Growbed update 22 June 2014

Growbed is looking very well. The cucumber plant looking like it's going to start flowering soon. I may need to pull out those Water Spinach to let the cabbages grow.

Growbed update 18 June 2014

Seedlings are doing very well. In the growbed (clock wise from left) I have Chinese parsley, Spinach, Japanese Cucumber, Red Spinach ( Amaranthus Dubius), Cabbage, Water spinach & Chinese kale.

I added the pipe extension from the pre filter outlet to avoid splashes from hitting and injuring some of the seedlings.

I have had major deaths of my catfish due to unknown reasons, my guess it could be the hydroton being new and was not sufficiently washed. Wife insisted it's because I didn't start the system with ammonia this time around. Could be right.

System Reset

The frame was damaged in a storm few months ago so I had to harvest and switch off the system. Finally had time last weekend to to clean things up  so I took the opportunity to reset and redo the setup. The frames are no more and I opted for simpler, low profile setup for better structural stability. I need to get me more LECA!

3inches of growth in 1 week!

The Habanero plants are really taking off! I estimated 3 inches of growth on the biggest plant after I week from my last posting!

The other seeds I sow did not show signs of germinations yet however some tomato and eggplant seeds I sow indoor have started to sprout!

Growbed update 13/10

The plants are growing very well although I see some leaves are yellowish in color. They could be either due to not enough sunlight or the system is having an iron deficiency.

It rained heavily for the past few days and some plants have either fallen flat on the ground or suffered leaf injuries from being hit by heavy raindrops.

I found a dead fish today and foud the water is dirtier than I expected. I suspect that one of the water outlets in from the pump that feeds back water inside the tank is creating a current that makes solid waste harder to be picked up and sent to the biofilter.

I will try to feed the extra water outlet to the growbed instead and see how that goes.

Growbed filled

I finally have the time and budget (and confidence) to fill the growbed. Got my LECA pebbles from Mexca and my RD-150 Baba Pots on thursday and set them up in my growbed first thing this morning.

I already have a pot of Vietnamese Mint / Daun Kesum and another pot of Pegaga Kampung growing in the growbed as well as 3 unknown seedlings from previous failed germinations.

Happy to report that the water is much clearer after adding the black shading and what's left of my fish stock is swimming happily.


Enjoy the pics!