I'm about to try watermelon aquaponically because I have heard people have had good results with it, growing massive big watermelons.
My mate grows strawberries and they have been consistently outperforming the soil grown ones for speed of growth and taste...the taste is just so much better than soil.
Ideally I would like to have a hydroponics system and aquaponics system side-by-side and compare the growth of the same plants in each setup. However, can you advise where a hydroponics system bought from a shop is better than one I can simply make? In terms of ease of use and reliability, I've seen whole setups for not very much. No point growing inside unless I were to grow something I didn't want the neighbors seeing, I'll just grow what is in season at that time. Also lights use HEAPS of power, which has gone up 52% in the past 2 years.
Why don't you setup a basic aquaponics system and document the differences in growth between both. You have to wait a few weeks for the vital bacteria to convert the fish waste into the nutrients the plant uses, but after that you will notice whatever is in there go crazy.
Response: John- a store bought hydroponic system is in no way superior to a homemade hydroponic system, particularly if you think through the design well to provide your plants with water, nutrients, and oxygen at the root level. It is also a very good idea to keep light from hitting the nutrient solution whenever possible (to prevent algae and fungus gnats).
Personally, I never buy hydroponic systems....I always build my own. From my experience, the biggest advantage to a store bought system is that the manufacturer has already spent many hours working out all the little problems, building in convenient features, and possibly including some "fail safes" into the design.
From my perspective a homemade system is often a work in progress, with a few adjustments along the way. These changes can be kept to a minimum by using a store bought system as your general blueprint. This is especially effective if you understand the reasons why something was built the way it was.
It is interesting you mentioned using your hydroponic system outdoors. Over the years I have collected many pictures and articles of hydroponic systems being used outdoors, but have not yet gotten around to writing an official page about it for the website. Perhaps it is time!
Unfortunately, I am in a location now where I cannot set up or use my hydroponic system, or even put a garden in outdoors :( For the time being, I will have to live vicariously through my website and my posts. It was great to hear from you again John....keep an eye out for that "Outdoor Hydroponics" page, and keep me up to date with your aquaponics if you don't mind- very interesting stuff!.....Jason W
Jan 05, 2010 Rating
A few more things by: John (original poster)
Well most people who try aquaponics actually find that it performs better than they expected (for me it was a lot better than I expected).
Current systems can grow just about any plant (not just green leafy vegetables) however, some plants would have a slight nutrient deficiency but all I know is the spinich tastes heaps better than the spinich grown in soil, and it also grows a lot faster (harvest enough for me every few days, big spinich leaves).
Tomatoes are my next grow, I plan on getting some sort of wire to support the plant as it'll get big.
I saw something where somebody managed to grow ~30kg of tomatoes off one single aquaponically grown plant. I also saw a picture of this plant- it was huge. I will try and find a link to the picture again.
Also, I haven't had any problems keeping the pH in check, it's been around 7.5 for a few weeks now and the fish and plants are doing great.
I suppose if you would prefer a completly controlled environment (lighting conditions, etc) you could put an aquaponics system indoors easily, which would enable you to grow more types of fish because there won't be so much temperature change throughout the year.
Thanks, John
John- thank you for a most interesting post....I know tomatoes require more nutrients than leafy veggies. Just wondering if this would cause a problem. Also, most nutrients are at their maximum availability to plants at a pH of 6.2-6.5. There are plants that do best at a pH of 7.0 or slightly above, but I thought I would mention it in case you are interested in experimenting at all. In any case, I would be very interested to hear how it turns out....thanks again, Jason
