Yogurt Pot Aquaponics

 So I have a 4-6 lettuce pack/week salad habit, preferably Tanimura Artisan Lettuce.  I've tried sticking the spent heads in the ground or a water bath asap to propagate more, but haven't seen that work that great.  More like in situ composting for rolly pollies.  Kiddo is a pea fiend and I don't know if this has always been true or is a sign of the changing times but it seems nearly impossible to find good fresh peas in shell in the stores, in the farmer's market, anywhere-- it isn't even clear when they are "in season" because they are so hard to find outside of a couple baggies of stir fry mix in the prepackaged convenience food section.  

So I attended a UCCE MG zoom talk about aquaponics.  The speaker suggested using nut containers painted black, but I figured since hubby already has a 2 container/week yogurt habit and we buy nuts in bulk in plastic bags, we would start with yogurt.  Bonus points, not having to paint the sides to exclude algae growth.  

In the spirit of KISS, I also ordered a 20 pack of rockwool, 3" slotted mesh cups, and wicks $16.99; 1 pound Calcium Nitrate $12.99; 1 pound Master Blend $14.99.  So $45ish crafting outlay, somewhere around $1/ yogurt pot if I had saved up a full 10 weeks worth instead of just 6 containers before getting started since the fertilizers could make hundreds of gallons of solution.  Not factored in: cost of 32 oz yogurt $4.79 (we were buying it anyway), hydrocorn experimental medium (already had some), epsom salt (already had some), sugar magnolia pea seeds $4.29 (already had some we wanted to use before germ rates suffer in the following season).  

 

Right, so 9/4/2022 craft:  

1. clean pots and lids
2. mix 5 gallons of fertilizer in solution (2.5 tsp master blend, 2.5 tsp Calcium Nitrate, 1.25 tsp epsom salt)... also in there a bit of kelp extract I was using to try to presoak the peas
3. "drill" holes in the lids to fit the 3" mesh cups through.  Hubby found it easier to use an exacto knife. 
4. thread wicks through bottom of cups.  I used a crochet hook, snapped a couple but didn't seem to impact the structural integrity.
5. install cups in lids in yogurt containers filled to base-ish of net pot with fertilizer solution
6. install plant into rockwool into net cup (I did 2 pea seeds/wool cube)
7. ... hem and haw about whether this will exclude mosquito access with the rockwool not really swelling to take up the full net cup.  Top dress with hydrocorn.  Continue to doubt self.  Keep inside by orchids to monitor and limit mosquito access until plants start to germinate... 

9/7/2022 (3 days later) sprouts emerge in 4 of 6 yogurt containers.

9/13/2022 (9 days later) 2 containers have double sprouts, 1 has normal single sprout, 1 has a stunted single sprout, 2 did not germinate.  The sprouting ones have enough tendrils and length I will need to find trellised homes for them asap.  Kid enjoys raiding their lids for hydrocorns, big mess.  

I took apart the non-germinating 2 and soaked them in bleach.  I allowed most components to dry, but the rockwool was still pretty wet and bleach-smelling 2 days later.  I've tried reloading these with more peas to see what happens-- they have a few hydrocorns to distinguish from the other 7, but not enough to obstruct plant growth.  Also added 5 more  2 pea each containers for a batch 2.  All of these had a streamlined process:  roughly 1 part epsom: 2 parts each of the other ingredients amounting to 1/16th-ish to 1/8th-ish of a tsp in each yogurt container which is probably still way too dense, but I wasn't going to bother with a 5 gallon bucket and then casting around for where to dump the leftover solution.  Didn't kelp or pre-soak these peas.  

9/14 (10 days later) moved the 4 sprouted containers out along the chicken wire fence line by where the pecan tree had been (removed yesterday).  Within a few minutes, the single healthy sprouted one had been taken apart and dragged to middle of area (dogs?)  will see if it rallies when repositioned and anchored with a cement plant border fragment.  

9/17 both bleach rebooted rockwools have sprouted 4 days later.  3/5 pot germination of the new peas with one double germination pot.  Outdoor plants look ok and twined in the fence immediately, except for the stunted sprout scenario.  

9/22/2022-- I think the weather got too hot for the newly sprouted peas I put in the yard.  One double was completely dried out.  Since some had started twining through the wire fence, I improvised a shade structure in front of them with a box.  

10/1/2022-- heat wave over, have moved the improvised box shade structure and still have a decent number still standing.  Moved the 3 functional indoor starts out to the planter bed along the fence line.  The 2 that got a head start on growing have flopped sideways but might put up more vertical runners.  Also rebooted 1 pot with sugar magnolia and started a fresh one with fertilized sugar magnolia.  Used remaining 4 new pots to start a pea seed grow off in fertilized solution of 2 seeds each Tom Thumb (for '23), lillian caseload ('23), sugar magnolia ('22), and tendersweet ('22).  

10/7/2022-- first place in height: 1 Magnolia sprout.  first place in germ rate/second in height: Lillian caseload double sprout.  3rd place: tom thumb-- one, maybe 2 starting to sprout?  4th place: tendersweet.  Noticed that these are a couple days behind the 2 general ones I reloaded with Magnolia and left on the dryer-- perhaps it warms them a bit?  Or they get more/better sun aspect through that window vs. the east desk window.  

10/14/2022-- reloaded the tendersweet peas to see if they would sprout.  put a piece of mosquito bait in all pots.  The most-bad ones were the ones along the gate.  Not sure if that is closer to foot traffic or because I topped them off with contaminated watering can water.  

10/30/2022-- very unimpressive 1.5 tendersweet sprouts.  prepped 8 more yogurt containers but was out of large net pots half way, so trialing two 1.5" nets in the remaining 4 yogurt containers.  

11/3ish?  put some thousand head kales (4) in the pots.  Also created 3 pots with two 1.5" nets each and a tom thumb pea in them + 1 similar spec f-up that has only one 1.5" net.  None of these have wicking rope or mozzie donut in them.  Excited that the special day pumpkin project has put up a flower.  And that Glen Tanaka mentioned in the MG meeting today that he runs strawberries pretty much vert-aquaponically in rain gutters because there is a disease in the soil that severely shortens their productive life.  

12/28 moved the Nardello peppers (plate germ: 11/21.  repotted to dryer soaking tub: 11/27) into 4 yogurt pots from the yard that had failed-- mostly the pea trial.  Failure was more in execution-- some had gotten buried in mud while the pool was excavated, others had tipped by kittens and not been refilled quickly enough.  So the pea trial is not at all scientific, but the Tom Thumbs seem to be doing the best in small spaces with really compact distance between their leaf nodes.  All of them seem to make a few peas and then begin dying off-- I'm not sure if this is a nutritional thing, a verticulum/bacterial thing, or my general negligence.  I noticed the pots with wicks kept the grow medium more hydrated, so I used those first.  But I also think happy plants quickly grow roots down to the water so these may not be necessary if the pot is filled to the brim at initiation and the plant takes off within a few days.  Also rebooted 2 pots (one with a wick, one without) with 2 of the Albion strawberry bare roots.  Idea would be to gift something like this to Cat and Ivy if we ever make it out to AZ.  

1/19 Nardellos are looking good.  Strawberries are looking good.  Added a 2 hole with Burr gherkin seedlings and a 2 hole with the few dill survivors (Fallon learned they were edible and snacked on them several times a day from the seedling tray).