Aquaponic Gardening

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After watching the new Murry video I am interested in making a wick bed. Has anybody tried one?

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Yep, Wicking beds work.

Keep in mind they are not part of the Aquaponics system.

Actually TCLynx , I think they can be part of the AQ system. If the inflow is put on a timer, say daily or even twice a day, and the outflow (being two or three inches from bottom of grow bed...where the wicking is to start from), is channeled back via a sock to catch any "muck", you can have a recirculating system. 

 

I have not tried it yet...let's see if it will work :-)

Well, I'll caution about using a "soil" wicking bed tied into an Aquaponics system where the "soil" would get flooded since I  think it may cause some issues if one isn't very careful.

It may work Great Sahib but I don't want to give a newbie the idea and cause them to poison their fish with a big nitrite spike.

 

I expect Murray's way of just using some AP water to water the wicking bed weekly is probably the way to go.

Agree re soil.

I was going to try using a mix of Coir and Hydrton. I already do this to some extent with my tomatoes and they are working great. I want to try my hand at sweet potatoes so was thinking of starting a deeper growbed when the weather improves a bit ;-)

So sorry, I did not realize that this was in the newbie section.


TCLynx said:

Well, I'll caution about using a "soil" wicking bed tied into an Aquaponics system where the "soil" would get flooded since I  think it may cause some issues if one isn't very careful.

It may work Great Sahib but I don't want to give a newbie the idea and cause them to poison their fish with a big nitrite spike.

 

I expect Murray's way of just using some AP water to water the wicking bed weekly is probably the way to go.

isn't really the newbies section but basic and useful info.

 

By the way, wicking beds need not be all that complex.  They can be as simple as a liner in the ground under a raised bed garden.

 

I was thinking about using black cinders on the bottom and my worm composted coconut coir for the medium and no soil st all. I could flood a bed and return the excess back to the system. There would probably be a compost/casting pea that would return with the overflow. I will try a bed hooked to my micro system first and see how it goes.

Did you guys see this?  Frank G., Murray's video guy and all-around- aquapon and good guy, posted this blog post today about Wicking Systems - http://www.ecofilms.com.au/2010/12/14/create-a-wicking-bed-garden-f...

I like it, its like a container garden that you dont have to water as often. Especially nice for dry environments.

Is there a way to monitor the water level?

Very interesting.  Now I want to try this next spring too.

Thanks Sylvia, This is an appealing prospect to me. I have been playing with ideas to grow root crops with AQ. I plan to incorporate some of my ideas with wick beds.

Don't make your wicking beds too deep. I read somewhere that water can only climb or rise about 300mm or about 1 foot before it stops rising any further.

Hey Frank!  Good to see you, mate.  Thanks for popping in to chat with us.

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