Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm finishing my home construction now in SW Ohio. My first spring project will be my own AP system. I was wondering if anyone has tried trees in an AP system. It would be nice to take a seedling and get it to grow 6 or 7 feet then transplant. I'm planning on ebb/flow. I'm thinking that I could use cheap 35 gal trashcans then cut them away from the tree at transplant time. Thoughts?

~Spencer

i've seen a few 55 gallon barrels cut in half horizonally used for dwarf fruit trees.. should be doable..

btw, howdy from another buckeye! (i'm right next to lake erie, so a bit north of you)

Keith ~ Good to know there are AP growers in the state. I worry about our weather. I envy your access to Lake Erie! Walleye, Perch, Steelhead... Yum! You are also in the best zone in the state for wind energy. I'm south of Dayton in the worst zone.

I was hoping to provide 3 years of growth in a year. A seedling northern pecan can be had for about a dollar whereas a 3 year old is about 80 dollars. I was targeting Northern Pecans, Northern Almonds, Chinese Chestnuts, Paw Paws, Hazelnut, as well as some fruits (Apple, Plum, cherry, etc). I have about 5 acres to work with. In the case of the nut trees, it takes 10 years before they start to yield. Anything I can do to reduce that window (one half to one third) would be wonderful.

Do plants mind being taken from one environment and put into a diffrent one?

Would a tree's roots grow in such way in water that they would not work so well in soil? Would they need to be hardened off before ransplanting to soil or would they adapt well enough? It would be a shame to have a head start and then a down time while the tree recovers. It has been a while since I hit the books but are some roots for anchorage, some for water and some for nutrient or do they all serve the same purpose?

Many plants can be a bit resentful after being ripped from aquaponics and getting stuck into dirt. You need to make sure that where they are being planted into the ground that you can help them along while they get over the transplant shock and harden off into their new location. Lets face it, an aquaponic bed is a really cush environment for plants and suddenly sticking them out in the dirt is gonna set them back a bit.

You might do better to figure out a half way method for getting the seedlings advanced to saplings that isn't quite like full aquaponics. Perhaps some large trays where you could have the seedlings in large plant pots (or maybe some of those special air pruning pots) that would get bottom water from the aquaponics on a schedule but be a bit more like soil growing so that you don't have to completely traumatize the tree by ripping it out of a flood and drain gravel bed in order to put it into the soil.

I ordered 100 seedlings (Pecans, Paw-Paws, and hazelnuts) this weekend as well as some seeds to attempt to grow out. I want to attempt the AP approach for about 25 of the tree seedlings. I plan to use individual containers for each tree. When the time comes for transfer, I will place the entire container in the ground. I will cut away the plastic and leave the grow medium (pea gravel and husks) with the tree. A healthy mulch of compost should help it through the first year. This portion of the system will be open air, so I'd need to break it down for winter anyway. The fish will either go in the freezer fileted or in the pond to breed.