Wicking bed design

[Chris Smith]

We have been growing root crops and everything else in our wicking beds with great success. We would like to discuss designs of beds and their operation in this discussion.

[Dino Zucchi]

hey chris thanks for the response, I did a little research and from what I understand the UV light actually helps the water quality by keeping the Algae growth down so that its not competing with the vegetables for the nitrates. at least thats what this guy say      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45EOlzH8-M8       It sounds logical. but it also sounds logical that the UV light kills microorganisms/ bacteria.  It seems like there are some conflicting results on this topic. If anyone has more info on this I would love to take a look.   I saw this other video that grows vegs floating on the top of a koi pond pretty awesome.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMHceLWJ-i8   I am going to start a new thread on soil recipes and soil mix's for wicking beds.

PS i was just in Maui for a month and completely fell in love my wife and I want to move there now. its simply paradise. 

[Chris Smith]

Most people who operate aquaponic systems keep sunlight off their fish tanks to prevent algae growth. That is what I do and the only algae I have is around the edges of my rafts where a little light hits the water but that is a different algae than what makes the water green. I tried to grow plants floating on my koi pond and nothing grew very much because the fish ate all the roots. I tried growing in gravel beds using my koi pond without much success too. Once I built a proper aquaponic system I was very successful from the very beginning.

Maui is a beautiful place but then all the Hawaiian Islands are too.

[Rob Nash]

Chris, thanks for the PDF, one of the best bits on WB out there.

my question is about the  bottom layer. i have a bunch of the 4" black drainage pipe that is perffed and covered in weed block, that was donated to me... i see this used as a distribution pipe, and sometimes its snaked around the bottom of a growbed to create the resevore. im reusing one of my old AP beds.. 5' x 12' with a pond liner, made of plywood and 2"x12" 

 

1 do you think i should use the hose just once down the middle, or snake it around the bottom?

2 what is the best medium to use below the weed block? pearlite, shale, coir, wood chips, sandy soil?

3 and if i use the 4" pipe, should i add a 2"x6" to the top of the 2"x12" to make it 16" deep to maintain 12" of soil above the water res?

thanks in advance,

Rob

 

[Paul Smith]

Hi Chris,

I watched the video with the veggies growing in the Koi pond and I see a netting below the raft.  This would prevent the Koi from eating too much veggie root.  if the Koi trimed too much root that grows through the netting, the horizontal roots will increase to make up the difference.

I have a Koi pond in our back yard that was there when we bought this house.  I am going to try some veggies the same way.

We have tiny Koi right now and they wouldn't be a problem for the veggies.

I am thinking of switching from Koi to Yellow Perch to get some fish that we can eat.  We can eat the Koi, only we have to contend with so many bones.

I once read a recipe for baking Koi.

Lay the Koi on a cedar plank

Bake @ 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven, throw the Koi in the garbage and eat the plank.

[Urban Hillbilly]

I will be using capillary mats as a wick to bring water from my aquaponic sytem to my root crops...Anyone have a set up like that?

[Bob Campbell]

I used the mats for sprouting seeds. 

I recently changed my AP system over to wicking by setting pots in my DWC beds.  The bottoms rest in about 1" of water.