my pilot project francois

[Pugo]

Looking good :) My beans looked like they died for a while but now they are coming back as the weather has gotten nice again and it is not so hot here.

[francois]

Hi All

Rekords of my system from day 1

From this you can see what I have added how much and when....not 100% but very close to actual
I have been watching the plant growth and that seems fine for now…very new system
The ph....I check every now and then....has stayed constant
The fish are eating and happy, the worms in my worm sump are good.
The duckweed is doing well….
Yust me thinking

[francois]

Hi All
Some photos of how the plants are doing…

[Pugo]

WOW !!! Those are some beautiful roots you have on your plants.. you have me thinking about making a few changes to my system. like putting removing my media and putting in rafts..:)

[francois]

Hi all
Some photos I took today…
Plants are all growing like mad….not all happy….. The beans don’t seem to mind these/my system start up conditions because they look good ….
I have been adding calcium over the last few days…slowly…
I am still adding 2-4 litre’s vermin-tea over +- 7 days
I added a few new baby’s to the system…sent my wife for small gold fish to put into my two bottom duckweed trays to help with the mozzyyyyyyyyyyys………..lots
The wife came home with 15 small Kio so I put them in the two trays 7 in one and 8 in the other.
The snail are still around ……..
As far as the system running I am very happy with the min maintenance I need to do.
The one thing I am going to change is the fish tank ibc….????????
I want to use a round tank of the same volume
Round with centre outlet……never have to worry with cleaning
Yust me thinking

[Pugo]

Well the vegetables are looking good, A round tank Huh? Well you still have to clean it. honestly it isn't hard but you still have to run a brush around it once in a while, I do it about once every two weeks. knock down the small amount of algae that grow on the tank walls. I have never had an IBC so I don't know how much of a problem it is..

[francois]

With my pilot project that was from +-2007-2010 +- 3years I never had to clean this dam
The moving water did it all.....100% clean all the time any time of day and night 24/7
The dam was covered under shade cloth all the time
When you do this on a big scale I believe it becomes a must for low maintenance
and for me this worked very well
Yust me thinking

the new 15 kio

[francois]

Hi all
Some photos I took today…
Yust me thinking

[francois]

Some photos I took today…
Yust me thinking

[Joey]

Great looking system Francois. Your plant growth is excellent. However what type of plastic did you use to make those long DWC trays and is is expensive.

Thanks

Joey

[francois]

Hi Joey
the roll of hdpe came in a roll of 6x30 meters and 2 mm thick.
very cheap and easy to make these grow trays....
this complete system cost me very little to put together
in our money +-R12.000
trays R3000 for plastic and my labour
dam R6000.00
and all rthe pvc pipes the difference
cheap cheap but worked well

[francois]

Hi Joey
here you can see i re used the same hdpe trays with my smaller system in my back yard
3543

[francois]

Hi All
Update on the plants
I want to plant 25 pepper seeds today
I want to start replacing these plant in the system with peppers
All these plants I have been using as a guide to their growth and
What I needed to add and when I saw the asking for it
I need to learn to recognise the needs signs of the plants
For now they are doing what they are there for...the fish
I am battling to get potassium here so I have been using bananas and now also adding
A wood ash water mixture
Today I added wood ash mixture to the system how much??????
I will add slowly over time
I will check the fish and plants and PH/alkalinity……
but hoping to see the difference in the plants and then stopping
Yust me thinking

[vihalvor]

well.. your lettuce looks fantastic...as with all the others that obviously are getting direct sun...

can only say.. good work !!! :D

[francois]

The way I do my PH check is very simple and cheap I think
I started of using the test kit Ph tablets and soon to find the checks are expensive.
So I started using normal pool PH testing …5 drops
This pool test I would then compared colour wise to the testing kit tablet solution that is more accurate.
If my tablet test was PH 7.0 I would compare that reading to the colour of the pool kit.
The tablet test would be my guide in the beginning but later I only used the pool test.
Now I am using a third test, the strips for spa or pool, but these I use when I do alkalinity and hardness adjustments to guide me how much calcium I have to add to maintain a constant alkalinity and hardness in my size system.
This will also go out the door with experience.... and time
I am keeping better record of what where when of this system
With my pilot system I never had time to concentrate on finer detail
Now I am
Cheap and works for me
Yust me thinking

3606

[francois]

the records for november
what was added when and in what form
Yust me thinking

[francois]

the records for november
what was added when and in what form
all dates refer to the ph sheet
Yust me thinking

[GaryD]

Hi Francois,

I always look forward to your updates.


the roll of hdpe came in a roll of 6x30 meters and 2 mm thick.
very cheap and easy to make these grow trays....
this complete system cost me very little to put together
in our money +-R12.000
trays R3000 for plastic and my labour
dam R6000.00
and all rthe pvc pipes the difference
cheap cheap but worked well
Your grow beds are a good example of what you can achieve for very little money......and a lot more effort. A great example of innovation.

[francois]

Thank you Gary
I look forward to reading new post on your forum
363136323633
Hi all
Update on the plants and fish
The fish are happy and they are on a diet of duckweed worms and Kio food
Checking all the time that they are eating what I feed.
The plants look ok
Yust me thinking

[francois]

the peppers

[francois]

the rest

[Joey]

Hi Francois

Your system is certainly producing healthy plants, it all looks great.

Regards

Joey

[francois]

oops

the peppers

[francois]

nice white healthy root system

[GaryD]

Hi Francois,

Your plants look very healthy indeed.......and your new system reflects the same sort of innovation and productivity that was a hallmark of your previous one.

Gary