...Wherein we find our heroes doing all manner of Silly Things to try and save their plants from utter devastation at the hands of The Woodrats...

This has been a psychologically challenging year for us. While our new system seems to work well, how successful can you feel when every gorgeous, lush bit of greenery gets eaten by rodents? The only things they didn't seem to like much were arugula and mustard greens, so they formed the bulk of our edible winter crop. During the winter, we tried every practical thing we could think of to keep them out (without killing them, which we don't believe in), to no avail. Then in April, when it came time to put in the summer sprouts, we could not bear the thought of them having the same fate, and got extreme. For anyone else pondering this problem, here are the things that we tried and how well they worked:

• Ultrasonic noise makers. In the end, didn't work. We started with one, and it didn't keep the rodents out for the first couple of weeks (as the package warned us), then seemed to work for the next month or so, then didn't again. Not being quite sure of their multiplicative effects, we then put in 2 more, and that didn't help at all.
• Spraying things with hot pepper wax. Didn't work.
• Surrounding the trays with a ledge (explained in last year's page). Seemed to work for a while, then didn't, so we eventually removed it.
• Stapling down the greenhouse plastic all around the edges and stuffing all visible holes. Didn't work. While we never saw evidence of chewing through the greenhouse plastic or the hole stuffing, they still were getting in. We started to postulate that they were lowering themselves down vines through the ceiling vents at night (did i say psychologically challenged?)

It eventually got to the point where we were reluctant to go out to the greenhouse each day, since any new sprouts were bing munched, and anything that got tall enough to have a string holding it up would be severed at the base, but unable to be pulled away by the rodents, so we'd find it hanging, wilted, and swaying slightly. Very reminiscent of a hung person. Very disturbing.

To be fair, the year was not a total loss. Not by a long shot. It seemed that some of our various blocking attempts kept the rodents somewhat at bay, and after a critical period, the plants seemed to get past the "young, tender, tasty shoot" stage, and on into the "hardier full grown plant" stage. At this point, the rats seemed to lose interest (until we had fruit on the plants, then we'd find half-munched tomatoes and the like.)

At one point, looking to reintegrate our new, successful commercial hydro setup with the previous idea of aquaponics, Pat started using some of the fish water from our barrel as a base for the nutrient reservoirs, adding commercial hydro nutrients to that. Big mistake. Within a week of doing this, all of the bean plants, which had been a hardy 6-8' tall, had died. Within 2 weeks, the cucumbers followed, leaving us with more space for planting (too late in the season, alas) and a reduced crop of produce. The tomatoes and basil seemed to be resistant to whatever was in the water (Pat theorizes it was some microbial thing, or algae) and they did fine. In fact, we ended up with 8' tall cherry tomato vines, and the largest basil plants we've ever seen. (Our two largest were approx. 3-4' tall and about 3' in diameter. The stems on each were about 1" thick, and they had bark on them. Yes. Bark. We seem to have stumbled upon some form of basil tree. (It was a Genovese Basil, for those interested.)

Materials list:

• Pure Blend Pro organic nutrient solution
• Elbows, connectors and PVC pipe for NFT channel supports
• 6" nylon trellis netting for plants to climb

Also this year, we expanded from the original table of NFT trays and added two smaller setups on either side of the greenhouse. Each side held two 4' NFT trays, on a simple stand made from PVC pipe and slip-fit elbows available at a local hardware store. These held pretty well on their own for the first year, but in the 2002 revamp, we used PVC cement (you can see a bit of blue near the corners) to glue the parts together, as we noticed occasional separation over time.

We started migrating to the white nylon netting that you see in this picture, and moved completely to it in 2002. During 2001, we were still tying up some of the plants with twine, but this would degrade over time, and the plants kept needing to be retied, so it was a big pain, overall. The new nets cost maybe $5 each at the local garden center, and you get a 5'x8' piece, which provides good coverage. We eventually had tomatoes, cucumbers & beans (before they died, see above), and luffa (the bath sponge - it's a squash plant!) climbing high into the top of the greenhouse on these nets. We even caught them trying to climb out through the roof vents, and had to keep re-training them inside the greenhouse. Quite a sight!

We got a second reservoir, and placed this at the front of the greenhouse, directly in front of that central table, with the intention of expanding and putting a gravel-bed tray over it. (We eventually did this in 2002). The separate pump and reservoir allowed us to use a different nutrient concentration or even a different solution for the side plants if we wished. (Useful when the tomatoes were fruiting and the basil on the central table was still in growth mode.) We fed a tube up the central part of the greenhouse, under the table, then used a "T" junction to feed out to either side. As with the main table, we used 1/4" feed tubes into the back of each tray to provide nutrient, and it drains out the front, back down to the reservoir.

We'll scan and add some more pictures showing the plants we grew in 2001. Check back!