Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

All of the commercial systems I see typically have rafts, I went down to florida to morning star fishermen and they said they would use vertical grow towers if they were starting up in commercial from scratch.

What do you guys say, my thought is that if you could afford the grow media (gravel or expanded clay) why not go with that. I guess harvesting is just easier with rafts?

I'm just getting started but as everyone else, dream of growing it to a commercial size. My deal is I have a seasonal business with 10 guys on salary and I'm thinking I'll force them to harvest lettuce all winter.

There are drawbacks to vertical, you have to pump higher, you have to have the support structure, you have to check and unclog tower feeds daily and planting/harvest won't be quite as easy as harvesting a raft of lettuce.

There are benefits to vertical if you have restricted space and if you might do a you pick operation or the Zipgrow towers are portable so you could deliver grown out towers to a market or even people's homes for them to harvest.

What is best will all depend on goals and situation.