I've never seen anything like this

[Dan Wulff]

Update Aurora Colorado

May 10 2012

Recently we moved the IBC unit out into the backyard and I built a 12x20 hoop type green house around it and I am stunned and amazed at the growth of the plants. We are doing both raised dirt bed and aquaponic farming. The dirt farming is in plastic 3 gallon nursery pots and the aquaponics is in the IBC unit. We do water change outs so that we can supply the dirt side with the fish water as an additional nutrient.

I have lettuce that is growing at least 1 inch per day...on the slower plants that are in the dirt! We put in potatoes and the plants are over a foot tall in 2 weeks. The aquaponics side is growing uncannily. We eat salad every day just to keep up with the growth and I don't want to talk about the strawberries...I sure hope Jamie knows how to make jam because we are going to have a lot of jam.

This has turned out better than I've ever dreamed and Jamie runs around inside wishing we had a bigger yard so we could grow more. We've been sharing our bounty (in lettuce) with our neighbors who are stunned at what we have done. One neighbor is a teacher and wants me to write up a little piece and supply some photos so he can show them to his 6th grade class.

This is what everyone has been talking about and I can't understand why people are not catching on and why this isn't pounding the news rooms. Just think of a city full of people doing aquaponics... people feeding themselves... as Mr. Spock would say..."Fascinating!"

I'll post some pics soon,

Dan

[Dan Wulff]

The water temps are 80 degrees and the strain of lettuce is Loose Leaf Butter Crunch, and some "mixed" heirloom seed we picked up. I don't know which it is exactly...but it sure tastes good!

[Dan Wulff]

HI Bob,

We have 15 small to medium tilapia in a standard IBC container. The grow bed on the tank is loaded with hydroton. and that's all we are doing tank wise. The other "grow beds" are in 3 gallon nursery pots filled with compost and a raised compost filled bed 12"x 2' x 10'. We do occasional water changes and take the water from the tank and water the other plants then fill with new water. This seems to work wonders and everything is absolutely healthy. We also use ladybugs to keep pests down. Other than that...I do go out and give the plants a pep talk and a thank you for feeding us... it seems to work!

[matthew ferrell]

What strain of lettuce?  What are your water temps?  That might be a world record...  My fasted growing lettuce is 28 days for something like that, on its best day.

[Bob Vento]

Ok Dan ... what is your secret? That is some serious growth rate. What was your water source, What type of fish are you growing and what media is in your grow beds? WOW!

[Carey Ma]

Good going Dan! Welcome to AP family.

Cheers

[Dan Wulff]

HI Sylvia,

I will be adding the pics today. What would you say to lettuce that went from seed to 8 inches tall in 2.5 weeks? We've also gotten some friends over in Highlands Ranch to start some above ground beds by giving them some of the lettuce, strawberry and kale. I will be helping them to start a little trial system using their 100 gallon fish tank. One family at a time, one family at a time...it's good stuff.

[Dan Wulff]

Hi Kenneth,

Thanks ever so much for the fish. They are all doing well but we did have one loss about a week after the group was introduced to the system. The others are doing fine and they really like the lettuce scraps we feed down to them. The tank has stabilized and they seem happy and are supplying all kinds of nutrients for their plant buddies.

[Kenneth J Roche']

Hey Dan good to hear things are working well.  How did the fishes you got from me workout?

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Love it love it love it, Dan!  Your enthusiasm and energy are the kind of thing that is really going to propel this movement!  Keep on spread'n the word.  People really can grow like this in Colorado!  looking forward to those pics.