Well, I guess its been awhile since I last posted.  This is what's been happening:

• Planted a whole bunch of organic and heirloom seeds.  Planted 2x what I needed thinking I'd be lucky to get a 50% sprout rate.  Ended up with more like a 95% sprout rate!
• Discovered I should be avoiding nightshade vegetables due to an autoimmune disease - so I gave away my tomato, eggplant and Marconi pepper sproutlings
• Transplanted sproutlings to net pots and placed in rafts
• Placed rafts in troughs
• Spent countless hours fiddling, adjusting, trying to stop leaks in troughs
• Scrapped existing troughs and tried something different

I'm not sure I ever mentioned this before, but I am not very patient.  And I don't pay a lot of attention to details.  So when I was drilling holes and assembling the three troughs, I didn't pay much attention to where I was putting the holes in relation to the other troughs.  So after lots of fiddling and moving things around and a couple tubes of silicone sealer I decided that this system wasn't working.

I discovered a five foot cattle feeding trough at the local Farmers Supply.  Perfect!  All I had to do was plug the drainage holes and drill one hole to make a standpipe (I could have used one of the existing drainage holes, but wanted it on the side instead of the bottom) and then I could float all three rafts in one trough.

Only problem was I didn't mention the INTERIOR width of the trough.  So I ended up having to saw off one row of holes from each float.  Oh well.

Also, I didn't mention the width of the feet on the trough.  I thought it would sit up on my table.  I realized that wouldn't work, so then I thought it would straddle the table.  That also didn't work.  Finally put it on the ground with the fish tank beside it and I think we are in business!

 

As you can see, things are starting to grow.  Here is what I planted:

• Rouge d'Hiver lettuce
• Oakleaf lettuce
• Parsley
• Cilantro
• Basil
• Chamomile
• Broccoli
• Broccolini
• Marigolds
• Dahlias

Unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure what is where since I rearranged things when I had to lose a row on each float.  So far it seems like the flowers are doing the best, but hopefully everything else will start to fill out too.

I'm hoping to add fish next week.  Still trying to figure out what to feed them and also how to get all the right bacteria growing without killing the fish or the plants.

So I guess now I'm back to the waiting part.  I am so. not. patient.