Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

NATE OMG I LOVE THE SYSTEM!!!

ive been thinking about swamp cooler pads or some sort.
your system has me rethinking about the hole NFT v GB debate.
and your NFT troffs are 14"x14" wow where the heck did u find those and what r they called.
-df

Ya - also has me thinking of reworking GH plans...hmmm

very nice! more pics please!!!

uhmmmm.... How soon is "pretty" soon...? (guaranteed I'm not the only one thinking of this project in the next 2-4 weeks.... Guessing I could sub something else for the short term, but would like the right/proven material if available...)

CB

Whoa... This basil tower looks amazing!
http://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/photo/basil-2?context=user


I hope you don't mind that I put up an [img] from your site... I linked it so that anyone can click on the image and be brought to your page with that pic.

p.s. holy poo I want to throw out my project and build a few of your towers of awesome green-ness!

p.p.s. do you ever have problems with the roots clogging up the tower and water overflowing/reduced flow?

country boy- email me at nate81@uwyo.edu. I don't want to use this thread to sell stuff!

I'll put up more pics tomorrow- I'll try to get some of the entire system.

Dank Fish, the towers are 4" square PVC, but the footprint (horizontal growing space is 14x14" square.

Dejavoodoo, i'm glad you like them. I'm thinking about a new greenhouse too. must be that time of year. . .

mikeym- no problem, i posted quite a few photos over there on the ning site- the two photos i took with my ugly mug in them were two too many. I guess just focus on the pretty green stuff and ignore the troll!

So what do you do with all the basil - do you sell it or eat everything with pesto?

Nate,

I noticed that you made a comment about how your barley:


Have you ever thought about growing shiitake or oyster mushrooms out of your media using what is left behind of the barley? I'm not sure if you could grow them directly out of the media full of roots but I think it would be a fun experiment! Of course you'd probably be taking that batch of media out of AP commission for the amount of time before it is all used up/converted to mushrooms but it could be another step in using everything you have.

Here is a link I came across in regard to using spent barley to grow edible fungi.

http://www.gardenguides.com/107129-grow-mushrooms-spent-barley.html

I've mailed the guys over at http://fungi.com and they are very knowledgeable and quick when it comes to answering questions about what their fungi will grow out of. i've ordered a number of things from them (plugs to seed/soil inoculant). I inoculated some of my logs late last year and notice that if i put a pot on top of the log for a few days - week + and then lift the pot there is a lot of white fluffy mycelium growing everywhere. I haven't yet gotten a flush of shiitake/lions mane/pearl oyster mushrooms yet but I'll post pics when I do.

Mike

Wow that tower of basil is amazing!!!

Do you have constant flow, or on a timer?

Amo

Oh Dank Fish- I forgot to mention. Be careful of swamp cooler pads- many of them are treated with anti-microbial and anti-fungal agents. I've looked at them before, but most of them just don't hold up well to the abuse of being used in towers.

Mikeym- thanks for the idea, hadn't thought of using them like that. . . hmmmm. I've done oyster mushroom production on barley straw before, but hadn't considered using my spent towers. Something to think about. Might help with decomp.

Amo- your profile pic made me blow coffee out of my nose. Anyway, I'm running my pump constantly (it doesn't like hard starts, and i want it to last as long as possible!).

Had an interview on ABC radio (Australia) with a gent from fungi.com. It was amazing some of the plants he had come across. Basically the thing that really stunned me was that he mentioned fungi in the US. One fungi had spread out over such a distance that one plant - 1 fungi had taken over 5 square miles. Every where you walked in this woodland the fungi would sense your presence. Amazing...

I think there is a great opportunity for combo systems that not only use gravel but also towers. The gravel beds would still be handy for growing long term crops as well as perennials and very large rooted plants and having the towers running to help with aeration and using up excess nutrients on crops that won't clog the towers before they are complete.

Perhaps in commercial operations strictly towers might be fine but I know most of us backyard growers want more variety from our systems than just herbs and greens. (I've got bananas, papayas, lemons, rosemary and many other long term plants in my gravel beds.) But I love the idea of adding the towers for an easy way to grow the fast crops.

It also seems a handy way to avoid the leaves building up around the floating rafts for a commercial scale system that is completely outdoors. If you have netting over the tanks and towers hanging over the netting, the leaves would be far easier to keep out of the system.

I also think it might be possible to do a filter media rotation through worm trays or something to remove roots without tearing them apart. I like the mushroom idea, that sounds like another cool idea for rotation with the right crops!!!!

A giant fungus of the species Armillaria ostoyae (honey mushrooms) in the Malheur National Forest in Oregon was found to span 8.9 km2 (2,200 acres)[4], which would make it the largest organism by area. Whether or not this is an actual individual organism, however, is disputed: some tests have indicated that they have the same genetic makeup,[5] but unless its mycelium is fully connected, it is a clonal colony of numerous smaller individuals. Another clonal colony that rivals the Armillaria and the Populus colonies in size is a strand of the giant marine plant, Posidonia oceanica, discovered in the Mediterranean near the Balearic Islands. It covers a band roughly 8 km (4.3 miles) in length.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_organisms

Yes I remember seeing a TED discussion by Paul Stamets and he had mentioned this...

http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html

Some amazing stuff in that video... There is even a company that uses recycled "hair" donated by barber shops/salons that get pressed into mats then inoculated with oyster mushrooms and it is used to soak up oil in the water from oil spills... The mycelium grows, makes mushrooms then bacteria/bugs/worms eat the living/decaying mushrooms then it gets pooped out like it was worm fertilizer, birds/small animals eat the bugs/worms while pooping seeds on the stuff and then grass grows as well as other plants brought in by winds ... and voila oil is basically collected by hair and then converted into a mini ecosystem of life while it is cleaned up by mushrooms...

Here is the article:

http://articles.sfgate.com/2007-11-14/news/17270165_1_lisa-gautier-hair-mats-motor-oil

Here is the group that converts the hair into mats:
http://www.matteroftrust.org/programs/natural.html

Ugh sorry if I'm hijacking this thread... I get very excited about Fungi!

Hi-jack... perhaps. Interesting... yes.

I am watching this thread for more tidbits about N8's system. I would love to know how to get that material. Do we have to go "secure" N8? (reference to a top secret conversation... sorry, I'm a dork)

Your pics are inspiring. I have a plan (an idea) to implement your concept into my current system.

I noticed a user has a similar setup to Nate minus the materials and shape of the tower... The water is being sprayed in from the top. Nate have you ever thought about hooking something up to your tower like a slow motor that rotates the tower so that you can insert seeds/seedlings on all for sides of your tower?

here is a pic referencing what i'm talking about:



Would the weight of the tower be too much for a motor? perhaps instead of using a motor due to weight constrictions what about using something similar to web4deb's servo/windshield wiper design for opening/closing his greenhouse windows. This way you could use something similar to what one would use for mounting a full size punching bag which allows it to rotate 360 degrees and all the weight would be on that and then the servo/windshield wiper arm would spin it 180 degrees in a clockwise direction then return to the starting position and then turn 180 degrees in the a counter clockwise direction.

Here is a link to web4deb's BYAP system and his blog where he shows the picture of the servo that he designed to open/close his greenhouse window:

BYAP:
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5098&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Blog:
http://web4deb.blogspot.com/2008/08/vents-20.html

I swear I've seen so many frickin cool ideas and AP implementations on this thread. Hats off to everyone who posts their gear/design ideas here!

I think the big difference in Nates towers is that they have a slit up most of the front side to make planting the seedlings into the tower easy because you stick the seedling in between the two halves of the filter media as you slide them into the tower, looks way cool. However, this would make it difficult to plant multiple sides.

Most other tower designs involve holes that you plant the seedlings into.

The holes might be fine with some designs when you plant the first batch of seedlings as you fill the tower with media, but the times I've tried something like that, it is always hard to re-plant.