2015/02/03

Backyard Aquaponics • View topic - NSW - Peakhurst - My new system

Backyard Aquaponics • View topic - NSW - Peakhurst - My new system

Pressure switches from Dish-Washers are designed to work with only a few inches of water..

Almost ANY pressure switch will work and all you have to do is to connect an Air-Line from it to a small "Diving Bell" that you bury in the media..

You can simply raise and lower it in the media, and thus get it to change over at the desired "FULL" point..

The ones that I have are tri-level and as such could be used to activate an over-fill alarm as well as normal switching.. Many dish washers have multi-level switching, as they need to activate "Flood Alarms"



Pressure switches from washing machines, are generally suited for DEEP use and would be very good on Sump-Tanks eg.. top up / Low alarms



I'm still using the clumsy practice of time clocks to simply flood beds every half hour, but do have the stainless "Ball-Valves" fitted to operate each bed independently.. 

This I will soon have to do, as the new inclusions mean that the Sump Tank, has now only marginally enough water, whereas with the control valves , I could fill faster and sequence them to make better use of the Sump capacity..



I would love to convince myself that I need to learn how to program an Arduino (?) so that such could control the dual feeder that I'm building, and sequence the control valves on demand, using the water-level sensors.. just simply set a frequency and let the computer work out which to flood..

2013/10/16

Perennial Garlic – Plant It once and Harvest For 20 years! | Center For Deep Ecology

Perennial Garlic – Plant It once and Harvest For 20 years! | Center For Deep Ecology:

[Garlic likes full sun and grows well in most soil conditions, but the soil should not be too heavy and it must have good drainage. “Garlic hates to have its feet wet and will rot in boggy areas,” Capriotti says. “Don’t water in the summer, especially with an overhead sprinkler. I don’t even sprinkle my strawberries or raspberries nearby because I’m afraid some of the water might get on the garlic. If it rains heavily after the Fourth of July, it rots some of the plants and you get a lot of culls. I replant the culls later in areas that look kind of sparse.”

This way of growing garlic has emerged from a lifetime of living and working close to nature. It requires no machinery or chemicals — only a hand cultivator and a garden trowel. “You have to have the right soil conditions,” Capriotti says, “and you have to be aware of everything going on in the garden.” The technique is simple yet sophisticated, and closely follows the natural cycle of garlic, a perennial plant. Capriotti is proud of his way with garlic and loves to remind his many visitors, “I don’t plant garlic — I only harvest it.”]