I hope that all my aquaculture & aquaponic friends are doing well this season. Even though most consider this industry a science, the results are not always scientific. You can see the photo of my rotten jack-o-lantern that appeared without any help from me. I had it all arranged for someone to water my giant pumpkins in August while I was away from the patch. August is the most critical time in their growth cycle where I live. My watering friend showed up one day and saw that someone else had used the hose near the pumpkin patch for washing something and figured that I didn’t need them to take care of the giants and then they never came back. So all the plants were damaged, and I didn’t get a very impressive crop this year. My failure didn’t affect my ability to earn a living, it just made me upset. That is nothing like my buddies who depend on successful productions for their agroecology, mariculture, fish farming, integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, algaculture, and aquiculture operations to pay the bills. They have to consider heat and cold, bacteria, UV, humidity, and probably 100 other things. When they use my reliable agricultural heat pumps to heat and cool air in greenhouses, heat and cool water for plants and fish, then that will be one less thing they have to worry about. Please keep your fish and plants happy by keeping the air and water surrounding them at just the right temperature with heatpumps to make them grow fast and live a healthy life.
My garden work is winding down this month. The giant pumpkins are gaining the last pounds of the season. Kind of a lame size this year. Not going to hit 1500 pounds. Maybe not even 250 pounds. Ugh! I think that they experienced too much water stress when I was unable to care for them for a few weeks this August. I wish that I have some of my hydroponic, aquaponic and aquaculture buddies near my house so I could share some of my plants with them. I harvested a squash last September in 2018 and kept it on the kitchen counter until about a week or two ago. I didn’t even keep it cool in a root cellar or basement. It never rotted so I wanted to see if the seeds were still good. I cut the gourd in half and buried it in my garden and then forgot about it. Today I noticed about a 100 baby seedlings breaking through the ground. Kind of sad that they won’t grow big because winter is coming. I still have one more 2018 squash left so I will save those seeds for next year. If any of you want some seeds please send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and I will send you some. I would really like to see how some of you make out over the winter growing them in a controlled environment. I have a lot of heat pumps out there in grow houses keeping water warm so that the plants are growing in the best conditions. I am still cooling water and greenhouses in some of the hot states and hot countries too in the northern hemisphere. I wish you the best growing season ever. As always if you can grow a bigger gourd than me with my seeds, then I will send you something cool as a reward.
Best,
Marcus
In May I saw a squash plant growing out of some decorative stones in front of my house. It was growing from a hostile environment of only sand and stones and nothing really to support a big gourd. I didn’t plant it so it a small animal or bird must have dragged it there from the garden last fall. I don’t like to kill plants that appear in impossible situations so I am letting it grow. I overwatered it and over-fertilized it to pretend that I had a mini Aquaponic farm with one plant. The sand is always dripping wet and the plant is thriving with many small zucchinis growing from the many flowers that keep blooming. I would love to send some seeds to all me Aquaponic and Aquaculture friends and see who can grow the largest gourds. Just send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and I will get them in the mail right away. If you can grow bigger ones than me I will figure out something cool to send you. Maybe giant potential 2000 pound pumpkin seeds or giant sunflowers? Also, I will take $100.00 off an aquaculture heat pump to keep your fish and plants comfortable and healthy growing like crazy. My heat pumps also cool the water for the critters that need to chill to be happy.
I hope to send out lots of seeds this year to see what my greenhouse, Agroecology, Algaculture, and Mariculture, buddies can create.
We are on your side. Have a great growing season.
Best,
Marcus
You have a perfectly created environment for your fish and plants that depend on electricity and mechanical equipment to maintain them. Mechanical equipment and or electricity will fail at times. That is why it is always good to have a plan B.
Make sure you had a licenced electrician check to see that all is up to code and you are not overloading the electrical system in the facility. Have back up heaters and chillers in case one of yours fails. Then you have a window to repair the equipment before the temperature is critical in your tanks. Have a generator on the property with a few days fuel to bridge the gap while power is restored. If you are worried about the water getting too hot and have no back up kill the lights for as long as you can. Usually, the benefit of the lights is not as important as the water getting too warm for some species. You know your situation better than me here. Maybe consider a solar or battery powered fountain to help evaporate the water to cool the tank or pond. Maybe a battery powered air pump to get some oxygen in the water too? You don’t want to have set up a bicycle connected to a coconut pump like Gilligan from Gilligan’s Island might do. 🙂 Maybe oversize your filters to give a little extra time when the system goes down? Put battery-powered monitors to alert you if there are any issues. The faster you know about a problem the faster you can work to resolve it.
I am on your side. I want happy healthy fish and little creatures out there.
My Northern California Koi breeder buddy that lives in the foothills, is keeping his fish warm all winter with one of my cold temperature breeder heater aquaculture / aquaponic heat pumps. The Koi are healthy and eating like crazy. No dormant sad, bottom dwelling fish here. Even though there is snow on the ground, the heat pump is keeping his pond warm. It will keep heating down into the high 30’s Fahrenheit or about 2 to 4 Celsius outside temperature. He is spending about 1/6th of what he would pay for a electric element or propane (LP) heater to operate and his fish don’t go dormant in the winter and not grow. Also in the summer it will chill the water so that the fish won’t get stressed by water that is too warm. So come on all you hydroponic / aquaponic type people out there. Make this a year of happy fish and plants. I know that if they could talk, that they would thank you. If you get a aquaculture heat pump, It would make the little creatures and me happy too, and I will thank you. 🙂
Best,
Marcus
Stay warm and safe out there.
The photo was taken when I was at a fish hatchery looking at new hatchlings and eggs that were almost ready to hatch. We love anything to do with Aquaculture, Mariculture, Algaculture (the cultivation of Algae) and Fish Farming. We have shipped many swimming pool heatpumps and Aquaculture, Aquaponic heat pumps to Nairobi, Kenya. People forget that even in countries that are hot all year, we still need heat pumps to keep the water comfortable for humans and fish. Sometimes we heat the water, and sometimes we cool the water in Kenya. One hotel where we have 3 pool heat pumps installed is saving 80% of their heating budget over using an LP gas (propane heater) or an electric element heater. We do that with Aquaculture / Aquaponic fish farms in Africa too. In Nairobi, it never gets much below 60 degrees Fahrenheit (16 C ) at night, and the pools still cools off below comfortable swimming temperatures. I remember when I was at a high end hotel in Belize, spreading the word about pool heat pumps in Central America, and I didn’t get a very warm welcome from hoteliers at hotel, motel, theme parks and resorts. The hotel where I was staying had a pool that was only 72 F, (22 C) because a rainy cold front had just come through the area. That is not a fun swim for me. My wife took a video of me all alone shivering in the deserted pool, even though the hotel was completely full. Sorry, only available for you to see if you visit my office. 🙂 Now I hope that you will help me spread the pool heat pump word so I can make the world a more comfortable and happy place without me having to change time zones so much.
Here at Green Planet Supply we pride ourselves at well….being green. Our heat pumps heat and chill Aquaponic and Hydroponic farms using much less energy than almost any other method. We also love to save hotels, motels, campgrounds and resorts money heating their swimming pools and spas with heat pumps. I was being happy with my family at Disney World, (the happiest place on earth) when I saw some of their guests trying to be green by hanging out their laundry on their hotel room porch. For some reason that didn’t make me happy. I know Disney generates lots of their electricity from solar panels to help their high air conditioning load, and they are doing what they can to be green. If you ever get a chance to take their private tour backstage at their aquaculture, hydroponic and aquaponic showcase please do it. They have done amazing things there raising huge healthy produce and fish using heat pumps to keep the water at just the right temperature. If you have solar panels and heat pump like they do then you have the best of both worlds. They can cool the water with the sunshine. Amazing. They say that their aquaculture area is has no negative environmental impact, and that they recycle 100% of their waste. I know that they made me recycle my wood toothpick. I wonder where that one will wind up? I hope not for someone else to spear their cucumber slice with? I am off topic though. Please dry your clothes in your room where I can’t see it, not outside at 90% + RH in Orlando, FL in the summer. That is the green thing to do in this case. It works better too. My room dried bathing suite proves that. Martha Stewart approved. For all my agricultural type people out there, I will send free Giant sunflower seeds to anyone in the USA who will send me a photo of your giant gourd in October. The photos is of big healthy coffee plants. I will try to grow then as soon as my Aquaculture system is set up in the barn.
Have a great summer
