Aquaponic Gardening

A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Hi guys,

First time poster, a big howdy to all.  

In my new home, I am tempted to build an aquaponic system for vegetable, ie fishes to support plants. The new house being in California desert near Palm Springs, I am not sure if the climate and water quality are suitable. 

Climate:
Desert climate, very dry except Aug/Sept during the so call monsoon, it gets a bit humid. Detail
Super hot summer July-Sept. day time can reach as high as 125F+ (50C+) and night time around 100F+ (37C+).See its temp today.
Mild winter day time around 80F (26C), night 40F (4C) with occasion

Water:
·Range for pH is 7.3 units to 8.2 units with an average of 7.8 units.
·Range for Hardness (as CaCO³) is 23 milligrams per Liter (mg/L) to 290 mg/L with an average of 120 mg/L.
Detail

My worries:
Water too hard to support growing plants? Summer being so hot, how to keep water within reasonable temp for fishes and plants. 

I want to build a small pond say 6'lx3'wx3'd in my side yard (20ft x 8ft). Above ground but under shade. As for plants, mainly asian vege, lettuce (too hot?) carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers. Nothing exotic.

Thanks for reading and helping.

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I have been square foot gardening for years here. There has only been one freeze in the last five years. So I wouldn't say greenhouse is needed but the wind will mess up your plants. Any kind of protection from the wind will help a lot.

 

Okra would love the heat but wind could be problem as they are tall and have big leaves.
Shade structure or shade cloth fence or walls can cut the wind and if you go growing tropicals you could pull frost blanket over it for the expected freezes.

 

This drawing shows all the space that I can experiment with.  Basically side patio of 8'x21' with west being the house and east/north both 6' brick wall.  Only south is not totally enclosed.  May be I should add  shade cloth awning.  

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may want to take some measurements and see how much light you get in that location. In the winter months vegetables will require full sun eight hours a day.
I worry about the winter months too.  Do lettuce need 8 hours too?
Yes it does. It does pretty well but it needs the sun.
I may have to add lack of sufficient direct sun to hard water and desert heat as major considerations.
The water and heat are not really problems for most things. I have had great success.

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