Fish update - had a couple more floaters last week. The nitrogen levels (bad stuff) were off the charts. I added some bacteria (aquarium starter found at Petsmart) to hopefully take care of the nitrites, and turned the water pump on 24x7, instead of running it for a half hour every hour.
The nitrogen levels are back down near zero now. I don't think it was because of the bacteria. It was probably the water pump. Running it half time just couldn't keep up with the waste from the fish.
Plant update - I think I will harvest as many of the beans as I can tomorrow to make room for leafy greens (probably spinach and lettuce). The beans are looking good, but the plants themselves are starting to wilt a little. I'm pretty happy if I just end up with a few beans. I really didn't expect any, since it's not recommended to grow flowering plants for the first year. I really just wanted to see a plant growing, and that's what I had at the time, so I planted them. Plus, it seemed less likely that the beans would wash away than something smaller, like a lettuce seed. Here are a couple of pictures.
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| Beans - October 6 |
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Beans - October 24
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The peas, on the other hand, aren't doing so well. Actually, the ones that are near the window seem to be doing OK, but they are not flowering. Not sure if that's because they take longer to mature, or if they're just not happy plants. The ones furthest from the window wilted and turned brown.
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October 15 - Dead Peas :-(
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I also recently planted some strawberries. I know, another flowering plant. But I figured they make good potted plants, so what the heck? Plus, I think they were on sale at Gurney's since it's the end of the season. The way they are shipped, they don't look like much. But they are doing surprisingly well so far. Guess we'll see what happens this winter. I think I bought ever bearing, so even if they don't flower any time soon, they should survive the winter indoors.
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| October 6 - Strawberry plants received |
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| October 15 - Strawberry plants |
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October 24 - Strawberry plants - doing pretty well
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And here's one last picture which illustrates why I am doing this as an indoor project. This was a big storm for the first one of the season, but once the sun came out around 3:00pm, it almost completely melted. I thought we were going to lose some tree branches with this storm, but the sun came out just in time.
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| October 8 - First Snow of the Season |
