Breaking the Rules: Update, Valley View Community Orchard Learning Center

[Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr.]

Update on aquaponics at the Valley View Orchard Community learning center. Mini-Pool to Mini-Farm Conversion Demonstration

The purpose of this project is to demonstrate how an off-the-shelf mini-pool can be converted to an effective aquaponic mini-farm for under $1,000 and to teach/demonstrate a spectrum of disciplines including biology, ecology, zoology, microbiology, botany, water chemistry, physics, mathematics, business, sustainability and more to students at Valley View Elementary School and its associated community.

Construction time: 12 hours
100% off the shelf materials
Power usage 150 watts 
Deep Water Floating Raft Technique (core) - Opportunity for other techniques to be demonstrated in time.
1,200 gallons used
60ft2+ grow bed space
60 gallon temporary fish production space.
First test crops at 32 day mark (see photographs)(32 day aquaponic lettuce (foreground, peppers, basil (11 o'clock & marigolds).

Nitrogen cycle established and water quality stabilized (green water nearly gone).

The system is now ready for a full scale late summer vegetable and fish production capacity test. Time to see what it can do.

System:http://bit.ly/N3LDXq

Plants: http://bit.ly/LSNCcH

[Jim Troyer]

Very interesting doc,   thanks for keeping us updated. 

Is there a way for the public to check this out or is it locked away from public access?

What is it that you are using for shade screen?

Jim

[Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr.]

Greetings. The Center's address is 911 W. Baseline Rd. Phoenix Az and it often hosts events that are open to the public. I will post the next one when it comes up. Also standard 50% shade screen. Lowes I think.

[Jim Troyer]

Thanks  

[J Shocklie]

How do you care for this?  Do you get in the water?  Or do you just use a long pole to get to what you need to get to......

[Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr.]

Greetings @ J. Shocklie. The management is actually quite easy. At 10' in diameter, one only need reach 5' to access all points so it is almost never necessary to get in the water. A short pole can help but you can do without it.  Here is a photo of the prototype system in full glory last month to give you an idea what I mean:

Link to photo: http://bit.ly/KJ8bKE

Also, the individual rafts at between 1ft2 and 2ft2 can be moved around like a big puzzle when needed.

Finally, part of your message did not come through so if you would like to know more, please ask.

[Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr.]

Late summer vegetable and fish production capacity test plants:

Egg Plant

Cone Flower

Large leaf basil

Yolo Wonder Pepper

GCA Wonder Pepper

Arugula

Pequin Pepper

Cilantro

Bibb Lettuce

Additional crops being considered:

Japanese soyu cucumber

Siam Queen Basil

Cherry Tomato

Charentais melon

Loofa

Lemon Cucumbers

Armenian melons (cucumbers)

NOTE: A number of these are cool weather crops but under the right conditions they seem to work in aquaponics. So, we shall see.

[Sean-Michael Gettys]

Carlie was wanting to see this set up, is there a tour coming up or a way we could go visit?