Windowfarm update

Hey everyone!  It's been a while since my last update, and I've been seeing some great growth in my windowfarm recently, so here's an update.

The Basil is growing pretty slowly.  It's on the top shelf of the windowfarm, so maybe it's not getting as much light as the rest of the plants.

The parsley is jumping out, stretching towards the window!

The Rosemary plant is growing strong.  This one was bought from Home Depot a few weeks ago, so it was already growing.  I've been using it in some recipes too.  I threw some sprigs into the slow cooker with some pulled pork that I cooked last night.  It turned out incredible.

The Strawberry plant is growing well, too.  The leaves are getting bigger, and I've seen a bunch of flowers bloom.  The white flower petals fall off, and it looks like a baby strawberry.  I've never grown strawberries before, so I'm not sure if these will get bigger and turn into strawberries or not.

I used the green onions this morning on pulled pork grilled cheese sandwiches (might be my new favorite grilled cheese variation).  I had started them from some green onions that I got at the supermarket.  I cut them a few times, so they weren't growing back very big anymore, so I pulled them to make room for something else.

The lavender doesn't seem to be doing too well.  These guys shot up pretty quickly, and then kind of stagnated.  I'm not sure if they're getting too much light next to the window, or not enough because they're down in the solo cup.

The parsley on the window sill is doing awesome too!

Lana got a Venus Fly Trap that is starting to open up!

I also switched out the airline tubing and the one-way check valve for my airlift.  The thin airline tubing was getting clogged with the solid waste from the fish tank.  Also, the check valve was clogged, and barely working, so not very much water was getting to the plants.  I'm not so sure that the airlift is capable of filtering the solids in the tank, so I'm considering adding a water filter as well.

Arduino Controlled Aquaponics

If you haven't seen this video yet, check it out.

Eric Maundu is an engineer in West Oakland who uses Arduino controllers to automate his aquaponics gardens. It's a pretty impressive setup in an otherwise barren industrial lot.  A friend of mine, Donna Raef, visited with Eric at his garden in January.  She had this to say about her visit:

"He is dedicated to technology more than aquaponics so it took me a bit off guard when at first he said he didn't care about farming or aquaponics. He only has one aquaponic system going and he monitors it through a computer system that tracks all kinds of levels, takes pictures, etc and compiles the data. It was a very impressive system.  His philosophy seemed to be geared toward educating kids about science, math and technology through aquaponic systems with this kind of data collection. He has after school programs and other educational programs in some of the schools. It was a really good way to see farming/food production from that angle. He was pessimistic about just using aquaponics alone to inspire people to grow food or to get kids interested in it. His focus was really on the technology of gathering information and trying to make it more productive through technology. I am going to put him in contact with the greenhouse I worked at in Amarillo and hopefully he can come out there and teach the kids some stuff about the technology/aquaponics--he seemed really interested in that idea. I forgot to take a picture, sorry!"

Thanks Donna!

Largest Vertical Farm in the Nation using Aquaponics

I came across this story on reddit.com.  The nation's largest vertical greenhouse is located in Chicago, IL, and they're using aquaponic gardens!  It's pretty awesome that aquaponics is being used on such a large scale.  It really reinforces my goals of making a career out of spreading this amazing process.  The photographs from the farm are stunning.  Seeing such a huge aquaponics system climbing 20-30 feet vertically in an indoor facility is truly inspiring.  The facility is run by FarmedHere, who's name you may have already seen in Whole Foods if you live in Chicago, IL.

"Nearly 100% of supermarket lettuces in the US come from just 2 places, near Salinas, California in the summer, and Yuma, Arizona in the winter.  These lettuces travelled 3000 miles to reach the local grocery store here." - Paul Lightfoot, CEO, BrightFarms

Well, that's not the case in Chicago, anymore.

New Growth in my Windowfarm!

I was pleasantly surprised to see my strawberry plant flowering yesterday!

I'm also seeing some growth in the Basil planted in the windowfarm.

The green onions are doing really well, and I cut one to mix with my eggs for breakfast this morning.  This marks the first time I've eaten anything that I've grown.  Awesome!

The lavender on my windowsill is also starting to grow.

My little garden is coming to life!  My betta, Tarzan, is happy!  Our frog Henri is happy!  Our cat, Alex, is happy!  And, I'm super happy!

BrightFarms has a really cool business model

I recently found out about a New York City based company called BrightFarms that has a really cool, unique business model.  They "finance, design, build and operate greenhouse farms at or near supermarkets."  So basically, they're creating hyper-local food sources for various supermarkets.

They're working with McCaffrey's Supermarket in Yardley, PA, which is only about 20 minutes from my house.  I drive by the greenhouses on the way to work every morning.  This is pretty darn exciting to see something like this happening in my area.  I'm planning on moving to north New Jersey, and then to NYC in the next year or two, and I'd love to try to work with BrightFarms.  They're doing great things!

Here's a TED talk from Paul Lightfoot, BrightFarms' CEO.

Can you imagine supermarkets across the country with greenhouses on the roofs?  How cool would that be?

105 Gallon Apartment System - Assembling the Frame

 Tonight I had time to stop over +Evgeny Pogorelov's house after work and we assembled the frame that will hold our 105 gallon aquaponics farm for his bedroom.  The total cost so far is about $250, and we still need pumps, piping, media, and fish.  Estimated cost is about $350 for the entire system.  It is also larger than we need, so we could fit a second 55 gallon fish tank, and a second 50 gallon stock tank on the frame.  Pogo moves out of his apartment in September, so we'll decide where it will go, and if we'll upscale at that point.

We started with the shelves that we made last weekend, painted and ready to be assembled.

Here's our 50 gallon stock tank and 55 gallon aquarium.

Attaching wheels

Not too difficult at all

DRILL!

Assembled!

Moving it into it's future home

The frame was build larger than necessary to allow us to make the system larger in the future.

Thanks +Evgeny Pogorelov.

ZipGrow Towers are Awesome!

Since I've started learning about aquaponics, one of the coolest technologies that I've seen is the ZipGrow towers, made by Bright Agrotech.  They're a way to grow vertically, with hydroponics or aquaponics.  The idea looks very simple.  It's one of those, "Why didn't I think of that," kind of ideas.

The ZipGrow tower looks like a square fence post with a 2-inch slit cut down one face long-ways.  A long strip of polymer foam with very large pores is folded in half, and inserted into the post.  The plants roots grow in between the folded foam, and water drips from the top of the post down the foam, watering all the plants roots.  They have some amazing results with these things on their farms in Wisconsin.  Good for these guys!