Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

An Idea has come to me today. "why not grow plants on rivers, tie the rafts on something so that it wont be carried by the current". I decided to google "riverponics" if someone is doing it already. And here it is. But not on rivers though. I actually have something like this, I mean I experimented with a container with cloth wicks in the bottom and put it in a container with water and see if it wicks. It did but since mine is big like 2 sq foot I have to put 4 wicks because one wick is just to slow. this one circulates water continuously as against mine which is auto watering trough. I wonder if there is really a need to circulate the water as nutrients can already be dissolve in water just like ordinary wicking beds/containers.

anyway I just realize that this is "hydropinics" cum wicking containers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drfCTiF2FJI

Interesting distraction Julian however it looks a lot like dirt gardening to me.

Sure he's wicking the nutrient enriched water up through the base of the pots and I'd imagine he's got good soil mix to help but it's a long way from what you're implying.
I thought the idea was to take the water from the river and run it through the GBs. I guess the lower in the river the water can be collected the more nutrient rich it would. I'd be a bit concerned about upstream contaminants such as human waste and fertilizers flowing down.
The hatchery I use has a flow system from a river so I'd imagine down stream the waste levels would be quite high. They are toying with the idea of building an aquaponics system using their flow through.

Yeah this one is dirt gardening. I have the same idea with wicking containers. I guess its better than auto pots since I can service many pots with just one float valve. As compared to auto pots that only have 2 pots.

definitely clean river is a criteria for a riverponics, the real one not the one on the vid:), its either place rafts directly to the river or pump water from river using ram pump or turbine pump powered by the river itself.

The nutrient concentration in river water will not be sufficient to support healthy plant growth in non-aquatic plants.

Thanks but say we look at it at; harvest per labor? riverponics is more or less plant and forget. No fish feeding, no water testing, nutrient adding and power cost.

You're not the first person to wonder about nutrients in river water

http://byap.backyardmagazines.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7290&hilit=put&start=2595#p419784

He's planning NFT on a boat trip down the murray river if I understand correctly