This site is dedicated to Greenhouse design, Aquaculture, Aquaponics, Aeroponics systems and general plant/animal husbandry when grown in a sustainable organic manner.
A Green Project Challenge
The intent of this project is to see if being more green is viable given the cost of materials vs. the Return On Investment (ROI) for operating my own greenhouse aquaponics/aeroponics system in our backyard. The challenge is whether I can design, build and operate an aquaponics/aeroponics based greenhouse system in a sustainable manner with a small carbon footprint while providing food for the table at a reasonable cost over conventional methods such as purchasing fish/vegetables at the local grocery. Join me on this journey of discovery while I forge a new chapter in my quest for a better tomorrow.
Aquaponics is amazing....after sowing several dozen Romaine lettuce seeds of various varieties. I was surprised to find that after 3 days most of the seeds had sprouted. This is truly amazing considering that normal germination for these seeds type is 7-10 days. I also did the same with a pack of Collard Green seeds and unexpectedly these also sprouted in 3 days while normal germination is 10-21 days. I have included a few photos to show the new babies.
You can see the new lettuce sprouts next to the new Bell Pepper plants in the pic above.
A closer view, I'm going to have to cull a few of these as they get bigger.
And yet more....
Here is a shot of the collard sprouts.
I also had a Basil harvest this past weekend due to the fact that the plants were starting to get lengthy and falling over. I cut these back and dried the leaves. I still have quite a few younger plants for fresh cut leaves when needed.
Next post to follow will provide an overview the new solar hot water panel I put together to heat the fish tank water.
Just thought I would throw together a quick update on the progress of the greenhouse. It's been a month since the last video showing how all of the plants and fish are growing....I'm very excited to see that the system is really starting to crank out the produce, and in the middle of winter...just mind numbing. Anyway, here's a quick look.
And as stated in the video we had our first harvest of produce, I picked and prepared Swiss Chard, all types of Kale, Basil, Arugula Chocolate mint, and spearmint which was mixed up in a nice salad. It was really good, and there is plenty left over for a few days. I still have quiet a bit more growing in the greenhouse.
OK...so I realized that raising tomato plants from seed at this point is going to be challenging and I don't really have a resource in the winter for tomato plants, so what's an Aquaponics Gardener to do...Why, build my own DIY EZ Cloner and all for under $50..I say around $40 in the video, but I didn't figure in the cost of the pipe, fittings and the three additional Net Pots w/Neoprene inserts I'm going to need, so the total comes in at a little under $50..still not bad considering the price of a commercial unit. Here a few pics of the unit and a video overview of the cloner...I think it is going to work out just fine.
The Finish Product
A Blue 20 Gallon Tote from my local Family Dollar for $10
Fairly deep compared to an 18 Gallon Tote
Layout for 2" holes to accommodate Net Pots
Starting the holes
Standard 2" Net Pots with Neoprene inserts.
Finished the holes for now, still have to purchase 3 more 2" Net Pots w/Inserts
1/2" PVC pipe spray bar before being drilled for spray heads
Spray bar with 360 Degree spray heads installed.
Close up of 360 mist head 11/64 drill bit used for installation
Close up of 360 degree downspray streaming head 11/64 drill bit used for installation
600 GPH pump to be changed out for a 300+ GPH later on.
Assembly installed in Tote
Here is a short video overview of the EZ Cloner in action.
OK...So, I've been toying with the idea of expanding my Aquaponics system to include DWC raft beds. I threw together a little sketch in Google Sketchup to show what it may evolve into later next year. I already have some of the peices needed such as the AquaTop AB120 Blower, Expanded Shale, etc. After careful calculation I can probably throw about $1.5K at it, which would include a Hoop Style Greenhouse covered in 6mil Poly Greenhouse plastic...not bad for the extra I would gain in grow space. I can use the existing system along with the two Danner MagDrive 9.5 -950 GPH pumps that currently sit in the fish tanks along with the Expanded Shale growbeds and the dual 1000W Titanium Aquarium heaters. I can redisign this system into a Constant Height in Fish Tank with no Sump needed. Using an Undercurrent model the Raft beds would be the sump with the pumps sitting outside of the tanks/growbeds while pulling the water through the DWC raft beds and pumping water backup into the Expanded Shale growbeds. From my calculations even if all of the Shale growbeds filled at the same time/rate, then the rafts water levels would only drop 1.5 inches or 3/4 inch if I installed an indexing valve. The combo Vortex / Swirl filter and degassing chambers along with the shale growbeds should take care of all the filtering for the system. On the Mag pump with a 3' head, I should get about 800GPH out of both pumps , that would circulate all of the water in 4 raft beds in approx. 1hr 19m. The Shale growbeds would flood and drain approx. 3 times per hour. Taking all growbeds into consideration, initially I will have 345Sq ft of growbed space. Using the assumption that you need .3LBs of fish per square foot of growbed space, I would calculate that 103 +/- 1Lb fish are needed for the system, approximately 25 fish per 175 Gal Tank. I have the capacity to add another 2 Raft growbeds and up my count to 150 fish total. Here is a quick fly by of the system.
DWC Raft beds are fed by 2" PVC through to the water pumps. Media grow beds use standard 1" PVC drain pipe and 1/2" PVC fill pipe with ball valves for flow control. AquaTop Blower uses 1" and 3/4" PVC pipe with flexible tubing feeding 6" air stones every 3ft in the Raft beds and 12" air stones in each Fish Tank. I have calculated a need for approx. 6CFM total for the system @ 10" H20, and 2CFM @ 24" H20, which the AquaTop AB120 should provide.
Well, I have decided to change the name of the blog to better correlate what I am doing with my backyard and greenhouse in relation to aquaponics and not just aeroponics. So, the new blog name will be "The Aquaponics Gardener" located at http://aquaponicsgardener.blogspot.com/ , I have also started a YouTube Channel by the same name located here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Aquaponicsgardener . So I will be periodically posting videos of my Aquaponics adventures for your viewing pleasure. Hopefully, this will help some of you who are thinking about taking the plunge with Aquaponics, by avoiding some of the same mistakes I encountered. To get you started here is a quick overview of the Aquaponics system running in my greenhouse after it has been running for approximately 2 months. Enjoy....and until next time.
The Aquaponics Gardener Greenhouse overview video.
I picked up two 32 gal black totes from Lowe's the other day and I am temporarily using one for a worm bed and the other for a BSF larvae bed. I drilled a few 1/2" holes in the top and sides for air circulation on both totes. I stocked one with 2000 red wiggler worms and the other was self populated by Black Soldier Flys after composting our left over table and veggie scraps. I still have to design something, so the BSF larvae will self harvest, more to follow on that as I come up with a game plan.
I am in the process of building a larger, more structurally sound worm bed out of donated wooden pallets. More details and photos to follow.
Well, it's been a few weeks since my last post. I'm sorry to say that I did not do my due diligence in researching the addition of nutrients to the growbeds in conjunction with the use of organic home made pest control measures. Due to some iron deficiencies in several of my plants, I decided to order some chelated iron to add to the fish tanks and to spray on the plants. I also, experienced some issues with red spider mites on a few of my plants, some on my Cilantro, and Stevia. After mixing up a home made remedy of garlic pepper tea, I decided to attack the red spider mites with a spray bottle of my home made concoction. This appeared to work, so I decided to spray all of my plants...no big deal or so I thought until I sprayed them afterwards with the iron chelate, which was a little to strong. As you can imagine the garlic pepper tea opened the pores in the plants leaves/stems and the iron chelate, being a little too strong, did the rest. By the next morning I had tons of black leaves on most of my plants and within a few days many had died and / or the leaves were severely burned. I am glad to say those plants left have recovered fully, and are growing once again. I even have a few new tomatoes on my plants. I also had to pick a few cutter type worms from some of my swiss chard, so I have ordered some organic BT and Neem oil spray to treat the pest in the future.This will also help with any fungal problems I might encounter in the future. Lesson learned, follow the instructions to the letter on the label, or from the source of the information. A setback...yes, but not the end of the world.
