veggie filters/ hydroponics

[ididntdoit99]

Wasn't sure if i should post this here or over in the gardening forum, but i know somebody around here grows veggies in a veggies filter connected to thier pond.

I was bored, had some pots, 55 gallon rubbermaid tubs and an extra pond pump laying around, so i figured heck, why not trying growing some peppers in a little hydroponic setup.

Seperate from the pond, because I was loading the water with miracle grow. They did awesome for a week, the little plants sprouted peppers right away, which was amazing, because i figured they should have grown taller before they did. I have read since then that the water should be changed out every week, which i did not do, guess i should have, but i didnt think in a 55 gallon setup that 6 plants would not have pulled all of the nutrients out in a week, but it is a possibility i guess.

So anyway, if i have to replace the water everyy week, i dont want to mess with that anyway, i was thinking about going with an actual veggie filter coonected to my pond, can you point me to a thread of examples of your setup

 

[JohnHuff]

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[sissy]

I saw that on on a garden show in NC and they had a huge tank in the middle of the hot house and ran the water under the plants and then it went back to the pond at the end and the pond was crystal clear and they had 80 fish in 1500 gallon tank .Fish looked healthy and happy .It was not a cheap set up because they not only need to circulate the water but need a lot of aerators going for the roots to grow .They used clay type looking balls for there planting media ,no dirt .I wondered if you could use lava rock the same way .I could not quite understand why the liquid organic type fertilizer they were using did not harm the fish .I guess the amount of plants would suck it all up ,at least i guess so .They have lots of video's on you tube .I put plants in my filters to grow like grasses and stuff ,but never tried veggies .I use 1 of those plant rings with really loose screening so it goes down into the filter ,other wise I found the roots got all tangled in the filter media .I just trim some of the roots every once in awhile .This is the 1st year I have put more than 2 or 3 plants in and I will see how it works out ,so far so good

 

[Waterbug]

I'm reading a thread on Koiphen about aquaponics, but his system seems more like a veggie filter so far, I've only started reading it.

I found a good aquaponics video, most are pretty lame. There's like 8 videos in the series.

Here's a thread I started on our local permaculture site on growing tomatoes in standing water.

The changing water once a week thing doesn't match what I've been reading from people who do this for a living. There's a ton of people posting stuff on their system that they built the day before and you never hear from them again. I liked what the guy in the video had to say. He said having roots in air was even more important than the water, and the reasons for roots rotting. Very interesting.

There are two general methods. One is continuously flooded and the other is repeated flood and drain. But require different methods.

 

[sissy]

There is one in NC that has all his stuff in those truck container boxes and he uses hydropnics and lights to grow veggies .I have seen it on a few of the garden shows over the last couple of years .The last show was this past saturday on garden smart and a couple of weeks ago he was on the NC garden co-op show .

 

[ididntdoit99]

. He said having roots in air was even more important than the water, and the reasons for roots rotting. Very interesting.

There are two general methods. One is continuously flooded and the other is repeated flood and drain. But require different methods.

I did read later that the roots shoudlnt be completely submerged, so i guess watching you water level and getting it right to where the tips of the roots are int he water is pretty important.
For now, all of the plants are back in the dirt, maybe one of these weekends i'll work on some sort of setup and see how it works after i arm myself with a little more knowledge on the subject.

It was funny what they did for that week, i bought 4 packs of plants, and put on in the hydroponic setup and the other three in dirt. The ones in the hydro setup didnt grow, but sprouted peppers right away, while the ones in the dirt just got taller.

 

[Waterbug]

Not so much level as the media wicking up water and keeping the roots moist.