Aquaponic Garden 2011

[koidaddy]

Made a few changes with my system in the last year to improve things some. Main problem was not having a timer for my pump and getting lazy and just running it all day and shutting it off at night. I know have a timer that runs for an hour and off two, starting at 8am and ending at 10pm. I expiremanted with cat litter as a planting medium early this year and it failed IMO. Problem is the clay gets to compacted over time and created flow problems, plus the couple experamental plants didn't look too well. One was a cantiloupe which actually produced a small fruit but never finished and a thai chilli plant which I replanted. I switched back to pea gravel and thing are looking good. I picked up a 6 pack off romaine lettuce seedling(which had more then six) and a 6 pack of small tomato plants that were discounted. I rinsed all the soil off and planted in the pea gravel.

First two pics from Sept 30th.
next two from oct 10th
next four from oct 17th-notice my visitor
next two from this morning 10/24
next one from 2 weeks ago
last from this morning

 

[Waterbug]

Thanks for posting data. I've been thinking of integrating aquaponics into my next pond after I read this aquaponics discussion at our local permaculture forum. Our growing season is very short here so lettuce would be a choice. We kind of got more interested in growing animals for food because of the short growing season limits plants so much. Ever think about growing shrimp or a food fish?

 

[addy1]

Neat koidaddy, I put a cherry tomato into the bog, got some nice tomatoes off of it. But they were constantly wet, probably would be better off with less water.

 

[koidaddy]

Neat koidaddy, I put a cherry tomato into the bog, got some nice tomatoes off of it. But they were constantly wet, probably would be better off with less water.

Yes its better if it drains to give the roots some air. It could be done with the roots submerged if you had an airstone under the plant.

 

[koidaddy]

Thanks for posting data. I've been thinking of integrating aquaponics into my next pond after I read this aquaponics discussion at our local permaculture forum. Our growing season is very short here so lettuce would be a choice. We kind of got more interested in growing animals for food because of the short growing season limits plants so much. Ever think about growing shrimp or a food fish?

I will be adding a talapia pond in the future to complete the full truely aquaponic system. I need to research the shrimp idea, that would be my favorite.

I read a little on the link you provided Waterbug, yes ph is a concern, especially with it running off my koi pond. Once I set up the talapia pond it will be as close to what the plants need (ph wise)as possible. The other issue mentioned is the solid waste. The solids will build up in the gravel if not filtered some, learned from experience. But it doesn't have to be over filtered. My pump that feeds the garden containers is in a upper pond that is prefiltered for solids and then feed into my upper/lilly pond which contain a couple fancy goldfish. Its my belief that the plants don't need the muck as much as you would think, just the nutes that are present in the water. As far as adding fertalizer to the pond/fish bin, I wont do it. I feel theres enough with just the fish waste. As far as the magic numbers on the waste/fert I am just guessing. I have been messing with this idea for a few years now and have had some sucess even though my systems were not the best. I am hoping this is the magic year where it all come together but who knows?

 

[Waterbug]

I did an experiment in 2010 of growing tomatoes in buckets with no drainage, heavy clay soil, standing water. They did fine. Here's the thread: Over watering tomatoes. I don't know about other plants like lettuce but will probably do more experiments in the future should I ever set up one of these systems. For sure at least one bed will be clay to see the results.