Hydroponic enthusiasts (hobby/personal growers)

[shake d livin wake d dead]

aye check out this system guys,called window farming,we displayed this for orientation week at uwi...took 2 weeks to build,really cool imo....

[rfari]

shakes, that setup decent man. what's the medium? what nutes are used etc?

[shake d livin wake d dead]

okay: the extreme left had two varieties of lettuce,the middle was different types of mints,chocolate mint was the best imo,thats the 4th one.to the right we tried a miniature pepper as well as lettuce again.the system is mainly for those who living in cold climates,hence the reason for the light bulbs.
we also used a large water pump to push all the nutrients throughout the system

nutrients/mixtures: pro mix, miracle grow rizolex at the beginning,after a week or so went to blaukorn and other types of food.

[rfari]

neat man. what trace elements are in the miracle grow?

[shake d livin wake d dead]

can't remember exactly the details of the miracle grow..... I'd check it and let you know,but there is a large variety of miracle grow and most farmers use the 20-20-20 at the beginning,its a blue crystal powder....

[Yodins]

do you guys use fish in your setups ?

[rfari]

i never tried aquaponics. right now dnt have the space for it tho.

[bluesteel29]

do you guys use fish in your setups ?

that type of growin isnt easy...you cannot give much/any nutes to the plant because u have to keep that system in balance as to not kill the fish..in essence the only thing gonna b feeding ur plants would b fish sh!t..make sure u have a backup battery or generator cuz if elect goes for too long u lose ur crop

[Yodins]

do you guys use fish in your setups ?

that type of growin isnt easy...you cannot give much/any nutes to the plant because u have to keep that system in balance as to not kill the fish..in essence the only thing gonna b feeding ur plants would b fish sh!t..make sure u have a backup battery or generator cuz if elect goes for too long u lose ur crop

i thought it was supposed to be like the plants filter the water for the fish and the fish provide nutrients for the plants?

[bluesteel29]

i thought it was supposed to be like the plants filter the water for the fish and the fish provide nutrients for the plants?

plants dont really filter the water,they absorb the micro nutrients in the water from the fish...not all plants would grow great on just these ferts alone...most aquaponics systems are flood n drain systems which means the water/nute solution is pumped onto the bed at time intervals then drained off back into the aquarium.
what is another big factor is the Ph levels....improper ph lvls n the plants uptake of nutes will slow down or come to a halt n no growth will take place

[rfari]

there's a guy with a mini fish farm that's interested in the aquaponics to grow organic lettuce for the offsprings of a fish he is breeding. would follow up with him in the new year.

generally aquaponics systems should be cheaper and easier to maintain compared to traditional hydro systems. @bluesteel29 i would more recommend raft or DWC systems for aquaponics to keep it simple. never tried flood/drain yet tho

[bluesteel29]

having the plants in the aquarium itself would mean ud have to clean it more often

[rfari]

why u say that? because of the dead roots and other plant matter?

[bluesteel29]

yeah but also the amt of algae that would accumulate...all depends on the upkeep of the system

[Yodins]

there's a guy with a mini fish farm that's interested in the aquaponics to grow organic lettuce for the offsprings of a fish he is breeding. would follow up with him in the new year.

generally aquaponics systems should be cheaper and easier to maintain compared to traditional hydro systems. @bluesteel29 i would more recommend raft or DWC systems for aquaponics to keep it simple. never tried flood/drain yet tho

keep me posted about that guy.

sooo, any ideas on how i can make a small scale aquaponics system from scratch at home?

[shake d livin wake d dead]

there's a guy with a mini fish farm that's interested in the aquaponics to grow organic lettuce for the offsprings of a fish he is breeding. would follow up with him in the new year.

generally aquaponics systems should be cheaper and easier to maintain compared to traditional hydro systems. @bluesteel29 i would more recommend raft or DWC systems for aquaponics to keep it simple. never tried flood/drain yet tho

keep me posted about that guy.

sooo, any ideas on how i can make a small scale aquaponics system from scratch at home?

if you have time check UWI agricultural section or the field station for more info on this?..in the mean time I'd get some info for you..did a paper on this already..very costly though...

[SNIPER 3000]

............

[rfari]

a simple setup with an existing aquarium

[shake d livin wake d dead]

a simple setup with an existing aquarium

there is a place in Waterloo doing this very thing right now inno...can't remember exactly where...but the lady behind it,is a professor at UWI...they were doing talapia and tomatoes..

[Yodins]

if you have time check UWI agricultural section or the field station for more info on this?..in the mean time I'd get some info for you..did a paper on this already..very costly though...

scene. I'll look into it

a simple setup with an existing aquarium
[img]<a href="http://s2.hubimg.com/u/757345_f260.jpg[/img" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Link added by VigLink" class="vglnk">http://s2.hubimg.com/u/757345_f260.jpg[/img</a>]

seems simple enough

[rfari]

a simple setup with an existing aquarium

there is a place in Waterloo doing this very thing right now inno...can't remember exactly where...but the lady behind it,is a professor at UWI...they were doing talapia and tomatoes..

The only thing I would add to this would be a simple 3-stage bioreactor and a UV light at the plant trough outfall. A typical aquarium would be traded for a half barrel setup.
Hoss. I have to set aside a day in the new year to check uwi and their agri setups. Still didn't get my tea plants.

[rfari]

Shakes tell me if u ever hear about this one locally; compost tea + trace in a deep water culture hydro setup.

[Chimera]

would love to do something large scale like this





but even something like a simple 1/2 inch Styrofoam sheet is $200 to $300 locally

I feel I hadda wait til nex i bringing a container from china to bring in a setta hydro stuff for personal use

1:44 or so in the video is when you see the scale of the project

[rfari]

^^ talapias?

[rfari]

after adding gravel as a medium to the banana plants became stunted. had to cut it and start new. think it had to do with plant shock. as soon as the bananas were cut, they started to grow again.


this is the pepper plant that was in the same system with the banana. it started to send out flower buds so i moved it to its own system and changed the nute formula to suit. but that was a bad idea as the plant reacted badly to the nute change. the leaves appear wilted during the day but spring back to life at night. right now trying to nurse it back to its best.




an additional system setup. tomatoes in 1 trough and a mix of chive, celery in the other.
tomatoes sent out flowers but i'm not sure if its too early for this to happen.


first produce since using new hydro formula. celery and chive.


cucumber seedlings in banana system


another system with some more peppers.



these have lettuce, cabbage, celery and parsley. experimenting with using sharp sand as a medium. system has some slow leaks that i have to fix today. almost burnt out the sump/

[shake d livin wake d dead]

Shakes tell me if u ever hear about this one locally; compost tea + trace in a deep water culture hydro setup.

nope..first time..
as for the pics...tomatoes looking healthy...lol at the shadow beni in the pot though

[rfari]

Shakes tell me if u ever hear about this one locally; compost tea + trace in a deep water culture hydro setup.

nope..first time..
as for the pics...tomatoes looking healthy...lol at the shadow beni in the pot though

This year I plan to develop a true organic hydro system. Prolly based on bat guano and seaweed. The shadon beni was half idleness, half curiousity. So far so good. If it continues to perform then I just might dedicate a new system to it.

[shake d livin wake d dead]

plan on putting down some good cucumber this yr,prolly some melon as well...
from a closer look at the tomato picture...it's I'm seeing the leaves beginning to get brown..you smoke around them or wa? it could be either bacterial spot on an early blight...

[rfari]

You doing the cucumbers hydro or traditional?

Went to take a closer look at it. The flower buds turn a honey brown sort of colour. I dunno why tho. Would take a photo of it and show the agri shop dude it and ask him what to do. Found a young tomato fruit as well . Hope it goes well. Don't think I would switch the nute formula tho. I'm afraid that it would suffer the same consequence as the pepper.

[shake d livin wake d dead]

doing it traditional as all irrigation methods are already in place...so it's just to start from basics and go with the flow...but ur celery looking healthy though...nice wrk there..