in turn will pull each board to the worker who harvests the crop, takes out the board and pulls on the rope again to fetch another crop-filled board.
Simple but very efficient. The harvested boards are cleaned and made ready for another planting. But I know for certain some of you will email me and want to know more detail. This is the detail as well as it can be given without pictures.
But do picture this: each raceway is 1000 feet long and 30 inches wide. So it depends on the size of the building how long they will be and how many of them there will be resting side by side. Actually the width of the raceway depends upon the width of the Styrofoam growing boards your supplier can furnish.
The wooden sides of the raceways must be water treated with non-toxic water-resistant material in order to last for a suitable period of time.
You will need large nutrient tanks and suitable pumps for pushing nutrient and for constant aeration. Aside from that it's really a fairly simple proposition. But back to the operation in Suriname.
The company in Suriname had to install a reverse osmosis unit to eliminate some of the high sodium salts in the local water supply. This they then mixed half and half with the regular water supply which made the resultant water better suited to grow plants.
Chillers had to be installed inside nutrient tanks to keep the liquid temperature down to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Ingo and Rosita's tanks were 1000 gallons in size which usually operated at a capacity of around 700 gallons.
Seedling trays were strictly NFT and grown to two inches in height before being transplanted to the growing boards in the raceways. EC (electrical conductivity) is held at 2.0, pH at 6.8. Sulfuric acid (a local staple item) is used to control the pH.
Shrimp are being added to the system after they have been acclimatized to the nutrient solution.
All in all, the system set up by the company in Suriname seems to be a happy working venture.
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5. Decollate snails - beneficial insect of the month
Slugs as well as garden snails (brown) can be controlled with the decollate snail. Daytime finds the decollate snail inhabiting the top layers of moist soil and also under rocks. When night comes they climb to the surface and search out masses of eggs put down by slugs and garden snails. They will also take on the adult garden snail but rarely prevail because the garden snail always goes back inside its shell.
Decollate snails not only prey on the above but also dine on plant material which has begun to rot. They do not eat plants which are alive.
Decollate snails lay almost 200 eggs every year and you only need one snail to do it. Of course you will need more, according to the area you intend to cover. Decollate snails live for anywhere from a year to around a year and a half.
Once you have released decollate snails into the intended area and allowed them time to do their work, you will see very few if any garden snails. The garden snails and slugs will soon be under control.
In heavily infested areas it may take nearly four years to clean out brown snails in a given area. So most insectaries which sell decollate snails advise releasing one hundred to take care of the average yard and around one thousand for an acre. It's best to place the snails in several areas, especially in and around organic material.
The beauty of it all is that you never again have to use poisonous chemicals for this particular job.
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6. Think about it...
Do what we can, summer will have its flies.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate.
- Sandra Boynton
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bsaffell@mayhillpress.com...Last Update: 52008 copyright 1996 - 2008 by Hilmur Saffell
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"How to Start on a Shoestring and Make a Profit with Hydroponics"
"Big Dollars Growing Gourmet Salad Greens"
"Beneficial Insects - How to Mass Rear and Make a Profit"
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