Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey guys,

I've learnt so much on this forum (long time reader, first time poster)

One thing I'm struggling to find information about is the type or mix of soil to use in a wicking bed.


The original plan was just to use a no dig style, ALL organic material, horse manure, cardboard and greens like lawn clippings etc

But then I read somewhere that this kind of mix will could turn anaerobic fast and instead it should be more free draining?



A side question would be the materials I'm using and their toxicity.
I was planning to use 25mm PVC from bunnings but then I read that PVC isn't as safe as poly?

Also picked up pond liner from bunnings (aquatec) and couldn't find any info about it being food safe or free from toxins?

Thanks in advance

Anyone?

The bed is ready to be filled now

"As wicking beds 'failed', on the don't side make sure your media has an adequate amount of coarse sand or other materials to allow for a degree of air entrainment in the mix (like good potting mix). This may seem like a contradiction when you talk about wicking, however mushroom compost and manure in bathtubs set up as wicking beds (coiled slotted ag pipe with a sock as the reservoir) failed badly ( I must have been having an off day when I thought up that one). "

The reason it failed was not the reservoir below but the fact we had a lot of rain. it would not drain fast enough to the outlet and held far too much water in the soil, roots rotted through lack of air.

Never had a problem with pvc.

I'm not sure I'd use the grass clippings unless they've been composted but what you use is going to depend on how your bed is setup and what you are trying to grow. For most I think a good rich garden soil that drains well would work but Milne (Food and Fish) and Rob (RobBob on Youtube) probably have answered this in their threads. There are a lot of other threads that probably have this as well. Here's one of Rob's videos that talks about setting up a wicking bed (this is back a few years ago so he may have done some changes since but this is what I found) Start watching from just before the 8 minute mark - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAFyB35yVeA

Since it costs money to certify something as food safe, a lot of items will never carry this certification even though they are. I use EPDM liner in some of the fish tanks and DWC beds and I use PVC for all the piping. I can't attribute any bad events to either. Most breakdown will be because of sunlight so I would try to limit exposure of pipes and liner.

Thanks guys, based on further research I'm going to implement the following. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

First things first, between the sand (above the geotec fabric) a layer of sugar cane mulch for an air pocket

I have a total of 1 tonne of growing medium needed

5% cow manure
5% chicken manure
7.5% mushroom compost
Some perlite, Kelp (or seaweed), blood and bone, bicoal, sulphate of potash and rock dust
I also have a worm farm so I'll put a bucket load of vermicast in there

The mix will also have 20% coarse sand in total
And the rest (60%) will be horse manure, unfortunately I don't have any composted horse manure so it will be fresh.
I will be rinsing the manure to remove most urine traces and then leaving the bed covered in plastic for a couple of weeks to hot compost quickly in the full sun all day long...

It's either all horse manure or half horse manure half vegetable mix or maybe top soil (clay sand & dirt)?

I need urgent help!

Delivery truck came to deliver sand but it's the wrong sand.

They brought washed Coarse Sand... No little rocks in it, just sand and it's WHITE

What I believe is a better sand is a River Sand which has little rocks etc and it's brown?

It's urgent because I need to let them know in the next hour either to pick up this one and change it or I'm keeping it..

Please let me know ASAP if you think this will do

Here are the photos

https://i.imgur.com/9THNmGX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QmmMQZu.jpg

I know its a bit late but if the white is as coarse as it looks I would have gone with that. Some root vegetables esp carrots like a smaller even grain.

ha! Lucky I went with that.

The best way I can explain it, is that it's like normal beach sand, maybe a little finer

Thanks mate

What do you think of my mix ratio?