Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey community of BYAP,

Today me and a few people who have been working towards building a sustainable garden for our college pretty much just got the okay that we can have the space we want and will get a lump of change from our school and the student life committee. We asked for around 8000 from student life then after that meeting we had a meeting with the president of our school and he said that he would be willing to give us pretty much as much money,legal and contracted work we need is what he made it sound like!! So that was awesome!

We have a fairly large area around half of a block or a quarter of an acer. We will have a green house and probs start with dirt, I am trying to get them to lean more towards aquaponics it is a concideration but they are concerned that we will not have any one who will be able to manage it in the future. But what I would presume is that it would actually be less work over the long run to have ap. I will work on convincing them

So what I am looking for at this stage is for all of you to give me input on different sizes and brands or companies have make green houses or DIY greenhouses (but I think it would have to be a kit because of the public schools liability). We are looking to provide a wide range of options to out funders, ie sizes and cost and if it gets cheapens if we go bigger. The president has been trying to get this going for years, he even me mentioned having previous plans of a huge greenhouse with budgets around 600,000.

All the food Raised would be giving away to the student body at no cost. We also are considering teaming with the culinary program to give them REAL food!

We are located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our school is MCTC, Minneapolis coummunity and technical college.

All suggestions are good suggestion!!!

Thanks !!

Sounds like a great project bikefast

There is so much the kids can take from things like these.

yeah thats what i am hoping just need ideas! will start searching for green houses tomorrow!

aquaponics is great for this because of the FIIISH lol

I havnt experience one person yet whom i have told about aquaponics that wasnt interested in following my progress.

Its something that sounds so simple and easy yet 99% of the population havnt heard of it...

I'd go wicking beds to start with and a small AP running on non eating fish eg goldies. The wicking beds require less bending and are water friendly. Once you have the AP system running well, and everyone goes wow, expand.

sleepe- what is a wicking bed?

does any one know of any good greenhouses?

The first half of Growers Supply's catalog seems to be all greenhouses.

cool l will look into it thanks!

A wicking bed is like a very large self watering plant pot there are a lot of people on the forum have them. This is a thread for one viewtopic.php?f=18&t=12601&hilit=wicking#p328728
There are a number of very good threads on building them.

sleepe- is is that like a flood and drain system? or what? thanks!

Isn't Howling Moose Gardens in that area?

These are nothing to do with AP systems, as I said they are like a raised garden bed with a built in watering supply. As opposed to a normal raised bed which looses moisture through the base, this has a resevoir of water which will travel upwards due to capillary action. Link to a PDF http://permaculturewest.org.au/resource ... g-beds.pdf
I only suggested these to start with because you are more likely to get approval as they look and seem familiar to a normal garden bed. If you jumped straight in to normal AP there is a lot more capital cost and expertise needed, start with a small system until you and the students become familiar with its operation. Then you are more likely to get approval for expansion.

divorce the dirt

go straight to AP

Then you better find someone who knows what they are doing, this is not in your own backyard and trying to get a bunch of contractors to do it will require someone who is both competent and knows how to deal with them.

agree - you "really" need some sort of initial consultation by a consultant on site.....