Holy grail for aquaponic production

[Kobus Jooste]

Which plants are still considered "difficult" or "impossible" to grow in aquaponics?  I have begun a process of trying to design a system that can grow as many different varieites of crop possible.  Only a few years ago, pundits declared aquaponics "only suited to growing leafy greens".  That has been proven incorrect over and over, but is there any plant people still consider as being impossible to grow in aquaponics?

[Nate Storey]

Maybe, I seed directly onto my used media. . . and then germinate under a mist bench.   Peat moss will work- just make sure you don't get it too soggy.  Oats like good drainage.

I have used vermicompost and then transplanted seedlings- that works pretty well.

[Teresa N Florida]

According to the link Larry posted on this thread > Spinach Germination temperature: 40 F to 75 F  (May fail to germinate in warm soils.)  <  Crazy idea, but the standard temp setting for your refrigerator is 40 F.  Just saying.

[RupertofOZ]

Blueberries in an aquaponics system in Georgia...

 

 

And I've got some other pics of some grown in some Australian AP systems.... (somewhere)...

[Marisa Dawson]

So much for my student's plans to grow spinach in our shelfponics system ~ LOL!  Maybe carrots? 

TCLynx said:

I remember doing some research into trying to grow spinach hydroponically years ago.  It is a notoriously difficult one to get reliable germination when seeding hydroponically.

 

I've had great luck with it when planting in soil/compost but I too have had difficulty getting good results in aquaponics.  I'm currently trying to start some spinach in pellets now for the towers since I too think it would be a good product.  Crazy since beets and swiss chard do so well in aquaponics, one would think the close relative spinach should be easy too.

[Michael Davidson]

Might something like the above be a starting point for what we want? I thought perhaps the beds could use a wicking-bed approach with a soil/sand/gravel top layer hybridized with a porous barrier above a bottom layer that is continuous flow through hydroton.

For a natural buffer I thought to use peat balls, bogwood, alder cones and or almond leaves in the PH down reservoir.

I thought to use use media bags of bird gravel, oyster shells, and or egg shells in the PH up reservoir.

[Nate Storey]

Michael,

The concept is interesting, but in reality this setup would be very unstable- trying to operate with constant pH adjustment up and down simultaneously would eventually cause a buildup of your pH regulators- bad news.  The reality is that pH will range naturally depending on where it is in the system, but each system should be set to shoot for a certain pH.  Most plants aren't sensitive enough to care anyways.  Most plants are going to be fairly happy in pretty acidic conditions.

Nate

[Sahib Punjabi]

Nice...love the copy write :-)

So much for being "open source"! So how are you going to know if someone has already built something similar or builds one later? Perhaps what you are stating is that the image is copy write.

God bless

Michael Davidson said:

Might something like the above be a starting point for what we want? I thought perhaps the beds could use a wicking-bed approach with a soil/sand/gravel top layer hybridized with a porous barrier above a bottom layer that is continuous flow through hydroton.

For a natural buffer I thought to use peat balls, bogwood, alder cones and or almond leaves in the PH down reservoir.

I thought to use use media bags of bird gravel, oyster shells, and or egg shells in the PH up reservoir.

[RupertofOZ]

If the system has a single pump.. fed from the sump... that all pH adjusted beds dump too... then wont the pH of all beds just ultimately level/balance out.. with ever decreasing buffer increments...

 

And as Nate says... aside from all the disadvantages... what are the advantages... most plants ( i haven't found one yet).... will grow perfectly well...in fact optimally IMO... in an acidic range of pH.. from 6.2-6.8...

[Michael Davidson]

LOL. Sahib, yes, it's not patented, it''s only the image itself that is watermarked. It has nothing to do with restricting the idea it describes or whether or not someone has built or will build or sketch a system based from it. I would just prefer the image be referenced from the Aquaponics Community site. It drives traffic and I encourage everyone to do the same.

Cheers.

Sahib Punjabi said:

Nice...love the copy write :-)

So much for being "open source"! So how are you going to know if someone has already built something similar or builds one later? Perhaps what you are stating is that the image is copy write.

God bless

Michael Davidson said:

Might something like the above be a starting point for what we want? I thought perhaps the beds could use a wicking-bed approach with a soil/sand/gravel top layer hybridized with a porous barrier above a bottom layer that is continuous flow through hydroton.

For a natural buffer I thought to use peat balls, bogwood, alder cones and or almond leaves in the PH down reservoir.

I thought to use use media bags of bird gravel, oyster shells, and or egg shells in the PH up reservoir.

[Michael Davidson]

Nate,

I did indeed have a concern about salts building up but thought the natural adjustment approach might be okay. This is essentially the system I have now with the only difference being I don't have the separate adjustment reservoirs. I use shells in a media bag at the Fish Run's sump return and peat balls in 2 of the flood/drain grow beds. It's only 115 gallons (FT/sump combined) and even though I took the "cooking without a recipe" approach after carefully controlled cycling to establish bacteria, the system is pretty rock solid. I also allow natural rainwater to fall on the beds and overflow the sump at times. I feed my bass with worms from a vermicomposter and have more worms in the grow beds.

Nate Storey said:

Michael,

The concept is interesting, but in reality this setup would be very unstable- trying to operate with constant pH adjustment up and down simultaneously would eventually cause a buildup of your pH regulators- bad news.  The reality is that pH will range naturally depending on where it is in the system, but each system should be set to shoot for a certain pH.  Most plants aren't sensitive enough to care anyways.  Most plants are going to be fairly happy in pretty acidic conditions.

Nate

[TCLynx]

Michael, can you tell any difference in the pH in the different locations?

[Brian]

I am growing spinach hydroponically from seed right now in my basement using a simple but effective deep water culture system with air stones and a couple of T8s.  Right now the plants are 6 inches high and growing like crazy.

 

Brian

TCLynx said:

I remember doing some research into trying to grow spinach hydroponically years ago.  It is a notoriously difficult one to get reliable germination when seeding hydroponically.

 

I've had great luck with it when planting in soil/compost but I too have had difficulty getting good results in aquaponics.  I'm currently trying to start some spinach in pellets now for the towers since I too think it would be a good product.  Crazy since beets and swiss chard do so well in aquaponics, one would think the close relative spinach should be easy too.