Comment

Comment by Chris Smith on April 17, 2012 at 10:02am

Christian, keep in mind that 16' wide troughs will make it difficult to access the rafts in the middle without shuffling things around. Friendly built 2 troughs that are 8' wide and do not like them because of the difficulty in working them.

Wide troughs are better for monocropping where you put seedlings in at one end and remove mature plants at the opposite end. All the plants in a wide trough need to grow at the same rate for it to work properly. If you added some plants with a shorter grow out you will be trying to fish them out of the middle of the big troughs.

The only cost effective fish supply at the scale you propose is to start your own hatchery. Tilapia bred very easily in warm water. The blue tilapia in my systems grow at about 1/2 the rate that me white hybrid tilapia.

Comment by Christian De La Nuez on April 17, 2012 at 9:07am

We decided to try DWC for profit in a 1 1/2 acre agriculture lot that we have. We are building the greenhouse and putting in a 6000+ gallon tilapia grow out tank that will feed (2) 80'L x 16'W lettuce/produce troughs. Any tips or suggestions are greatly appreciated. 

*Also, if anyone knows where I can get a good deal on blue tilapia to properly stock my tank, please let me know. Looking for a good, cost-effective source.

Thanks

Comment by Kate Mink on April 10, 2012 at 12:37pm

Dustin, you might try regular spraying with Botanigard. It's expensive but safe to use right up to harvest, and controls a wide variety of pests. Many tomato wilts are carried by bugs, and the idea is to keep the bugs down, so stary spraying early (when plants are a foot high or even sooner). You can't kill the blight, the idea is to keep from getting it.

Christian, I agree that you probably have low nutrients in your system. How many fish do you have? How large are they? I recommend you get a nutrient test kit and check for pH, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. I like the liquid kits from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals better than the test strips. Again, a bit pricy, but easy and precise, and a $30 kit may last years.

Comment by Mörður Gunnarsson Ottesen on April 10, 2012 at 4:55am

Cristian, I would guess that your problem is that the plants aren't getting all the minerals/nutrition that they need. Check your PH regularly to see if it is stable and in the right range. If you show/send a picture then I can probably diagnose the problem.
Observation from picture:
If your system is small and exposed to rainwater then controlling the system is futile. 

Comment by Dustin Hardin on April 9, 2012 at 11:55pm

How do you help with Blite on tomato plants so that you do not hurt the fish or kill bacteria? Thank you for your help.

Comment by Christian De La Nuez on April 9, 2012 at 6:17pm

The small system that I'm using is the one shown on my avatar. Water temp is always between 70-84 degrees. They get around 12 hours of light. One small lettuce has one leaf starting to yellow a little bit. All the other lettuce looks nice and healthy, just very small for being 41 days old. I started them out in root cubes in a shallow pan with water for 22 hours a day and 2 hours of no water. Then when they had their first set of leaves, I put them in net cups (with the root cubes). And thats where I'm at now. They have 3-4 leaves each but are tiny. I also have 2 serrano pepper plants in there and they have stayed pretty small too. They have 4 leaves each but haven't grown from there.

Comment by Jordan Erickson on April 9, 2012 at 4:24pm

Christian, do you have the system attached to a grow bed, or bio system of sorts for the Bacteria to colonize and convert the ammonia into usable form for the plants?

Comment by Kate Mink on April 9, 2012 at 4:03pm

Christian, what are your nutrient levels? Light? temperature? are your plants showing any signs of distress such as yellowing? If you pick one up, does it have lng healthy roots? Impossible to even guess what's going on without more information!

Comment by Christian De La Nuez on April 9, 2012 at 3:29pm

Hello everyone, I have been growing my lettuce in my small backyard setup for 41 days now and my lettuce is still tiny. I thought I was supposed to have table ready lettuce in 40-50 days. Anyone have any idea why it's taking so long?

Comment by Rick Welland on March 20, 2012 at 9:58pm

On my page about halfway down is a drawing of our layout. How does ground water maintain O levels? ?? Fish have been living in parts of those ponds for some years now. We intend to widen and deepen the ponds so that we can support a larger population of fish. And will areate on the return from the growing trays. And experiment some with food.Have large filters for the water entering the holding tanks tho may need to filter the water before entering the pump.

(Lived for over 30 years in the islands and miss greatly some of what you are enjoying.Still at much the same lattitude but at 6000' high we don't have the coconuts..) Cheers... 

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