vermiponics, aquaponics

[Kassaundra]

Has anyone tried either vermi or aquaponics? Indoor or outdoor? I'm going to try a very small indoor system just to see if it really works this winter, and if it works out may do a larger outdoor system in the spring. Wondered if anyone had any real life practical experience w/ it since all I have is reading about it online.

 

[Jared77]

Ive done some hydroponics back in H.S. (it was in my botany class not some "after school program" )withvery good success. Did a variety of veggies that were later transplanted outside. I though it was great because it kept from saturating the soil as plants were beginning to germinate. Lighting was done on pair of 4ft shop lights easy as it gets.

I also used aquarium water that was rich in nitrates. Anytime I needed to top off the water level Id go take a few gallons of one of the established fish tanks and it made a big difference compared to the other hydroponic set up that was using just tap water. Look into it, you can get all the liquid fertilizers online to make perfect nutrient rich water for your plants to really take off with. And if you buy dry ingredients a little will go a long way. MUCH cheaper that way. Takes some simple math to get the dosings right but it would save you some $ if your interested.

When I finally get thing settled down here and have a moment to actually plan and build a proper set up I plan on starting most of my seeds in the house and dry dosing nutrients again.

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

We got some areogarden for $30.00 and they work great. they are hydroponics. I also saw a setup the put me in complete awe. It was a tank with plants above it and everything was lush and green.

 

[Ariel301]

We got some areogarden for $30.00 and they work great. they are hydroponics. I also saw a setup the put me in complete awe. It was a tank with plants above it and everything was lush and green.

You're talking about plants growing out the top of a fish tank? I keep one like that. Tropical plants that like a wet climate can be grown in planters that hang inside the tank, and the plants are fed partly by the water in the tank.

 

[Kassaundra]

Jarred77, seems a lot of "hydroponics" is devoted to a certain cash crop What I've researched so far is using worms and or fish as the source of your nitrogen/amonnia so no need to buy the hydroponics fertilizers. In most set ups that use fish they grow the fish to eat, and the garden is just a fringe benefit. I would be more interested in the garden, and the fish only as chicken food for two reasons, one my family doesn't like fish (except for me), and two the main fish used are either cool or warm (not both) and our temps in eastern OK would not be suitable w/o a lot of energy to heat/cool water, except for something hardy like goldfish, which I would be totally fine with feeding the "girls" (chickens). The worms live in the grow beds and further assist the plants (so the articles say again no personal experience yet).

Hypnofrog & Ariel, I haven't seen that system? You don't rotate the water just grow the plants on top of the fish water? Guess I'll have to research that a little sounds interesting.

 

[Ariel301]

No, I do a weekly 50% water change in the tank. The plants are fed through the "soil" in the container, but also suck nutrients out of the water. It is not only beautiful as a decoration in the house, but allows me to stock fish more heavily without filling the water up with ammonia from them. This is an ornamental plant system, I don't grow anything edible in it. I suppose it could be done though lol.

 

[jackb]

"seems a lot of "hydroponics" is devoted to a certain cash crop lol"

While I agree that hydroponics is associated with some unsavory activities you should not overlook the process. I have been growing my own veggies hydroponically for years, and find the process to be clean, efficient and very very economical. You don't have to buy nutrients, or equipment, from a dealer. Using a little ingenuity you can grow veggies very economically.

 

[Jared77]

Ahhh gotcha now I understand what your trying to do and I've done a set up like this with a refugium.

I also grow aquatic plants in my fish tanks and am very familiar with what you want to do.

If your doing this inside:

Set up the aquarium. Id stock it with some Paradise fish or some feeder goldfish. I prefer the Paradise fish because they are heartier, have a labyrinth breathing organ (so they can breath surface air like a Betta or Siamese fighting fish can so you wouldn't need a filter) and tolerate cooler temperatures. Goldfish can get big as they were bred from carp and are VERY dirty fish producing lots of waste.

Then here's where things get interesting. You can go either way and depending on how many plants you want to grow will dictate what you do from there.

You could either have a small garden a few inches above the fish tank and run wicks down into the tank to pull the water up into the soil. This will allow the water to be pulled up and keep the garden small. You'd have to monitor your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels to make sure that they do not become toxic to the fish and the plants are taking up enough of the available nitrogen waste. Id try to regulate these levels by altering the amount of food fed and stocking levels. More fish or more fish food = more nitrogen waste.

The plants are not rotated, they just take up water and they will probably even send roots down into the water and pull up available nutrients. Ive seen many things like spider plants and other household tropicals grown this way right on the surface of the water. Ive seen them held in place with styrofoam to keep them upright and they absolutely thrive. Its not uncommon at all. Could easily be done with tomatoes or other veggies provided they had the room to grow and enough light to trigger good growth. Once the plant was done producing you could remove it and plant new.

Or you could get a little more techy and run a small submersible pump from the aquarium to a reservoir that holds the nitrogen rich water for your plants to wick it up from. Then Id have another pump that's the same size pumping water back into the fish tank. By doing this you could expand your indoor garden and not be limited by the dimensions of the aquarium. You could have more fish, and less issues with nitrogen waste levels becoming toxic because you have more plants taking up the same amount of nitrogen waste being produced.

If you have this set up near a window be sure to cover all sides of the tank where natural light can come in. Algae will grow in the fish tank and compete your terrestrial plants trying to use the nitrogen waste. Nitrogen waste is found in 3 forms in the aquarium ammonia, nitrite and nitrates all which can be taken up by plants.

If you wanted go with this from the outside.....it would be the same just on a larger scale. You could use Koi or even let your feeder goldfish get bigger. Once the cold weather comes in you could bleed the irrigation lines, and stop trickling water into the garden. The fish could be wintered outside and you'd have them ready to go next season too when the weather warms up. There are a bunch of articles online that can help you winterize your pond fish. Its just a matter of knowing when to stop feeding and when to start back up.

Mother Earth News had an article in last months issue on solar heating troughs. Very simple insulated set up that would work to keep the fish from freezing over the winter if you wanted an outdoor set up. Its very doable and your garden would be that much better off because of it.

Sorry I didn't realize what you first planned on doing. When I'm not playing in the garden I keep a variety of aquariums in my house as well so sorry if I bombarded you with a lot of info there.

 

[Kassaundra]

Okay, I did it, set up my little "getto" vermiponics bed. I used mostly found, or repurposed parts (hence the getto) it is set up on a manuel labor/gravity system. I set it up in the east window and I am in zone 7b, immediately became appearent that I needed a grow light, which I did add.

Se here is the run down on how it works. The highest point in the system is the water storage tank (if I add fish it will be the fish tank) it is a blue plastic bin from walmart. At the bottom I drilled a small hole and threaded a plastic air line through it and hot glued it. (Martha Stewart isn't the only one w/ a glue gun!!!! ) This drains the water into the grow bed just under it by gravity. It has been timed to take 22 minutes, so when we start draining we set a kitchen timer.

The second level sitting on an old table is the grow bed, which is a found 3' circle inner lining of a very large tire, lined w/ an old bed air matress that didn't hold air anymore. This got the same hole/air tubing treatment connecting it to the drain bucket sitting on the floor. Grow bed was filled w/ gravel (dug by hand at a local river) sifted out the small sand and ended up w/ medium river rock. I wasn't sure if I put the seeds straight in the rocks if it would work so I put a little dryer lint where I planted the seeds.

The whole thing is complete w/ an airstone to keep from going anarobic, and a grow light.

Here is the procedure: place the tube from the water tank to the grow bed, set the timer, and go do what ever you want, when timer goes off, place tube back into water tank, then the second tube is taken from the grow bed and placed in the drain tank, again walk away and do what ever you want at some point (whenever you think about it) go empty the drain water back into the water tank (the manual labor part). Repeat as often as you think about it/have time for it each day. For us is no less then 3 times a day.

It has been a week since it has been set up and everything is sprouted (lettuce, spinach, raab broccoli, chard, kale, chives). If everything continues to grow this week I'll add the worms!!!!

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

We got some areogarden for $30.00 and they work great. they are hydroponics. I also saw a setup the put me in complete awe. It was a tank with plants above it and everything was lush and green.

You're talking about plants growing out the top of a fish tank? I keep one like that. Tropical plants that like a wet climate can be grown in planters that hang inside the tank, and the plants are fed partly by the water in the tank.

I am sorry I did not get back to you sooner. It was almost like that. It was a 100 gallon upright tank with 2 liter bottles surrounding it. Each one had a herb or a veggie in the bottle halves and the fish waste water went into the bottles to give the plants all natural nutrients.