# Second year for the offgrid solar bato bucket greenhouse.



## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

I made a few changes. I changed the pumps from the 12v small pressure pumps. They are very efficient with power but had a tendency to get clogged. So now I'm using 12v bilge pumps. They really move a lot of water. I also switched the primary heat from the coal stove to propane. I only heat to keep out frost so the cost just isn't that much and it's a big time saver. The last change was I upgraded the farm voltage to 48 volts from 12. This allowed me to run more things and power the greenhouse led work lights directly without need of the inverter.

Here are pics from today. 4 rows of tomatoes, 3 beef type and one row of heritage type. We skipped the cherry tomatoes this year because they were an impossible mess by the end of the season. One row of peppers, 1/3 carmon, 1/3 ace, 1/3 red knight. None are "greenhouse" varieties but they do well for me. We also have a few buckets left for some hot peppers. Last row is eggplant. Nadia. Lots of medium sized eggplants.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

One more thing.. Last year we had a heck of an issue with the plants getting sun damage in the early season. it went from cloudy to total sun. So this year we put row cover on the greenhouse pipes. It has worked very well to get the plants used to the much greater sun in the greenhouse vs the walapini.


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## rininger85 (Feb 29, 2016)

Looks like a good start. Hopefully I'm not too far behind you.

Are your heaters thermostatically controlled or do you just leave them on low?


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

rininger85 said:


> Looks like a good start. Hopefully I'm not too far behind you.
> 
> Are your heaters thermostatically controlled or do you just leave them on low?


yep, They are temp controlled automatically. They keep it about 50 degrees on the lowest setting. If you go this route. Make sure the heaters you get have this feature. Most of the cheap wall heaters have a BTU output adjustment, like three settings.. 10,000 , 15000 , or 20,000 BTU's. They will even call it a "temperature" adjustment... But they will run and run. These on the other hand shut off to a pilot when not needed. Like during the day and even cycle at night. Which saves a ton of propane. They look darn near the same..

Here is one without the thermostat..
https://www.amazon.com/Dyna-Glo-BF3...92615805&sr=8-4&keywords=propane+wall++heater

Here is the one I got.
https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Heater-Co...92615805&sr=8-3&keywords=propane+wall++heater


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

The plants are ready for strings. They have all doubled in size in less than 2 weeks. Most have flower trusses and they should bloom in the next week to 10 days.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

Here is a unique issue to hydroponic growing. The last week has been overcast and cloudy. Of course the plants are still growing fast and nearly doubled in size. Well today the sun came out and the new growth got sun scald. Hydroponic growth is almost too fast....


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

It's been a few weeks and the plants are growing well. All have blossoms, a few have set flowers on the second truss. The weather here has been cold (highs in the 50's lows around 30), rainy, and cloudy every day. Hopefully we can get more sun over the next few weeks.


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Looks like a fun space to be and work.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

We have baby tomatoes and peppers.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Looks good. Your tomatoes look a lot like ours but our peppers are a lot bigger. When was the last time you used the heaters? We have solar heat, both air and water, even on cloudy, rain shower days we still get quite a bit of sun during the day. The warm water speeds growth too....James


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

jwal10 said:


> Looks good. Your tomatoes look a lot like ours but our peppers are a lot bigger. When was the last time you used the heaters? We have solar heat, both air and water, even on cloudy, rain shower days we still get quite a bit of sun during the day. The warm water speeds growth too....James


We are still heating every night it's less than 50. The big issue is we have had 2 sunny days in 3 weeks. Just really dark. Even at noon the sky is dark gray... The good news is it's supposed to break on Tuesday. Even so, I'm happy with their growth. We have a yearly GDH's of 1600 total. We can't plant outside till June 1st. We will have green peppers for market about June 24 or so. Not too bad at all.

P.S. We also prune heavy for bigger fruit. We cut to 2 stems per pepper plant and cut the first flower sets. Those plants are nearly 2' tall they aren't bushy due to pruning.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

Hear is a pick of the eggplants. They are setting the first flower.  
I do wish the eggplants would grow more evenly. But they do well over the long season.


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## LincTex (Oct 11, 2010)

Neat stool! Googling "bucket lid stool" now!


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## LincTex (Oct 11, 2010)

What pumps "were" you using? Diaphragm, like ShurFlo?

I'm curious to know what the lifespan of the bilge pumps is. I have read on other aquaponics forums they don't last very long.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

LincTex said:


> What pumps "were" you using? Diaphragm, like ShurFlo?
> 
> I'm curious to know what the lifespan of the bilge pumps is. I have read on other aquaponics forums they don't last very long.


I run them less than an hour a day. They have a useful life of a few thousand hours. If they last me a year I'd be happy tho. They are very inexpensive to run.

The issue those folks have is I bet they are running them 24/7 that is a ton more hours. One day for them is almost a month for me. A full season of 240 days is around 10 days for them. I'd also suspect they are running with a higher head pressure. Mine are raising the water about 18" total. Not a lot of stress on the pump. It's critical you stay way below the design criteria.


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## LincTex (Oct 11, 2010)

stanb999 said:


> I run them less than an hour a day. They have a useful life of a few thousand hours. Mine are raising the water about 18" total. Not a lot of stress on the pump. It's critical you stay way below the design criteria.


That's good to hear!

What pumps "were" you using? Diaphragm, like ShurFlo?


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

Very impressive! Thanks for sharing.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

LincTex said:


> That's good to hear!
> 
> What pumps "were" you using? Diaphragm, like ShurFlo?


I used these Chinese made pumps.

pump
https://www.amazon.com/Yosoo-Solar-...1494891968&sr=8-8&keywords=12+volt+solar+pump
filter
https://www.amazon.com/SHURFLO-255-...494892771&sr=8-1&keywords=shurflo+pump+filter

The good was they use almost no power, .5 amps or 6 watts. They can pump up 6 ft vertical. Have a 50,000 hour duty life.
The bad?
The first issue was if they got any debris in them they would stall and burn up. Even just algae. It only happened twice. It was mostly a minor issue and never happened again after I added the filters. The other for my usage was lower gmh than I would have liked. They only moved about 1 gallon a min. This forced me to use drip emitters. The drip emitters got clogged several times and caused repeated issues. If you had about 20 buckets in a line instead of 35. This would work great with strait tubing and avoid the clogged emitters.


The diaphragm pumps are not really what you want. They have high pressure 40 or more psi and lower flow 3 gpm or 180 gallons an hour and they use a lot of energy to do it... around 3 amps or 36 watts. lastly they are expensive at nearly a hundred bucks a piece.


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## LincTex (Oct 11, 2010)

stanb999 said:


> I used these Chinese made pumps.
> https://www.amazon.com/Yosoo-Solar-...1494891968&sr=8-8&keywords=12+volt+solar+pump
> The good was they use almost no power, .5 amps or 6 watts. They can pump up 6 ft vertical. Have a 50,000 hour duty life. The bad? The first issue was if they got any debris in them they would stall and burn up. Even just algae.


OK, good to know. I have several of these chained together for a shallow well that makes only 1 GPM anyway, and no algae - so far, so good. I have extras I was planning to use in a solar water heating system.



stanb999 said:


> The diaphragm pumps are not really what you want. They have high pressure 40 or more psi and lower flow 3 gpm or 180 gallons an hour and they use a lot of energy to do it... around 3 amps or 36 watts. lastly they are expensive at nearly a hundred bucks a piece.


Well, I already know that - - you used the phrase 'pressure pump' (quote: "I changed the pumps from the 12v small pressure pumps") and I couldn't imagine what on earth you were talking about. The ShurFlo style/type was the only thing that came to mind that made pressure. 

Most small 12v pumps really don't make any pressure, or at least much at all.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

LincTex said:


> OK, good to know. I have several of these chained together for a shallow well that makes only 1 GPM anyway, and no algae - so far, so good. I have extras I was planning to use in a solar water heating system.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I have used 2 in my solar water heating system for 3 years strait without issue. That water is free of any debris. 

I called them pressure pumps because they created the pressure needed for the drip system. Tho, it was just a few psi. The current system has nearly zero pressure even at the much higher flow rates.


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## LincTex (Oct 11, 2010)

StanB999, do you have thread anywhere that shows how you put all this together?


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

LincTex said:


> StanB999, do you have thread anywhere that shows how you put all this together?


I didn't have time last year. I'm figuring when I have a few years of success I'll write a book. 

Not many commercial scale solar powered hydroponic greenhouses... That are self funding and profitable at market prices.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

The hoop is doing well considering the lack of sun and generally cool conditions that have plagued this grow season so far. I have had to prune heavily and treat twice with copper to stop a gray mold infection. But I seem to have it stopped for the moment. If only the weather pattern will switch so things can warm up and dry. On a positive note the plants are on the fourth flower cluster and have set fruit on the first two. The peppers have a good fruit load and the eggplants are blooming.


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## light rain (Jan 14, 2013)

The plants look real healthy! 

Where would you suggest someone in the Midwest to look for a small greenhouse frame to attach to the back of their house? I'm thinking maybe 8 x 12 or a little larger...


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

light rain said:


> The plants look real healthy!
> 
> Where would you suggest someone in the Midwest to look for a small greenhouse frame to attach to the back of their house? I'm thinking maybe 8 x 12 or a little larger...


First, don't attach it to the house. A greenhouse contains way too much moisture. You can have it near the house so it can block the wind if you want to.

For a small one the Harbor freight one has great reviews and is very cheap.

https://www.harborfreight.com/10-ft-x-12-ft-greenhouse-with-4-vents-93358.html


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

Picture update. Everything is growing well now that the weather has warmed. Still having minor issues with gray mold, but pruning has taken care of most of it. The plants are mostly 10 to 12 feet tall and on the 7th cluster. I harvested about 20 pounds so far. Expecting about 100 pounds by week end. I have a few eggplant ready for harvest and harvested a few pounds of peppers for market already.


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## light rain (Jan 14, 2013)

Thanks for sharing. Do you expect to get good yields on the tomatoes through September?

Curious to what heritage plant you grow.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

light rain said:


> Thanks for sharing. Do you expect to get good yields on the tomatoes through September?
> 
> Curious to what heritage plant you grow.


They are german pinks, yellows, and purple.

They will produce till October and we will pick till late November.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

The hoops is in full production. This week we picked 180 pounds of tomatoes, a half bushel of peppers and a few dozen eggplants. Look how loaded the eggplants and tomato plants are even after picking over the weekend for market.















.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

The only issue has been with the eggplants, they have had a brief infestations with aphids. Two treatments with pyganic has them gone for now. They are the biggest problem we have so no worries.


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## rininger85 (Feb 29, 2016)

stanb999 said:


> yep, They are temp controlled automatically. They keep it about 50 degrees on the lowest setting. If you go this route. Make sure the heaters you get have this feature. Most of the cheap wall heaters have a BTU output adjustment, like three settings.. 10,000 , 15000 , or 20,000 BTU's. They will even call it a "temperature" adjustment... But they will run and run. These on the other hand shut off to a pilot when not needed. Like during the day and even cycle at night. Which saves a ton of propane. They look darn near the same..
> 
> Here is one without the thermostat..
> https://www.amazon.com/Dyna-Glo-BF3...92615805&sr=8-4&keywords=propane+wall++heater
> ...


Hey Stan, I think I'm going to end up buying a heater to help keep my greenhouse temp up when there is no sun like this past week. I'm looking at the Mr heaters similar to the one you linked and wondering what your thoughts are on efficiencies of the different size units. Would it be more efficient to buy the 30k that would heat faster than the 10k? I'm not certain the 10k has the thermostat like you mentioned, it says in the 30k that the thermostat is included but the 10k I don't see anything until the comments then the seller claims it does but I'm a bit cautious about that (if I bought it and it didn't I'd return it) but was debating if I would be better off just buying the 30k since it shouldn't run as often or as long to keep it about 50. My greenhouse is just over 250sf which they say the 10k is good for, but it's fairly tall so might be better with the 30k for that reason too... Just trying to make up my mind...


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## rininger85 (Feb 29, 2016)

Also, do you have an idea how long you can run your heaters in low on a given size tank? I'm debating the cost of running the heater. I can get 20lb lp tanks for about $16 now so just trying to estimate how long it will last or if I should get a bigger LP tank set for the greenhouse. We have fuel oil in the house so would have to get a separate tank set for the greenhouse if I didn't just use 20lb tanks that I can get all over town (though it might be cheaper to have a 100 lb tank filled than to buy 5 20lb refills)


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## Waiting2Retire (Jan 14, 2013)

I do not know much about hydroponics, but Im very curious about your set up. Are the plants in buckets? What does wrapping the lot in plastic help with? Do you use soil at all- I thought I saw a hint inside the top but the plastic was blocking my view. Is this something a person could do on a much smaller scale? I never have much luck with gardening in general, tomatoes being the exception, and radishes one year...


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## rininger85 (Feb 29, 2016)

Stan no longer comes here. If you want answers to your questions you can follow his farm on Facebook by searching Bialecki Farms.


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## edjewcollins (Jun 20, 2003)

stanb999 said:


> yep, They are temp controlled automatically. They keep it about 50 degrees on the lowest setting. If you go this route. Make sure the heaters you get have this feature. Most of the cheap wall heaters have a BTU output adjustment, like three settings.. 10,000 , 15000 , or 20,000 BTU's. They will even call it a "temperature" adjustment... But they will run and run. These on the other hand shut off to a pilot when not needed. Like during the day and even cycle at night. Which saves a ton of propane. They look darn near the same..
> 
> Here is one without the thermostat..
> https://www.amazon.com/Dyna-Glo-BF3...92615805&sr=8-4&keywords=propane+wall++heater
> ...


The moisture and CO2 don't hurt either!


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