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Amanda Bramble wrote:I don't know why they are reacting but you should try to limit the amount of baking soda that goes into your greywater. The main 3 things to avoid in greywater are Sodium, Boron, and Chlorine. Great you are not poisoning your plants with boron, but you may harm your soils with too much sodium as Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Flush the soil well with rainwater and that should help. Saltified soils will stop the plants from being able to uptake nutrients. Good luck!
Amanda
Bryant RedHawk wrote:hau Anita,
One of the easiest ways to get enough compostable materials (raw compost is also mulch) is to notify your neighbors, any yard men you happen upon, and tree service folks.
Normally, all of these people will have materials they need to get rid of and most welcome someone to do that chore for them, it keeps organics out of a land fill for your neighbors.
The yard men and tree service folks usually have to pay to dump the organics they have created, most love the opportunity to save that money.
If you have any farms nearby you might be able to afford some bales of either straw or hay, I use straw because it is cheaper, I know my source doesn't use any sprays and it is fairly close to my farm.
Grocery stores might be persuaded to give you the produce they are going to throw out from spoilage or un-saleable condition, this stuff you can compost in thin layers or you might set up a vermicompost bin or bins so you get good castings.
Hope these ideas work for you. Grass clippings do well if you mix in any other materials, even paper and cardboard will decompose in a compost heap, and do so nicely.
I've even used old sheets, worn out clothing, anything that will rot is useable in a compost heap. just shred or rip or cut up these materials so they will rot faster and more completely.
Redhawk
John Saltveit wrote:Hi Shawn,
I have read about aquaponics and ponds for growing fish. Most seem to use tilapia or other warm weather fish. The class I took showed that some fish are problematic in that they are only active consistently when it is day and night above 75 degrees. These temps are a small part of the year where I live. Is there a kind of fish that does well in a range like 45 degrees to 85 degrees or so with plant growth? I've heard it's optimal to have plant growth and fish growth roughly at about the same time.
Thanks,
John S
PDX OR
Mike Arr wrote:Thank you Bryant.
I originally enclosed the entire structure with chicken wire because I thought it would only be a temporary quarters for the first batch while they acclimated to the property. Now that it is becoming permanent, I reinforced the pen with a layer of 2" welded wire all the way around, so every side now has 2 layers of chicken wire under one layer of welded wire, screwed tight to the boards. I also added a sturdy door and a corrugated polycarbonate roof. I still have one point of weakness, one side of the pen does not have 18" of wire at ground level - thanks for the reminder - I'll fix that today and then hopefully the structure will stand up to predators.
One interesting thing I did with the first batch was to set up a cheap, solar powered flood light that charged during the day and lit up the pen entrance (and waterer/feeder) in early evening. Along with evening feeding, this seemed to encourage them to go into the pen at night. That configuration isn't working anymore since there is a roof, but I am trying to accomplish the same thing with a solar powered flagpole light.
They have now been in the pen 7 full days, eating mostly unappetizing Purina protein mush, scratch feed and a vegetable scraps. I feel bad - it's been gray and raining for a couple of days and that is expected to continue for several more days. It has to be stressing them out. They didn't drop any eggs yesterday. I'm very tempted to let them out. I'll get them some meal worms as Bryant suggests.
Bryant RedHawk wrote:The one thing you need for a rooting medium when air layering is that it holds on to the branch. If you can get vermiculite to do that while so you can then get the cover wrapped around it, wonderful. If it falls off, not such a good choice of material.
In my experience, the full girdle method does not work as well as the scored bark method, but I've only propagated close to a million clones, so I could be wrong about that.
Bryant RedHawk wrote:I get most of my seed from our local Feed and Seed store (we got really lucky since they will order anything I want that they don't normally carry). The Alfalfa seed I get from the Health Food store because 1. it is fully Organic and 2. I get a five pound bag for less money than if I got it from the Farmer's Seed company here.
If you don't have stores like this in or around your area, let me know and I can post you some great On-Line sellers that carry the seeds, be aware though these places tend to charge shipping and sometimes the seed cost is pretty high comparatively speaking to my local sources.