I'm losing how much water a day? Evaporation rate for my garden.

Seems like there has been more than a few questions about evaporation and water loses in the forums

lately.
I have been adding 10 to 20 gallons a day here lately. I was even concerned that I might have a leak or something somewhere that I wasn't finding. The question of evaporation came up and I did a search on "Evaporation rate for Phoenix Arizona" and came to a report from the Western Regional Climate Center for several western states.

    Click on a State: Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii & Pacific Islands, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming

As it turns out the evaporation rate for my area is around 11 to 14 inches a month for June.  That is about a half an inch a day.

To find out how many gallons that is for my system I first needed to find out how much area I have that is subject to evaporation.  That is my sump, all of my fish tanks and all of my grow beds.  Any area that is moist and open to air circulation.  For me that is around 8750 square inches (+/- 60 ft^2).  Then multiply the area times the average daily evaporation rate (0.5in) to get the volume and then convert that to gallons (+/- 18 gal).

So that is what is happening to all of my water!

Below is a spreadsheet that does all of these calculations for you.  You can overwrite my numbers and fill in your own.  You can use either or both rectangular or round beds and tanks.  Be sure to find the evaporation rate for your own area and enter it as inches per month.  The sheet will find the average gallons per day that you should be losing  and even tells you how many inches that should be in your sump.   

These calculations are pretty much the worst case for evaporation.  There is nothing to allow for shaded areas and doesn't account for the water that the plants use or transpire.  But it does give you a good idea of what you could be losing each day.

Get your feet wet!

Start a Aquaponic Garden.

Aquaponics is fast becoming the new way to garden (even if it is as old as the pyramids)
By growing veggies and fish in the same closed system you feed the fish and the fish feed your plants.  You get much faster growth from the plants because everything the plants need to thrive is always at optimal levels and available to the plants.

My single barrel system consists of using two haves of a 50 gallon Food grade barrel, making a 25 gallon fish tank and a grow bed that has 12 square feet of growing area.  With a pump to circulate the water and the built in worm farm, it is a high quality system to get into Aquaponics that is easy to setup and start gardening.

By adding a worm farm to the system we've introduced the means to add the micro-nutrients that hydroponic systems either neglect and everyone wonders why the tomatoes are tasteless. Or pay big money for chemicals to add in extra nutrients to get some of the taste back into their produce.  Just feed the worms with plant scraps from your kitchen that already contain the nutrients in a plant usable form.  No more wondering what type of chelated iron should be used for what PH level.

Order a single barrel system for $300 today and get your Auqaponic Garden Started.  Then add more grow area.  The grow containers are very modular and can be easily combined into a bigger system, or added to an existing system of a different type.

Day one, Other side.

Day one, Setup and transplanted

From day one you can start seeds or add transplants to the growbed.


You can order this system Here
Single Barrel Aquaponic System

Get Your Feet Wet!













Day 1


Day 9


Day 13


Day 20


Day 25


Day 28

Week Four and more.

While out and about this week, while coming home after my wife's doctor appointment, I found a hydroponics shop in Mesa.  I had not been to one as of yet but was interested in what I could find there.  So much interesting stuff to look at.  I ended up buying some 3.75 inch net pots.  That was my excuse for wanting to go there in the first place after all.  I also decided to get a timer and some of the Hydroton expanded clay pellets.  I was originally going to just stay with the lava rocks I had gotten at Lowes  but the Hydroton was so much lighter, maybe a third of the weight of the lava rocks, I thought it would be a good trade.

Now I finally have my my system on a Timer too.  I just got a cheap mechanical timer that had 15 minute durations.  I have been finding a lot of different suggestions for how long to run and rest hydroponic systems.  I decided to do a 45 minute cycle.  15 minutes on and 30 minutes off (rinse and repeat for the rest of the day). I think that left me with one cycle though that has a 45 minute rest (odd ball). It has been running like that for several days now and seems to be a good match for this system.  The Hydroton stays moist yet gives the roots a chance to breathe.

The next thing I found this past week, thanks to a suggestion of a friend of mine was a beautiful basil plant at the Fresh & Easy market.  They were actually selling it as a rooted herb that you could grow in the window sill.  Wonderful.   I still have a couple of basils I had started from seed but this gives me a great head start.  And it is fun having more real plants to look at in the window garden.  :-) 

With the acquisition of the net pots I was able to finish the second unit and start to populate it with some plants.

Drilling the holes for the net pots was a fun thought process.  I was originally thinking to get a hole saw but I would needed an armature and the right size hole saw for around $40 at Lowe's.  That ended up being a bit expensive for just the four holes I wanted for now.  After rooting around the garage for a bit I found a metal cylinder that fit the opening for the net pots.  I just heated the metal with a propane torch then pushed it though the plastic lid.  I was able to get nice clean holes and it was actually pretty easy going.  Just be sure to wear your safety glasses and gloves and be careful.  I may even try doing this method with the bowls so I don't crack the bottom of the bowl, if I can find the right size pipe any way.

Of the two cucumbers I transplanted into net pots,
one seems to be doing great and one not so much.

Seed domes on top of storage container in window.

I moved my seed starting domes into the window in the spare bedroom instead of being in a dark corner in my office.  And started some Poblano Peppers and some Early Wonder Beets.  Hopefully I will get better germination rates now, maybe.  But since most of the seed packs I have around are several years old I decided to start the seeds with the paper towel method.  This way I can put out several seeds and carefully move the ones that actually germinate into a starter pellet to let it get a good start.

Paper towel method for starting seeds

Another thing I picked up this weekend is a package of  PH testing strips.  I had wanted to find some drops after talking with the guy in the hydroponics store.  In fact I should have just bought them there but I thought I could find them elsewhere I guess.  I looked at both Home Depot and Lowe's but none of the test kits they had went down far enough for plants.  They were made for testing pools.  I next went to Leslie Pools and even their test kits only went down as far as 6.8 but he did have some test strips that went to 6.2 I figured that would be good enough for now anyway.  And they were cheaper there than either of the box stores.  When I tested the water I had running in my buckets I found it was at 7.8. Hmmm, that is a bit high.  Another cheap suggestion I have heard for adjusting PH levels down is to use white vinegar.  I added a tablespoon to each bucket and that brought the PH down to 6.2.  That seems to be a decent starting point for a mixed system of plants so I will see how that works over the next few weeks and maybe add a bit more vinegar if I think it could help.  But I wish the PH strips went down as far as 5.5.  Hey these Testing Strips look like they might be much better, they go down to 4.5.  and the price is about half of what I paid for the ones I got and they were already cheaper than either of the box hardware stores were.

I guess next I want to start looking at some sort of grow light system.  I was thinking I would find some pendent lights at a yard sale and put some LED grow lights in them.  But I may look into the LED strips too.  They would be easy to work with, I could easily attach them to my trilis and it looks like they are only 12 volts so there would be a little less worry about having them around the water.  Anyone have any other suggestions?

Have any suggestions, comments or questions.  Leave them in the comment section below.

  

Into week three.

So since finding plants this time of the year in Phoenix is not so easy I decided to try restarting a couple of things from the produce area in the store.  The celery stock is finally showing a bit of new life (maybe) the center is starting to push up a bit and it looks like there is a bit of leafy growth in the center.  I think it has been going a couple of weeks now.

New from seed this past week are some Chinese Cabbage and some Pickling Cucumbers.  I went with the Pickling Cucumbers since the fruits are smaller so I am hoping that they will be easier to support.  Even though I have a nice trellis to train them to I am thinking that weight will be a big factor in successfully growing plants with this system. 

 

 It already looks like it is time to thin both of these plants.

I also cut another nice sized sprig off of the Rosemary last night to use with a pork roast I made for pulled pork sandwiches.  Yummy!  

The second of the plant I am trying to re-root is a Romaine Lettuce.  It is not doing as well to start with.  I had just bought the head and put it into the bottom pot on my stand (whole).  I probably should have cut the lettuce leaves back and used just the stock like I did with the celery.  But I was thinking that the lettuce might keep for a bit longer this way.  But it seems like without some roots already started the plant just wilts fairly fast.   So I did trim the leaves way back this morning but not all the way back.  Lets see if it will do better with less leaves to support.  

 The Philodendron cuttings that were the first plants I started with in my hydroponic experiment kept falling out of the top bowl as I worked on the system.  So I moved them down to bottom.  I am now seeing more roots finally starting to show on them now too.

Project wise: I built a shelf up under the systems so I would not need to move them to change the water.  I am using a siphon to empty the buckets so I wanted them up off the floor to make starting a siphon easier.  I also didn't want to move the system once plants start to climb onto the trellis.  

I also built a second system from my third gen ideas.  Still having a bit of problems with the air pump chamber but I think I have it worked out now.  Also I cracked two of the bowls trying to drill through them this time.  I need to be more careful I guess.  I will need to replace at least one of them now.  I also want to get four three inch net pots to put into the lid of this system.  I added a six by five inch rectangular basket on the first one.

Hopefully I will be writing up instructions to build this system here shortly.  I took lots of pictures with this second build.

Time to thin the heard!

After about 2 weeks it is looking like the tomato plants need to be thinned.  They are doing great!

#tomato #hydroponic #hg

tomatoes from seed planted 7/24/14

Roots coming out the bottom.

Split the tomatoes up and spread them around a bit.

I will need to pare down to just one or two, but not just yet.  Might as well make sure that they hold up to splitting them out.

For my second trick (build)...a learning experience.

For my second trick (build) my design concepts were still fairly simple.  I wanted to use a piece of PVC as a central column so the water tube would not be as visible.  I wanted to use cheap containers as bowls for growing the plants.  I wanted to be able to adjust the bowls up and down to accommodate various plant heights.  

For the pipe I started out with 5 feet of 1/2 inch CPVC, it is stiffer than regular irrigation type PVC and is commonly used for potable water lines.  I drilled a small hole in the side of the pipe about 3 inches from the bottom to attach the airline to.  I pushed a 1/4 inch barbed connector into this hole.

To secure the bowls to the pipe I used 6 - 5/8th inch couplers that normally are used to connect black poly irrigation lines together.  These fit very snuggly onto the pipe and yet I was able to move them up and down as I needed to.

Next for the plant holders I was in a bit of a hurry so I used some storage containers I had around .  Actually I had the Walmart brand of these but any plastic containers could be used, even margarine or Cool Whip bowls.   I drilled a 5/8th inch hole in the center of the bottom of the bowl and four smaller holes outside of that, about halfway to the edge, for drains.

Next I use a bucket I had on hand that came from some dry cat food that we feed the cats.  I drilled two 5/8th inch holes in the center of the lid for the bucket.  The two holes were overlapping so I had room for both the pipe and the airline to pass through the lid.


Next I assembled the pieces to look like the photo above.  I filled the bucket with water and hooked up the airline.  Nothing,  the water was not rising all of the way to the top.  Hmmm,  if you count the bowls in the photo you will see there are five bowls.  I started with out with six bowls but it was a bit taller than the original build.  So I deleted one of the bowls and cut the pipe down to 52 inches to match the height of the first build.  So now when I put the bowls back on and tested it again.....it still did not push the water out of the top.  My guess is that the 1/2 inch CPVC pipe is just a bit too wide for this height but I think that water was going part way up.  But my next thought was to see if the 5/16th inch vinyl tube would fit inside of the pipe.  It did, a nice snug fit.  So I slipped enough of the vinyl tubing down inside the pipe to go down as far as the air connection.  Started it again and.... Now it works.  Now I am getting a nice flow of water out of the top.    

Now it is time to add some plants :-)

Ok, new problem.  for now I am using some lava rocks as porous lower layer in the bowls.  As I added the lava rocks into the bowls I was seeing that the weight of the rocks was bending the column over a bit. 

Looks like this design with a 1/2 inch CPVC pipe is not going to be stable enough without some supports.   So to get more support, I cannibalized the trellis from the first project and attached it to a smaller reservoir.  I just used some zip ties and  packing tape to make the attachments for now.

Ok, learned a lot from this build.

....I'm off and running on design number three already.  It is most elegant and is probably very close to what I am looking to have as my final design.  

I will try and write it up in a couple of days.

Do you have any questions, suggestions or comments?  

Add them to the comments below!

  

Hydroponics has always been....

Hydroponics has always been one of those ideas that I have been interested in.  Even as far back as my college days I had found a book called "Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills" that was published by Reader's Digest back in 1981.  This is probably one of the classics for showing "How it is made" back before the internet or even cable TV.  This book is an interesting look at techniques for rustic living, including a section on farming/gardening techniques using Aquaponics.

If you can find a copy of this book I can highly recommend it as a idea generator for DIY projects that can be fun and productive.

When my wife and I bought our first house there was already a nice sized garden area with borders made from old railroad ties.  Probably not a recommended material these days with there creosote impregnation and all.  But I had my first garden.  The lot had flood irrigation so there was little need to think much about a watering system.  We got a foot of water every month, twice a month in the summer.  This was actually a fairly good system that has been in use here in Phoenix since the days of the Hohokam Indians.  In fact some of the same irrigation ditches are still in use today.

This garden was very productive for the 10 years we lived in that house.

Our second house didn't have a garden when we moved in but there was an old scraggly climbing rose hedge along the north wall.  While cutting it down I found that it too was inside a railroad tie border.  This area was a bit smaller than my previous garden, but it was 4 foot wide by 50 foot long.  There was no flood irrigation for this yard so I installed a new drip irrigation system for that area.  The only problem now was a big tree in the neighbors yard that overhung into my yard quite a bit.  But then again it probably helped in the summer by shading the garden from the hot sun.  I also started to do some container gardening on the patio,  also hooking these pots into the drip system.  So life was good.

Until the economic downturn that is.  My work got slower and slower till they finally had to dissolve the department I was in.  We ended up doing a short sale on our house and rented a smaller house in a cheaper neighborhood in Phoenix.  Though I have a backyard I have never felt I could dig it up and put in a garden.  I guess I could go with a container garden but I just haven't felt that spark to get it going either.

My Stepfather who passed away a couple of years ago had been working on designing and building an Aquaponics system before he died.  He was using 55 gal food grade barrels to make up the components for his system.  I was intrigued but did not really have the room to do something that elaborate in my old yard.  And the landlord probably wouldn't approve here either (lol).

But then I saw a Ted Talk from a lady that is making something called WindowFarms.

Here Britta Riley is using plastic water bottles to make a vertical garden.  Wow this system is so simple it is amazing.  Being a do it yourself type person this got my creative juices flowing again. 

For my engineering prototype I decided to use 2 liter bottles instead of the smaller water bottles.  I cut the top cone off and a 3in section of the body.  I used the 3 in section as sort of a cup holder to hold the cone inverted to hold the plants.  I used packing tape to tape the holder to a piece of wire reinforcement for building block walls.  I punched a hole into each of the lids so the water could drain out into the next plant.  with the bottom lid I pushed a 1/4in barb into it so I could attach a short piece of hose to direct the water into the water reservoir.

I had some 5/16in food grade tubing that I used when making homebrew beer.  I punched a hole into it and pushed another 1/4in barb into it a few inches up from the bottom to make the water lift system.

Note: If your air pump is lower than the level of water in your reservoir then you should also add a check valve in the air supply line to keep water from syphoning out into your pump.


The only two things I bought specifically for this project was the air pump at PetsMart for $27 and the reinforcement wire at Home Depot for $1.77.  Everything else I had on hand.

In retrospect it would have been a lot cheaper to have waited and ordered the Air Pump from Amazon.

It may not be the prettiest but it does work :-)

Have any questions or comments use the comments section below.

Also if I have helped or inspired you in anyway you can help me by  buying  your planting needs through my Amazon Store.