Newfarmers - Swanvalley WA System

[newfarmer]

Hi All,

I have been hanging around for a while, and thought it about time to start sharing...

I have various systems running at the moment:
- 6 bed system, 3000L FT (beds currently in a homemade greenhouse)
- 1 Bed system, 1000L FT
- 3 Bed system, 1500L FT

My latest addition (and my pride and joy) is the 3 bed system, and I have set this up as a CHIFT PIST system.

I have used 80mm PVC from the FT to the grow beds, reduced down to 40mm at the beds with ball valves to balance out the flows between the beds. Water from the beds gravity feeds to my old 500L sump from my 6 bed system. A pond pump constantly pumps the water from the sump to the FT, and I have a bypass to feed some water back into the sump if required.

I wanted to trial several things at once, so have also setup different grow media in each of the beds to try and compare, thus have used: hydroton, blue metal, and rainbow stone.

I have kept the beds lower, so my small kids could get more involved with the plants, and I have put covers over all my tanks as my 18mth old was getting a little too involved...

[GaryD]

Hi,

Looks great! More photos needed......particularly inside that greenhouse.

Gary

[Outbackozzie]

And it can look like this :)

http://wa-donaghy.smugmug.com/photos/617597994_ZsaFB-X3.jpg

Tadaa!

[newfarmer]

Bloody card reader has clapped it in :mad:, so I'll post some pics inside the Greenhouse from late July.

I'll post the pics I took yesterday when I get a new card reader...

Greenhouse - 21st July 2009

Things were going well then, but most have doubled over the last few weeks. With the warmer days, I've had to start leaving the greenhouse door open to keep the temps down a bit (was getting over 40deg during the day).

The last pic is the prunings from the tomato plants, so I could get in the door. I have had to do the same several times since...

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Greenhouse_090921a.jpg

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Greenhouse_090921b.jpg

[newfarmer]

Ahh was a computer issue, problem solved...
Here are some more recent pics of my system from yesterday.

Things are starting to happen in the new 3 bed system (installed mid July).

The 1 bed system is my nursery system, currently home for some small SP (approx 100, 2-3inches long). The new 3 bed system has approx 40 trout, and the 6 bed system has approx 110 trout.

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Update 090812a.jpg

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Update 090812b.jpg

[Outbackozzie]

Thats a serious amount of growing space

[GaryD]

Nice photos, nice set up.....congratulations!

Gary

[Bidadisndat]

That's a great set-up. Colour me green!

[carshaw]

Hi
What have you used for your green house?

[newfarmer]

I made the greenhouse frame from 40mm PVC.

I started by putting in star pickets in the ground, and then bending the PVC up between each star picket, and fittings were used to construct the skelleton of the frame.

Here's a pic before the cover went on...

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Greenhouse_Frame1.JPG

To build the cross braces I used T pieces, and cut out a section and snapped them onto the arches.

This year I used split PVC to clip on the cover. Next year I will probably upgrade to the propper stuff (wirelock) now that I'm happy with how the greenhouse performed.

I added 4 pine posts along the centre to tie down the structure, as we get very very strong winds, and to form the doorway (as per earlier pics). The central pole has also bee a good place to hang a light and tools.;)

[newfarmer]

Here are some pics of my home system from October (been a bit slack)...

I have been away from home a bit lately, so the bug management got away from me a bit on the system outside the hoop house.

Have harvested most of the trout, but still have some in the 3000L tank, keeping the 6 bed system going, but may soon have to swap these out also, depending on how quickly the remaining ones start to stress as things warm up...

Trying to keep them as long as possible, as the plants are going great guns.

The cover came off the hoop house a few weeks back, and I should be getting my shade cover this weekend. That should hopefully help to buffer some of the winds I have been getting lately, plants got a bit knocked around last week.

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Update_Oct09_001.JPG

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Update_Oct09_002.JPG

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Trout_Oct09_001.JPG

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Trout_Oct09_002.JPG

[GaryD]

Hi NewFarmer,

You're going great guns. Congratulations on those trout!

Gary

[newfarmer]

Thanks Garry...

Pretty happy with how things have progressed, now starting to get more organised with the planting cycle to keep up the constant flow of produce.

I have plenty of growing space now, so no excuses, but I need to peg back the plants we don't use much, and make more room for the ones we do. Lettuce planting cycle has been working well, but I must say presently our chooks are getting some premo produce also, neighbours are not too un-happy either mind you...

My next plan is to get the power better sorted, currently all the systems are on the same circuit, so planning underway to get things more fool proof, ready for my next extended trip away...

I can then tidy up the leads you see in the pics also...

[newfarmer]

Decided to give Barra a try this year...

With the usually short summer I decided to start them off in a heated tank in my shed.
Here's a pic of the 500L tank I had for the fingerlings (21st Sep10).

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Barra_Fingerling_Tank.JPG

I kept them in the shed until approx November, and then moved them to my outside systems.

[newfarmer]

Harvested my first Barra on the weekend...

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Barra_Apr11_ 010.JPG

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Barra_Apr11_ 014.JPG

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Barra_Apr11_ 018.JPG

Not bad for 7mths work!

Tasted pretty darn good too, and more to come...

http://www.salvarient.com.au/images/_home_system/Barra_Apr11_ 024.JPG

[GaryD]

Hi Newfarmer,

Good to hear from you again. Congratulations on your successful barra harvest.

What's next?

Gary

[luckyb1rd]

this is looking good a big investment I think. :D

[newfarmer]

Thanks Guys...

Yeah it's been a while, and busy times; sold off the original 6 bed system to make way for my own systems.

The greenhouse now is home to 3 different systems:
- 4 bed system, 2 x 1000L FT linked together
- 2 bed system, 1 x 1000L FT
- 1 bed system, 1 x 1000L FT

I have setup the systems with different configurations over the last 12-18mths to experiment on the different results.

Had a huge result with the system I had setup with the pump constantly on, and a back flush back to the FT to provide a whirl pool effect in the FT. The trout in this system went great guns, on average 10-15% heavier than fish in systems that were stocked to the same ratios. Grew my biggest trout yet in that system, 890gm, harvested 31st Oct10 (put in system as fingerling April10).

I have also setup a heated FT in my shed, connected to an external grow bed. Want to try and get some of the remaining Barra through winter, well that is the plan, we'll see...

[GreenFin]

Awesome! Well done!