Banana Peel

Well it’s been a while since my last post mainly because not much exciting has happened in the Tiny Mansion Aquaponically speaking.

I did a couple of hard ware changes which has improved the timing of my pump. The first upgrade is a digital timer for my on/off pump sequence. I had been using a $4 analog timer which has 15 min increments which are closer to 18-24 min increments. Not ideal… Online if found a 20 on/off per day digital timer which is proving to work out great, and it was less than 20 bucks. The other change I did was shorten the stand pipe which drains my grow bed to a height which prohibits the water to ever completely inundate the gravel. This is something I should have done from the get go, but in my eagerness I completely looked over it.

My fish are doing very well. Only 1 death in the past 3 weeks, and I even nursed a sick fish back to health by isolating it and giving the water a good dose of salt. The rest of the fish are enthusiastically eating and noticeably growing in size. One of the two survivors from the original batch of fish has about doubled in size and is probably 3 inches long.



The plants are not making such leaps and bounds. Things are alive, but are not growing well at all. I think this is due to too little nutrients for too many plants. I have been thinning some of the sprouts, but I think I will have to become more drastic with this, and I will also hopefully be able to get a few more fish soon. I have been having some graying of my arugula and I don’t exactly know what is causing this. My newest hypothesis is potassium deficiency. So to help counter this, I buried a banana peal below my input pipes. A lot of folks who have AP systems do this, so hopefully this helps.

Ok, onto the dirt garden. I installed 50’ of soaker hose through the garden that seems to be doing a good job of getting water to most of the garden. The garlic continues to grow well and I am starting to see lettuce, peas and arugula come up. In the west end of the garden there are a lot of seedlings that I didn’t plant and I think they are volunteer tomatoes from ground fall ‘maters from last year. They are growing in my melon and dill bed, and I am going to make sure they are not either of those before I pull them.

My seedlings are also thriving and about ready to put outside. Hopefully next weekend the weather forecast will show that we are past the below freezing nights so I can put my tomatoes and cucumbers in the dirt.

Next weekend I am also going to get home horse manure for an added nutrient boost! I'll make sure to get photos of collecting manure!