My new lettuce gutters!

[digitS']

Exposure must be real important, DigginWithJon. A northern exposure might be less of a problem as far north as I am since the sun rises & sets so far into the northern sky. Still, by late in the growing season, there would be only a little direct sun.

Southern & western exposure could burn plants even if the soil moisture is high . . . Keeping it high could be a real bother. Drip irrigation sounds good.

"Start-up costs" just wouldn't amount to much with the gutters. They are cheap . . . and, nice lettuce & other salad veggies are expensive. Too expensive for the rabbits - that's for sure .

Steve

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Hmm, I have a fence around my house, I can attach 3 levels of gutters on it! I don't see why this wouldn't work. The best part of this idea, is that the rabbits wont be able to eat the lettuce before I do! Now only to find a way to set this up with drip irrigation. Just sow in some lettuce seeds and I would be good to go!

Hi Jon - hanging the gutters on a fence is a great idea. As long as the fence is strong enough to handle the weight. Do it, man, do it. Then you have to post pics. Lots of pics.

On a fence installation you might be able to drape some plastic sheeting over the fence and stake it to the ground to make a hoophouse-like arrangement to extend your season.

Oh, by the way, my DD and her family live between Naperville and Aurora.

 

[nittygrittydirtdigger]

We bought some gutters last year for this project but it was too late/too hot to give it a good trial. We're ready this year, with gutters attached to posts and seeds ready to go as soon as the last frost date passes. If we get some good results, I'll post pictures here.

 

[DigginWithJon]

Yes, last year was pretty bad around here. (Suburb of Chicago, Naperville) We are still considered to be in a drought! Usually when we have a dry summer such as this year, we get plenty of rain for the fall. And almost always have a nice blanket of snow on the ground when temperatures dip down to 6*F like they did last night. But the only snow we have seen this year was a light dusting.

After the thought of..If my fence was still strong enough, I been thinking about another place to try this setup out. My fence is over 25 years old and honestly probably couldn't support the weight of the soil.... So now I'm thinking on the side of the shed. Here I found a amazing gutter system setup.

This system looks like it is completely hydro, if you note the hose at the top right, the way the gutters are all angled, the way it looks like water is dripping out of each gutter, and what looks to be a metal reservoir on the bottom right side.

Now I might just be day dreaming here, but I think its very possible.

Now this is what I am talking about! The only difference is that I am going to have some variegated Japanese Iris in that reservoir.

 

[digitS']

Wow! That sure looks nice . ..

In an earlier post on this thread, I described the gutters we had on the wall of the packing shed in a greenhouse where I once worked. I don't remember how many gutters were on that wall. Probably only 3 or 4. Mostly potted ivy but there must have been some other hanging vines - small pots, probably 4" to fit inside the gutters.

They were not sloped that I remember. The down pipes just attached 1 gutter to the 1 above it. Water would run to the end and then drop down a pipe to the next gutter, run to the opposite end . . . etc.

The pipes came out of the gutter ends about an inch up so that 1" of water stayed in the gutter. Of course, that water was wicked up by the soil in the pots in just an hour or so.

Pots in gutters - not as heavy but the potted plants were for sale so needed to be portable.

Steve

edited to add: the variegated Japanese Iris sounds good, Jon .

 

[Jared77]

That is SUPER cool!!!

I've seen a set up something similar where they had a center column and the water came up through the column and then irrigated the gutters that came off the center column. Each row was offset so they didn't shade one another but it was a very efficent use of space.

Jon where did you find that picture? Looks like a simple hose and a small submersible pump you could do a total hydro set up like that. It looks like its just an old metal trough for horses or cattle to drink from. Although I would put a couple of feeder goldfish in the reservoir to increase your available nitrogen source. Fish waste (aka fish manure ) is broken down by aerobic bacteria wherever the fish are housed, turning their waste into available nitrogen which is then in the water and readily available for your plants to take up as the water passes over them. You may have to suppliment the other P & K to make the most use of the N available, but you'd have some GREAT looking plants.

Especially if you had Japanese iris in the reservoir which would also be taking up the available N. Feed the fish couple times a week and let things thrive. Good call on the variegated iris too those are really pretty.

I wonder if you could do a set up like that year round on the north side of a shed or outbuilding. Being in zone 5 I wonder if I could......I've never tried to do them during the summer.

 

[OldGuy43]

What a GREAT idea. I joined after this thread was started so...

 

[DigginWithJon]

I don't remember where I found the picture! Just kinda saw it and went, oh hey! I love the idea with using the fish! I've been wanting to experiment with aquaponics. I may just stick to the liquid feed at first. Gotta find out what I can mix with fish. I dont want any 3 eyed fish swimming around.

I'm in zone 5 and as long as you covered it with some plastic I bet you could grow pretty close to all year! Worth a shot. I know some people that have just harvested their kale, and other greens before it dropped down to 6*. If you use the plastic just remember you wanna seal it the best you can at night to trap the heat in. Ive also heard of people lighting a candle on the cold nights.

 

[Jared77]

I love the idea with using the fish! I've been wanting to experiment with aquaponics. I may just stick to the liquid feed at first. Gotta find out what I can mix with fish. I dont want any 3 eyed fish swimming around.

You can dose with P,K,N, and most trace elements directly into the water without harming the fish. The biggest killer is your nitrogen (usually found in the form of nitrate and if your nitrate is kept under 20ppm your fish will be fine). Most times you shouldn't have to dose with any N source as the fish waste is broken down into nitrates and will be taken up by your plants. I try to keep my aquarium with aquatic plants at around 5ppm so I know that the plants are not short on N and the fish will tolerate that level just fine.

The 2 biggest things are flow or GPH (gallons per hour) that the plants are exposed to and biological surface area. The more total water volume that passes over the plants the more nutrients they have available to pull up within in reason of course if your pumping the water like in the gutter system. If you were to grow plants say floating in a horse trough like the Jap. Iris then you'd just need to break the surface of the water to get CO2 to escape the water column and let some O2 back into the water that way.

As far as biological surface area, you want to have some sort of biological filter media attached to the intake of the pump like a sponge, or other ways to create lots of surface area where water passes over so the aerobic bacteria can breakdown the fish waste into NH3/NH4 (ammonia) NO2 (nitrite) and NO3 (nitrate) like I mentioned above. Without that the plants will not take up as much available nitrogen and the fish will suffer. You'd want to keep your NH3/NH4 at 0ppm, your NO2 at 0ppm and your NO3 at 5ppm. You can safely keep fish up to 20ppm of NO3 but @ 5ppm the plants are taking up almost everything your giving them. If your getting above 5ppm you can try increasing the water flow so the plants may be able take up more, or increase light and P,K and other trace elements to help increaes photosynthesis, or decrease your feedings or the number of fish to help balance things.

Thats also why I suggested using some feeder goldfish from the pet store. Use them as your "canary" to get things stablized and learn on them. Not that their life isn't important but the losses are less of a financial hit, and they are more tolerant to changes in water conditions than some other species.

Its really not that hard to get a system like that going. Its just the basics and then tweaking them to get you on the bullseye to growing really healthy plants and keeping your fish thriving.

 

[majorcatfish]

thats is a very nice set-up......