Robert Gardner

Welcome Robert,

Thanks for joining the Aquaponic Gardening community!  I hope you find it a fun place to explore aquaponics.  There is a real blend of experienced and new aquapons in this community, so please don’t hesitate to get in there and start asking questions.  Everyone is quite happy to help out new members – no question is too basic.  

A great place to start is to read the “How to Use This Site” link on the upper right corner, “Start Here” section of the Main page.  You might also find the “Aquaponic Gardening Rules of Thumb” guidelines helpful.

Please participate and check in with us every day!  We are constantly posting news about aquaponics and the good food movement.

Thanks again for joining us, and I look forward to getting to know you.

Sylvia

Thanks for the welcome, Robert!  Good luck with your (very noble) garden.  Hopefully aquaponics can help increase your output.

Morning Robert. I used 2 in styrofoam board. I wished  would have used Dow blue board due to it is more durable. It is working ok for season 1. Take care.

Robert:

Thanks for the note....Yes, we're both starting at this, and I can guess that you are as excited as we are about this system of gardening.  We are hoping to get the aquaponic system in the next couple of weeks.  We're getting it from Here, which is a guy who lives down the road from us.  We found out about him, and aquaponics, when we stopped by his place during a countywide "Greenhouse Tour" a month or so ago.  Very interesting, and we figured it had to help with our terrible gardening luck.

So, do you have an unfair advantage, being that you have been a Gardner (Gardener) since birth...LOL!!!  Sorry couldn't help myself!

 

We just bought a small greenhouse (8x10), which I haven't even been home to set up yet, so everything will start happening in about a week.  I'm working on a tugboat, so have been away for a little more than a week.  The picture of the greenhouse doesn't look all that great, but a neigbhor has the smaller one, and it's made very well, and inexpensive.....just so we don't invest too much into something we really don't know how we'll do??

 

Anyway, thanks for the welcome, and I hope to hear more from you, about your system.

 

Take care,

Bill

Hello

 

I actually have yet to set up my system. I'm waiting on a small greenhouse to set it all up in. And I only have pictures from last year's system. That one turned out to be a bit of a disaster personally. But, observing this wonderful web resource, I think I had to few fish and way to many plants!

I worked on Aquaponics in highschool through FFA and was the manager of the plants of the system...but that was an established system! And managing the plants in an established system really isnt that difficult. Just have to watch them grow really!

 

So last year, I tried to pick it up again from memory and using recycled plastic things(basically garbage) to set my system up. It worked a little, but I was trying to sync 2 pumps in a continuous flow system...and it leaked ALL the time! SO at the end of growing season, I tore it all down, and wintered the fish out in the open.

 

So now, I'm trying to set up a new system with what I have learned and I still have the culture built in the old system from wintering the fish! Hoping it works, but I'm not the handiest of people How about yourself? I'm curious to know other Oregonians trying this out and what exactly can be grown in these systems with out wacky climate!

 

Chelsea S.

I know the high desert area well! Those nights can be a tough thing! I camp there often with family! But the stars on those clear nights are just wonderful arn't they?

I found a website that lists what veggies grow well in Oregon's many different areas.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/grow/grow/planting.html

Plants that are tolerant of wet soil(like lettuce or basil) grow well and are good beginner plants. And who doesn't like a fresh salad? :) Tomatoes grow rather well too and tend to be kinda easy. I have seen things like strawberries grow well in it, but I think more experience and an established system might be needed. Hope this list helps!

I love the idea of using the produce for the community! I'm doing something similar with mine. My grandmother has an old farm she is not able to work anymore, so my uncle is working the ground with help from the family and we are donating a lot of the produce!  Good luck to you!

Thank you Robert, are there any favorite systems you would recommend I check out?

Robert, thank you for the warm welcome.  I am looking forward to learning more about different systems, fish, plants, and materials.  I have been looking at other sites, but am glad to find this resource.  Have a great day!