Fresno Backyard Harvest

I now have my first aquaponics tank online.  The grow bed is not establish yet (It’s waiting until next weekend, I’ll have a 5 day weekend and can spend the time to get it ready).

Although I’ve read a lot about setting up IBC tanks, this is the first tank I’ve put online for myself.  Much of what I did was improvised as I did it.

First, I removed the two top square tubing braces from the square tubing frame using a Torx driver.  I then removed the plastic tank completely.  I decided I wanted a growbed that is 14 inches deep, this will give me room for 12 inches of grow media, and some overflow area if things go a bit wrong.  So I measured down from the top of the tank 14 inches and marked the side.  I placed the tank on my patio and used a metal yardstick to mark the height of my mark, and then used the yardstick to make several marks at the same height all the way around.  I then “connected the dots” with a sharpie, and used a grinder with a grinder saw blade to cut the plastic along that line.  Wear a mask and an apron!  The plastic dust will cover you!

Since the top is uneven the distance from my cut line to the top was about 14″ at the deepest, and about 12.5″ at the shallowist.  

I then changed to a metal grinding wheel, and cut through the vertical ribs on the frame.  This left me with a lower frame that I put the larger part of the tank into.  I then turned the remainder of the upper frame 90 degrees and found that it fit the lower frame at 4 points.  I drilled through the frame at those points and used bolts to bolt the two frames back together.  I used the metal grinder to remove the extra vertical ribs.

I turned the top part of the tank upside down to be my new grow bed.  I removed the cap and put it aside for later modification.

I then removed another two top square tubing braces from a second IBC.  I took all four braces and bolted them across the top frame so
 that the grow bed will sit on them.   This worked out very well!  I am concerned about how much weight they will support – I’e already filled the grow bed with water with no problems in support… that’s about 450 pounds of water.  Rock is heavier than water, so there may be an issue.  I’ll put two 4x4s between the units when I fill the growbed with grow media to cushion any sudden failure.

The cap has a center screw in plug.  I removed that plug and drilled a hole in it sufficient to install a 1 inch pipe coupling.  I installed that using various glues, but unfortunately the plug doesn’t respond as well to PVC or ABS glue as do the couplers.  I finally just cranked the couplers together very tight, and then filled the cap spaces with silicone. 
I tried to make Affnan’s bell siphon, but the local hardware stores don’t sell the funnel style of PVC pipe reducer.  Instead they sell a reducer bushing that looks like this one.  This bushing connects to a 1″ pipe on the back, and slides into a 2 inch coupler on the front.  A 2″ pipe is the same diameter as this bushing.

So I used my vertical belt sander to remove the hex bolt from the bushing, and then used PVC primer and glue to glue the edge of a 2″ pipe directly to the edge of the bushing, and then put a 1″ pipe on the other side, to create the Backyard Harvest variation on Affnan’s Bell Siphon that you see here:

I then used 3″ black PVC pipe to create the outer shell of the siphon.  You can see that here – you can also see that I haven’t created inlet ports along the bottom yet.  I did so on my first iteration, and got a working siphon out of it, but the two were too high for my grow bed, so I cut them shorter.  After I finish posting this, I’ll go back outside and create inlets for incoming water on the outer shell.

The outer assembly and strainer are not physically attached to the grow bed, they work fine just sitting in place.  

I didn’t glue in the siphon either, it is held in by friction between the PVC pipe and the coupler.  Just in case I need to disassemble it for maintenance.Not pictured is a 4″ black PVC pipe that I’ve filled with holes to create a strainer to prevent the bedding material from slipping into the siphon.  That will go over the whole assembly when done.

The output from the siphon is based on Affnan’s high water level siphon.  I’ve used an identical part list except for the reducer and the breather.  Instead of a reducer and breather, I use a small section of pipe.  My system seems to work correctly in this fashion.

Heres an image of the siphon output, at high water level.  Yes, it descends too far into the water.  I will correct that by shortening the down pipe by an inch.

The plant in the background is a Water Hyacinth that was a gift to Wendy from J & J aquafarms.  As soon as I finish building my Koi Pond (gotta start first!) I will be purchasing many more aquatic plants from J & J.  The other plant in the orange tub in the far background is my tomato plant in a bucket!  (i.e. the sub-irrigated planter)

Lastly, here’s a gratuitous photo of my fish.  Mostly Koi, which are easy to see at the depth they are swimming.  The Bluegill are more difficult to see.  This will change as I add fish to this container.  This container will be where I experiment with fish and growing as I continue to set up my fishery.

Once I get the Koi pond online, I’ll transfer my koi from this tank.

I am expecting to be able to procure 20 to 40 Sacramento Perch sometime in the next few weeks.  They will go here when I receive them.

JUST A REMINDER – be sure to sign up for the tour of the Aquaponics Project at the City of Clovis Surface Water Treatment Plant!

Okay, there is definitely a “glitch” in my blog.  It will probably take me a while to figure it out since I’m not a web designer.  It happens when my ISP auto-upgrades WordPress and then things sort of “disappear” until I futz with things.  But it’s working now (until the next upgrade) and if I figure out what happened, I’ll let everyone know!

Back to the fish!

If you’re a member of the Fresno Aquaphonics Club, you got invited to the fish harvest hosted by John and Jackie of J & J Aquafarms.

In order to meet customer orders, John was seining out one of his ponds, and he invited us along to help, and to join in a potluck barbecue afterward.  

So – just to let you know, John has a very cool job!

There were plenty of people who showed up to help out John and his employees – some in waders, some in shoes and shorts.  (Just a hint, if you do this in the future, do not wear shoes that you care about.  Also watch the mud, it will suck the shoes right off your feet!)

The entire pond was seined, and the sein was pulled in by hand, and by the trailer hitch of a couple of pickup trucks.  Once the sein was brought in close enough to shore, small baskets were passed down and the fish were dipped out by nets and a smaller sein, and dumped into the baskets.

Algae was washed off the fish (deposited there by the action of seining) and the fish were dumped into a truck-sized water tank for transport.

Potassium Permanganate was added to the tank to take care of any health problems that the fish may have or develop during live transport.

As we pulled in the fish, we had visitors of the feathered kind.  Ducks in the pond were confused by the approaching net and took off to find a more hospitable place to paddle around in.

Others, like this Great Blue Heron, stuck around to see if they could get in on the fish-catching action.

Birds are a constant concern for John.  They eat an incredible amount of fish each year.  They are protected by law, so John does what he legally can to scare them away from his ponds.  If left unchecked, they would just camp out around the dinner table.

Still, John was happy to tell us of the Bald Eagle that stopped by his ponds one day.  Yes, he grabbed a fish dinner!

Once the net created a pocket at the corner of the pond, everyone joined in to create a bucket brigade (basket brigade?) to relay the fish from net to tank.

Some of the Fresno Aquaponics Club brought their children.  The kids had a great deal of fun catching fish and helping out.  One particularly enthusiastic young lady was awarded a large yellow koi for her efforts.

After the nets were pulled onto the banks where they could dry, everyone made their way back to John and Jackie’s house where they could rinse off and start up the barbecue.

And the food was wonderful!  They say that hard work makes for a good appetite, and perhaps that was part of it (the Winco fried chicken that Wendy and I brought was well recieved).

But it turns out we had a food artist along with us.  I have no idea what to call the dish that he grilled over the BBQ, it looked like some sort of flank steak that was marinated and seasoned.  And it tasted wonderful wrapped in corn tortillas with a dab of home made hot sauce and salsa.

Miguel, thank you for that dish!  And someday Wendy and I will learn how to cook it!

Thanks again to John and Jackie for their hospitality, and for allowing us to offer our help.  We had little training or experience, but we had muscle that could be directed.  I hope we made things a little easier for John.

In return, John was nice enough to offer us a few fish for our aquaponics gardens.  I picked up a 6 or 7 small bluegill which are currently residing in my half-barrel koi pond.  Time for me to get to cracking and finish up my yard and fishery!

(There are more photos of this at the Fresno Aquaponics Club Fish Harvest Event page.  If you want to learn more about J and J Aquafarms, and what they can offer you, please see their website.)

I really can’t get over just how well a couple of 3 foot tall, 3 foot diameter wire cages work for compost!

I have two of these in my backyard, and I’ve dumped leaves, grass, and kitchen compost into them every week since I put them together in January.  

I topped off my first wire compost bin almost immediately with leaves and grass, and then built a second out of more wire.

Now I can’t seem to top off either bin!  The compost gets hot very quickly.  So hot that I can’t comfortably leave my hand in it for more than 10 seconds.  I would guess that this is about 150 – 180 degrees.  (I really need a compost thermometer!)  

Once it cools, I turn over the compost bin by merely picking up the wire cage from around the compost, leaving a tubular section of compost behind.  I set the wire bin down and just shovel the compost back in, turning the pile over and getting it mixed up again.  I also add some green grass in layers during this to kickstart the heating process.

I may add another wire bin this year if I ever manage to top off the compost in the two that I have.  I’ll stop adding fresh cuttings to the best compost this fall, and by Spring next year I should have 170 cubic feet of compost from two compost bins to add to my gardens.

But right now, it’s like some sort of magic trick, seeing the way that compost reduces after filling up a bin is something like putting 10 pounds of sand into a 2 pound bag!  I’m weirdly fascinated by this. 

So you know things slowed down for me over the last few months, but they didn’t stop.  So here’s what I’ve been up to:
First – I’m in talks with my next door neighbor’s land owner to cut back his trees.  This is the property just to the North of me, so the trees are not actually shading my property, but due to out-of-control growth over the last decade or more, they have become a hazard to my property.  Remember the camphor tree and stump I removed from my fishery?  Well, the rest of the tree is on the other side of the fence, leaning dangerously over my home as you can see in this photo.

Camphor trees spread by seed or by spreading root systems.  They drop leaves continuously all year, and the leaves have such a high camphor content that they prevent other plants from sprouting around their base.  The leaves are also dangerous to fish and water systems due to high carbon content.

This tree has been shedding it’s leaves into my yard all year around, and it drops large and dangerous branches during the Spring windstorms.  It is leaning so far over my home that I double-checked my insurance.  

There is also a second very sturdy Pine tree of some variety i don’t recognize – its limbs are starting to interfere with the electrical lines and must be removed.  As a side note, it drops its seeds into my yard continuously, and they do germinate!

Luckily the property manager for my next door neighbor agrees with me – we should be able to get the trees cut back at the owner’s expense.  Failing that, the law says that I can manage any trees or shrubs that hang over my property line.  If necessary I’ll call a tree service, but I hope it doesn’t come to that.  I’ve agreed to give them until the fall pruning season to control the trees – with the understanding that the possibility of a heavy windstorm will change everything.

Next – a more pleasant subject – new plantings!
I’ve planted two grape vines on the South side of the new fence that I built.  They are doing very well!  I also planted a blackberry bush on that same sunny side of the fence.  The idea is that the grapes will grow above the blackberrys.  Also on the far South side of my property, inside the dog run, I planted a hardy blueberry bush in an area that gets mostly shade.  Blueberries are not usually a good idea in this hardiness zone, but I spoke with the local nursury who recommended a hardier version that should survive our summers.

I’ll probably get some grapes this year, but I doubt I’ll get any blackberries or blueberries until next year.

The hardest part of planting these berries and grapes was digging the hole.  This is Fresno hardpan.  It goes down about 4-6 feet before turning soft and sandy.  If you dig a regular pot-sized hole and fill it with water, it will take half a day for the water to soak into the surrounding hardpan.  Regular pot-sized holes are death to any plant susceptible to root rot.  

The way around this is to dig deep.  I dug 2 foot holes for the grape vines, and then added a 12 inch planter box on top of the holes.  I dug 3 foot holes for the berry bushes.  It took almost 2 hours to dig those 4 holes with a post hole digger.  The post hole digger does work – but for every scoop of dirt I needed to plung the digger into the hardpan 4 or 5 times to chip it away.  Sharpening the post hole digger with a good file also helps it bite better.

Next you fill the holes with potting soil and some peat moss (careful, it raises the acidity of the soil!).  The deep holes act like a sub-irrigation planter, wicking water up to the plants.  The peat in the bottom sucks up extra water, and the deep hole gives more surface area for the water to soak into the surrounding hardpan.

I’ve also tried making my own two bucket sub-irrigated planter.  It went together pretty well, with one small hiccup.  Instead of using a small plastic cup to dip into the bottom well, I used a 4″ diameter PVC pipe that I cut to size and filled with holes in the sides.  I figured if I stacked the buckets together, and just dropped this pipe into place, it would be tall enough so that the top bucket would prevent it from moving side to side, and the bottom bucket would prevent it from falling out of the top bucket.  Then I’d just fill the containers with soil as described.   Everything went together just fine, and it worked great.

Until I tried to move it.

I picked up the planter by the top bucket, the bottom bucket fell off, the inserted pipe fell out, along with a good chunk of moist dirt.  As soon as that happened, I thought, “Oooh, so THAT’S why they use a cup that is held in place by the top bucket!

I managed to put it all back together again without needing to rebuild it (it was tricky, and took some time), so I saved it.  And I remembered to pick it up from the bottom bucket before moving it again.  But the next planter I build will use a cup held in place by the top bucket.

I also started planting seeds.  Yes, it’s a little late for this hardiness zone, but in my defense my new bride would have complained if we spent our honeymoon planting seeds!

First up were the seed potatos.  I planted 4 heavy potato bags (bought at the local hardware / ag store).  Next I sat down at my makeshift potting bench and started planting seed starters.  Those trays went into my outdoor “greenhouse” shown here.  I haven’t finished planting my starter seeds, and I’ll have a list of them in a later post.

There are some seeds (beans and corn) that need to be planted directly in my raised bed garden.  However there is some work needed on those beds first.

The first, and most pressing, is that the beds have tiny pine trees started in them.  The aforementioned pine tree has spent the last 6 months dropping seeds into the beds.  I dropped steer manure into the beds about 6 months ago too, to allow it to cool before planting started.  Used fresh, or “not aged” (i.e. “the cheap stuff”) steer manure is still decomposing and can increase the heat of the garden bed to the point where it kills new seedlings.  Either buy the more expensive aged steer manure, or put it into the garden in the fall, before spring planting.

So since the pine trees are sprouting, I’m sure the beds are ready for planting – except for the fact that they have tiny pine trees in them!  First up, remove the pine trees – or as I call it, “weeding”.  (Anything growing in my garden without my permission, is a weed!) 

Second, and also pressing, is the lack of water in my backyard.  

There is just one faucet in my backyard, up next to my house.  I could drag a garden hose out to the raised beds and water them whenever they need water – after all, I’ve been doing that for the lawn.  But the truth is that I would rather that the watering process take care of itself.  Drip irrigation for pots, timed irrigation for the raised beds, a faucet for my planned future rabbit hutch, and a timed watering system for the rest of the backyard.  Eventually I hope to have the whole thing connected through a second valve to a rainwater reclamation tank.

So I picked up 120 feet of Schedule 40 PVC pipe and installed underground pipes to 3 more faucets around the back yard.  One for the rabbit hutch, one for the raised bed / potted plants, and one for that corner of the yard behind the garage that is hard to water with a hose from the primary faucet.

I make it sound so easy, don’t I?  In actuality, I spent the entire day last Wednesday digging 100 feet of pipe trench!  As you can see from my photos here, I used a guage to make sure that all the pipe was deeper than 9 inches (the frost line here is about 4-6 inches – I was being safe).  Remember, a lot of this trench was through hardpan dirt – so it was slow going with a pick / maddock.  Still, the recent rains made it a merely difficult task, not a Herculean one!

I laid the pipe, dry fit it, chemically welded it together, and started filling in the trench by nightfall.  That was two days ago, and I haven’t replaced the sod yet.  I spent yesterday as one big mass of pain from underused muscles!  Today is much better.  I might start replacing sod tonight or Saturday – remembering that I’ll be harvesting fish on Saturday!

I did pick up a 300 gph pump and tubing – the pump is inexpensive, and is not the 3,000 to 6,000 gph pump that I will need for the whole system.  But it should be sufficient for one tank partly full of fish.  I intend to come home with some keepers – even though I’m completely unprepared to keep them just yet!

I’m still a little sore, so I’ll do light work tonight, and build up to heavier stuff over the weekend.

Wow, I completely disappeared for April.  But I have a good excuse…

I got married!

Wendy and I have been dating since May / June of last year, and on Christmas eve I proposed.  We were married April 12 in a private ceremony at South Lake Tahoe.  Then we spent several days there on our honeymoon while sightseeing.  Lots of snow there!

But what about aquaponics?

Okay, getting married isn’t the focus of this blog – so let me tell you what’s happening in the local aquaponics scene…

Since I was otherwise occupied, I set John Young as an administrator for the Fresno Aquaponics Club meetup page.  John has already set up one successful meeting (a fish harvest!) and has scheduled another fish harvest for this Saturday (April 17).  

There is also a pending meetup in progress to tour the Aquaponics Project at the Clovis Surface Water Treatment Plant.  You may recall my earlier entry about this project – well the whole thing is nearing completion and Leon Penney, Director of the City of Clovis Aquaponics project, wants to take us on a tour!

As for my own project, Fresno Backyard Harvest, for various reasons I pretty much completely lost all of February and March, and a good chunk of April too.  I have a couple of days off now, and am using that time to work on another project that isn’t fish related.  But I am also working like crazy to get seeds and plants in the ground for my raised bed garden.  I also picked up a LOT of PVC pipe.  

Pictures are forthcoming.  Also, I’ll have photos from the fish harvest!

Well, I caught a cold just after Christmas.  And it took until January to get over it.  I spent most of January with an annoying cough and weaker than I like, but still managed to put together my woodshop.

The external garage is my woodshop / garden shed.  It’s about 15 feet wide and 32 feet long, with the last 10 feet separated by a wall from the main area. The smaller area has it’s own door.

The smaller area is my garden shed. It contains the electric lawn mower, electric wood chipper, my “wheelbarrow” various garden tools, a wall of shelves that contain paint, garden supplies, fertilizer, and other sundries.

The woodshop is located in the other section, with it’s own small door onto the patio, and a pair of large double doors that lead to the long grassy driveway (which I’ve turned into a dog run). The woodshop was originally just framed walls, without interior drywall. I’ve added 1/2″ MDF internal wall board, and painted the interior white (better for lighting around fast moving blades!).

I’ve installed a lumber rack, and some of the shelving I’ll need. I’ve added two benches, a larger steel “finishing” bench and a smaller wood work bench. The table saw is set up, and I’ll bring in my lathe in the next couple of weeks. I need to add a miter saw, joiner, bandsaw and planer this year. Next year I hope to add a metal combo lathe / mill.

And after all that work, of course I came down sick again, for almost 2 weeks.  I spent last weekend sleeping, helped out by antibiotics and some really good prescription cough syrup!  But it’s back at it again this weekend.

I’ve got another full day of cleaning up the woodshop, pulling my tools from storage and putting them away in the shop before I start on the next thing… blue barrel grow beds!

So I’ve had a couple of other projects to complete before getting back into the backyard harvest setup. As you know, I’ve (mostly) completed the fence to create a dog run to sequester the “babies” from my garden. And since it is pretty cold in the mornings and nights here, I built them an insulated dog house too! (I’ll have plans for that online soon).

After that, I went back to work on the rest of the back yard, cleaning, raking, defining the garden beds, creating a space to build the cages that I will use to raise rabbits.

I wanted to compost all the leaves and grass cuttings from the front and back yard, but didn’t have a place for it.  So I took 2×4 inch fencing wire (that I have laying around) and made two 3 foot high, 3 foot across cylindrical compost heaps that look something like this.  The bottom is open, so when it is time to turn the pile, I’ll just lift the cage up, move it over, and then shovel the compost back in again.

One of my near future projects is to create a rotating barrel composter.

I also took the time to remove the two eyesore trees from the front yard.  These were Cypress trees of the Cupressus genus – although I don’t know the actual species.  Apparently these are very long lived trees – some species of Cypress have a lifespan of many hundreds of years.
These two trees were not only ragged, but they were growing closer together to form a “wall” across my sidewalk.  People walking down the sidewalk in front of my house had to step to the side to pass them.  Also, the local teens tended to stuff their empty soda cans, fast food cups, chip and candy wrappers and other assorted garbage into the foliage.

It took a day, but I used my little electric 14 inch chainsaw to chop the trees down, remove their branches, and chop up the wood into firewood which I stacked behind the shop to dry. 

I also, FINALLY, finished removing the stump from my fishery!  I again dulled out my chainsaw blade cutting the Camphor root, but managed to get the last of it out of the way.  I pulled at least 200 pounds of root out of the ground, which I’ve also stacked up in my wood pile for future firewood.  

Add to it the deadwood from my Pecan tree, and I have about a third of a cord of wood stacked up and ready for my next camping trip.

So, what’s next for the backyard garden?  There are several projects in the lineup.  

• Build a sprouting greenhouse
• Relocate one of my raised garden beds to make room for my aquaponics grow beds
• Build one growbed of 4 blue barrels
• Finish the Fishery
• Plumb the growbed to the Fishery
• Planting season for the raised garden beds
• Fish for the fishery
• Planting season for the aquaponics grow beds
• Rabbits!
• Squirrel and Bird proofing of the harvest.

The squirrels are really trying to help me out.  They keep planting pecans in my raised grow beds.  I’ve found very small pecan trees in some parts of my yard.  I’m seriously thinking of raising pecan trees to saplings, and then selling them online.

My provider did some sort of automatic “upgrade” of WordPress, which took Fresno Backyard Harvest offline for a time. I think I have everything restored, for now. Now I’m investigating what happened, and why.

I know all of my readers (all 5 of you) have been waiting for me to post something. The last month has been a busy one for me in the lead-up to Christmas.

I have been working on projects for Fresno Backyard Harvest, and for other around the house projects. As you know, I finished the fence to keep my dogs out of my garden. But the winter months are COLD for my dogs, and so I’ve been building them an insulated dog house to keep them toasty and dry.

I’ve also inherited a half wine barrel full of Koi that are now installed on my front porch in a make-shift setting. And so I’ve started designing a decorative aquaponics setting for them.

I’ve been using Google Sketchup for all my plans for the backyard, and for the new Koi tank. I cannot believe just how helpful it has been! I create individual “cut sheets” for my lumber, and am able to decide how best not to waste lumber while cutting.

I have several finished plans in Sketchup that I intend to turn into downloadable PDFs that I will offer for sale online. My plan is to add photographs to the PDFs so that you can see how I’ve done everything. I should have plans for the fence pergola and insulated doghouse online in the next month or so, followed by my planned grow beds and Koi display as I build them.

I’m removing one of my raised garden beds to make way for the aquaponics grow bed. And I’m pouring over the seed catalog for what I want to grow.

This week I hope to finish the insulated dog house and build my mini-green house. Check back for photos!