8ft x 12 ft Hoop House

Nearly finished, just finishing touches left, potted plants, add soil to raised beds and green wall, planting in raised beds green wall, adding Azomite to soil and more fungal inoculant

Roll up sides

Aquaponic/Vermiponic grow bed

Moving Picture

Building a Hoop House

The beginning of a 8' x 12' hoop house

Lay down road base or crushed gravel and pack it down until it wont compress any further

2x6" boards on top of road base,

EMT anchor posts that keep the greenhouse from blowing away

Hoops bent and installed on anchor posts

Roll up side rails and wiggle wire channel,

5/16" eye bolts to support roll up bar and to attach ropes

Wiggle wire channel attached to stringers

Installing end walls after erecting hoops

Plywood mounted on west end wall

Strong ties to connect 2x4's

East end wall with door hung

Raised beds mached up made from untreated 2x12's

After 11hrs of work, the door and east end wall took half of that time to install

All wood work done

Back Wall Stained

Back wall with cedar strips

Doors open

Work Bench

Aquaponic tray (2x8ft)

Under soil Heating and Cooling

150w Aquarium heater (one of two)

Almost Finished, needs finishing touches

Roll up sides

Polyethylene Endwalls

Green Wall planter

Drain Holes

Green Wall/ living wall mached up with irrigation

GH 20x32x10 Vermiponics

Drawing of Vermiponics

Volumes and Dimensions

Greenhouse structure material list

Aquaponic/Vermiponic structure material list

 Living things and Sprouting material list

Electric Supply and Lights material list

Total cost 

This is the first system I have drawn up that can generate enough money to repay the initial investment in under one year with out selling fish.  By farming worms, composting and sprouting the pressure is taken off the vegetable production to supply the bulk of the profit.  Worms are easier to propagate than fish and are in my opinion a much more valuable species.

Azomite

AZOMITE, is an acronym for A to Z Of Minerals Including Trace Elements.

The name was first coined in 1942 by a prospector Rollin J. Anderson. Anderson had the ore analyzed and found over 70 elements in the ore.

What we think happened is,

 

"An estimated thirty million years ago, the intense pressure from volcanic gasses created by bubbling magna caused the side of a mountain to rupture. A thick cloud of ash spewed out of the blowhole for days and formed a thick bed of highly mineralized volcanic ash. Saturated by rains, the volcanic ash and mineral dust bound together naturally to create a hard rock formation encapsulating the minerals. As the rains continued, the mineral reserve became a seabed. The seas receded and intense tectonic activity followed, forcing the earth’s crust to facture and heave; lifting the previously level rock bed into a hill formation geologists refer to as a "hogback" – rich with minerals."

 

Anderson retired in 1988, turning the company over to Peak Minerals owned by Mr. Wes Emerson who was a family friend.  In 2011 Wes Emerson merged the two companies Peak Minerals with Azomite, becoming AZOMITE Mineral Products, Inc.  Now Azomite is distributed worldwide and everyone can have access to this product.

 

Image of Nephi Utah, Azomite headquarters

Scenery in Sanpete County Utah

 

The Company

Azomite Warehouse

Azomite Ore

Stone Crusher

 

 Finished Product

 

Azomite in Warehouse

A Garden that Serves You

The way nature does it.

Garden Bed Construction

Heavy mulch retains moisture, buffers temperature and slowly breaks down to provide long term nutrition.

Compost provides short term nutrition and introduces bacteria, fungi and all sorts of invertebrates.

Azomite provides 92 minerals for bacteria and fungi to feed on, which intern feed the worms and plants.

Worms can be added for increased soil nutrition

Molasses adds sugars for increased bacteria growth

Mycorrhizae spores increase the fungal diversity.  

Fungi and bacteria supply water and minerals to plants from a larger surface area.

Aquaponic greenhouse follow up

Its almost been a month since leaving the project and I wanted to see what was up.

Pano 2/3/14

FLC Composting

The University here in Durango has a very cool tool called a Rocket Composter.

A UK based company called Tidy Planet makes all types of waste disposal units that make the most out of our waste stream.  

The school purchased an A900 rocket composter a few years back and has been turning the campus food waste in to compost.  Rocket composters are cool because they can save money in waste removal and disposal by turning 900 gallons a week or 8 dumpsters full of material into a valuable compost product in a 2 week time period.  

They are very energy efficient and simple to operate, for example the A900 the school has uses about 60kw biweekly, $1.04 at current electric rates and requires one person to load food waste and remove finished material on a daily basis (which is minimally time intensive).

The main pitfall is the initial investment cost is about $50,000 shipped and installed, but pays for itself relatively quickly by cutting waste removal and landfill costs.  (Aka, landfilling 900 gallons every two weeks or a 4cu. yard dumpster every day)

A900 Rocket composter

Control board

Operation specs

Finished material

The finished material still needs to be traditionally composted for another month before it is ready for application.

Locations on campus that could use some compost .

Chemistry/ Bernt Hall courtyard

Chemistry Hall courtyard

 Center for Southwest Studies court/garden

 Art Building Courtyard

 

 

In front of Library

 

Side of Library