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Water consumption in a fruiting crop system

I have never searched home system references for water loss ratios, but if I remember correctly, UVI data suggested a daily loss of around 1 - 2% of your total volume per day. I have been operating pretty comfortably even in the drought, but as my bigger plants are maturing, I have seen a dramitic increase in water use. It got so that I started looking for leaks in the system. I have a huge passion fruit vine, amongst others, and I think that my focus on fruiting crops is elevating my water use - now closer to 4 - 5% of water volume per day.

Any one out there with thoughts on the topic?

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Permalink Reply by Sahib Punjabi on March 22, 2011 at 6:36am

WOW! It has been a while since I read a post from you. Welcome back Kobus :-)

I too am noticing that in my media based systems, the larger plants are using a lot of water when compared to DWC plants (mostly greens types). I am of the opinion that as I get further into the season, especially during summer & autumn, and as I introduce fruit trees into Phase II, I will experience considerable water loss. Got to start working on collecting rainwater to replenish as my recirculating wicking beds are already a big drain :-)

God bless

Permalink Reply by Kobus Jooste on March 22, 2011 at 8:27am

Been a bit snowed in with house work. Annual renovations. If I may suggest, If you are going for rain water, get some limestone for the tanks to get the alkalinity above 50 ppm before it goes into your AP water supply.

Sahib Punjabi said:

WOW! It has been a while since I read a post from you. Welcome back Kobus :-)

I too am noticing that in my media based systems, the larger plants are using a lot of water when compared to DWC plants (mostly greens types). I am of the opinion that as I get further into the season, especially during summer & autumn, and as I introduce fruit trees into Phase II, I will experience considerable water loss. Got to start working on collecting rainwater to replenish as my recirculating wicking beds are already a big drain :-)

God bless

Permalink Reply by Sahib Punjabi on March 22, 2011 at 8:47am

Yes Sir...will add limestone to holding tanks :-)

Permalink Reply by RupertofOZ on March 22, 2011 at 9:04am

Why??

Kobus Jooste said:

If I may suggest, If you are going for rain water, get some limestone for the tanks to get the alkalinity above 50 ppm before it goes into your AP water supply.

Permalink Reply by nathaniel taylor on March 22, 2011 at 10:38am

Several reasons. A few of which... Rainwater can be slightly acidic. And rainwater lacks minerals which helps with plant growth and buffering. (However you will also increase the possibility of scale deposites. More than likely not.)

http://aquaponicscommunity.com/forum/topics/water-topic

I find my rainwater to be a great asset to my system, I have been using coral in one, but I shun the use of it as who knows where it was collected from.

Permalink Reply by Kobus Jooste on March 22, 2011 at 10:42am

My rainwater is slightly acidic with an alkalinity that does not exist. Having used it solely for over a year, I had no more buffering capacity left and the pH became temperamental. I do not like adding alkalinity to the system all the time, and have no access to coral sand. Thus for me, the logical is to bring the alkalinity up above 50 ppm (I prefer 80) in the collection tanks prior to use. That way, I'm not messing with lime or other stuff in the system all the time.

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on March 22, 2011 at 5:15pm

Many large fruiting plants can use and transpire a large amount of water in an attempt to increase the humidity around them and moderate temperature. I've heard that a single large tomato plant is able to use/transpire a gallon or so of water a day when it's hot and dry.

Permalink Reply by Kobus Jooste on March 22, 2011 at 10:58pm

Easily that much. On a hot day, I seem to be loosing over 10 gallons from my small system. It is interesting to see just how much a fruiting plant system's general characteristics have deviated away from the standard "golden rules" I tried to glean from UVI production data.

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on March 23, 2011 at 5:27am

well since there are people out there who will tell you "aquaponics is only good for lettuce" I'm certain their "golden rules" do not fully apply.

And I've experienced root masses messing with the space between media too, actually to the point of breaking a grow bed because the root mass was so huge and beast like.

And then I've had plants that like humidity so much that they will not only transpire water vapor but they will exude drops of water out of their leaves. My house plants will suck up enough water to drip on you off the tips of the leaves. Splat what fun

Permalink Reply by Kobus Jooste on March 23, 2011 at 6:02am

So far, the passion fruit bed is holding nicely - it is rooted in 19 mm coarse gravel, which does not seem to clog as bad as the smaller gravels that I have tried. Having tasted the passion fruit (don't tell the Missus - farmer's rights ) I'm not taking it out unless I have to make a drastic move to protect a bed or something. I'll start new beds for the greens.

As AP develops, I'm sure we will reach a point where there is a good understanding of the dynamics of all kinds of systems, including fruiting and flower crops. As i have space, I love to mess with fruit, but it is a totally different story to the leaf crops and my system is surprising me all the time. I just hope that people keep pushing boundaries and not accept the kind of thoughts that were published in respected AP books of a few years back (cannot mention the authors safe to say they are big in the US and have been promoting UVI type systems for a very long time) that tend to pin AP to a specific type of operation or crop type.

Permalink Reply by Averan on April 11, 2011 at 12:27pm

does UVI even do any gravel bed systems? if not, that would explain why they have such a low percentage. i've been amazed at how much i lose to evaporation with my gravel bed, much greater than raft systems.

Permalink Reply by Kobus Jooste on April 11, 2011 at 1:00pm

The system they reported on had no gravel, and mostly ran short rotation leaf crops. I do not let my water flood up to the gravel surface, but even with tis conservative approach, I'm racing through water in summer - so much so that I started looking for underground leaks.

Averan Gale said:

does UVI even do any gravel bed systems? if not, that would explain why they have such a low percentage. i've been amazed at how much i lose to evaporation with my gravel bed, much greater than raft systems.The