It has been warming up the last few weeks and these plants have been making some progress, so I thought I would post updated pictures. Can you tell I like to take pictures?
As you can see the 4 green been plants in the center are not doing well. these are the second batch of green beans I started with the same results. I can only assume it's because of the cold weather. I simply ran out of money to complete everything I wanted to do with this system. I was going to build a P.V.C. trellis similar to the one I have for the tomato's, then drape the plastic drop cloth over it. And on both sides I was going to have a P.V.C. tube run across the bottom attached to the plastic drop cloth so I can roll it up during the day.
You can see the round vertical 6 inch wide P.V.C. tubes underneath the system, these to are just prototypes and not the finished design. These are the heat source for warming at night. They will be made of metal heating and AC ducting so they wont catch fire. Inside these tubes will be a small adjustable flame (not sure where I will get the burners yet). It will basicly be heavy enough that wind wont blow them over, and with enough metal around it so it will be wind proof while allowing the heat to rise. Although now that it's starting to warm up I will probably not complete these heating units until next winter. The wood trellis structure that was meant to be temporary is now permanent because the plants are attached to the line that is strung across, I will still need to make it taller and/or build the P.V.C. trellis around it.
I also had a water proof heating pad inside the
nutrient solution to keep them from getting to cold at night, but there must have been a pin hole in the plastic cover and water got in it. It was still working, but I decided to take it apart and use the heating elements inside to create my own fish tank warmer. Good idea, but I made a mistake in replacing some of the wire. It was not regular wire, and shorted the elements out. Oh well it was only $1, but now I need another one and have not been able to make it back the thrift stores to find another one.
At this point I decided to replace the green beans with more peas and snow peas. The taller plants are the snow peas and the shorter ones are the regular peas. I will just put 2 more of each in the system to make it a total of 6 each.
As far as root maintenance, I found that I don't need to cut any access holes near the inlet and overflow ports. I simply can disconnect them from the outside when no water is flowing through it, and do any trimming from there. It only goes through about 2 inches, and I can just poke them back in with a stick or something (once a week, if that so far). I may need to create the access ports along the top near the center of the tube in the future, but so far root maintenance there is not a problem.