The ponic system 3 months in!

Collard green BIIG

Tomato and pepper seedlings

It has now been 3 months that the ponic system has been build. In these first 3 months I have lost a few plants, but also harvested a few parsley leaves. This all time the system has run on compost tea and ammonia. The plants seem fine, but a few are not as green as one would expect, but it is indoor, in the middle of the winter, with some artificial lighting that may not be sufficient.

During the start up of the system, the pH decreased once nitrification was efficient, but the pH increased after that, since there was no source of additional ammonia. I therefore started to add some ammonia, which keeps the pH around 7 as it is alkaline. A few weeks ago I increase the amount of ammonia I add so in the last week, I didnt add any as ammonia was building up in the water. In consequence, the pH has dropped a bit.

I have started to measure leaf length and leaf number, and overall, leaf number has increased in each plant, leaf length has increased a bit, but has stopped for some. I suppose it reached its optimal length.

I guess things are "growing forward" and the 2 collard greens are getting quite sizable (at least bigger than I expected).

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First year of indoor composting ok not year just 4 months

The compost

Worm crate

One day, my beloved lady suggested Id start a worm composting bin. After coming back from my utter surprise, I quickly started the bin. That was back in august. After a modest start with 2 packs of worms form a fish bait shop, I got a half pound or red wigglers from the Lower East Side Ecology Center. I applied the basic principles gleaned from the Internet experts and a dose of common sense (or so I hope). So there is the results from the first "year":

Input: 1 pound and 3ounces of worms (the bait shop worms included)

           5 kg (11 pounds) - dry weigh - of paper, cardboard, wood dust, dried leaves (actually more than that since i started to record this only later)

           20 kg (45 pounds) of diverse food scraps, including supposed no-noes like onion peel, lemon, garlic ... in moderation, there is no problem really, and anything else vegetable based, and used coffee grounds

           Unknown amount of water - as I almost always put the scraps in the blender, I add some water for the blender to be able to do its job

Output: 3.18 kg (7 pounds) of dark moist earthy smelling dirt!

The crate is fairly small (~1 x 1.5 x 1 ft, or 11 gallons, or 31 x 48 x 31 cm, or 46 L); and because it is indoor, I have been prudent in adding too much food (~140 g a day or 0.3 lbs in average) . If I can, Id like to experiment with a larger system, maybe 2 x 3 x 2 feet and see how much can be put in it while following a similar feeding rate (I guess per surface unit).

The compost was used for a couple of house plants, to start seeds, and to brew compost tea. With the solids left from making compost tea -which contains some small worms and cocoons - I just started a composting bucket for the school project.

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