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Join the 20 Gallon Challenge. We did!
(Click on the certificate to enlarge.)
Great recipes for the healthful food you will produce, including tilapia, of course! Visit Cookingdude.com and see hundreds of great how-to recipes.
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How It Works Aquaponic farms and gardens differ from ordinary hydroponic gardens in that the nutrients are provided by the fish and fish food rather than a mixture of industrial chemicals. This not only provides superior nutrition for the vegetables, but also provides good protein in your diet from the fish you harvest. It is a self-contained system that can be located almost anywhere you have room, indoors or out. It is a tremendous water-saver, using the plants to purify the water returned to the fish tank. Organiculture improves on aquaponics by using certain soil-based micronutrients mixed in the planter bed to enable flowering and fruiting plants to be grown. Conventional aquaponics, great at growing leafy green plants such as lettuce and basil, lacks some key nutrients to successfully growing peppers, tomatoes, and similar vegetables. Organiculture overcomes these limitations, producing a bountiful harvest of nearly anything you want to grow.
In the diagram above, you can see how the water is recycled through the system. This conserves 90% of the water, since the only losses are the amounts used by the vegetables and the loss due to evaporation.
Many of our systems are built up from
individual modules we call People Feeders, with standard sizes
of 2x2, 2x4 3x3, 4x4, and 3x6 feet. Using these modules, we can fit an
aquaponic farm or garden into almost any space. For example, we use six 3x6 foot modules in a
10x20 foot greenhouse or hoop house. Whether you just want a few fresh vegetables and fish in your urban high-rise
garden or want to grow fish and vegetables commercially in large units, we can
provide the proper technology to fit your needs. The Grow Foods concept is based on hydroponics, except that it uses fish, such as tilapia, instead of inorganic chemicals to produce the nutrients that are consumed by the plants. Aquaponics gets its name from combination of aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics. Aquaponics does not have the wasteful and eco-unfriendly effluent disposal problem as either hydroponics or aquaculture. Organiculture, our version of aquaponics, produces even more food! You get delicious organic vegetables that have been nurtured by the fish in the most natural way possible. As a direct bonus, you get to harvest the fish from time to time, either to eat, sell, or give to friends. If you don't want or need to produce food fish, you can grow goldfish or koi. They won't grow as fast as tilapia, but in the long run the koi might be more valuable per pound. Timers operate the various pumps and grow lights (if used), so the system requires only a minimum of your time. You and your family will enjoy many of these activities together:
We often use four tanks for the fish, with each tank harvested and re-stocked every six weeks. That way, every six months a tank is completely emptied of fish, cleaned up if necessary, and re-stocked. Similarly, as you harvest lettuce or other veggies, you have seedlings sprouting in your kitchen or sun room. This planting/harvesting rotation not only provides continuous food, it also keeps the nutrient value of the water more constant. If you do not need the fish for food, you can instead grow goldfish and koi. Although these fish grow more slowly, they can actually fetch a better price when the time comes to sell the large ones.
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