Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

This is off topic, but becoming popular in my area. I still don't see how the seed cost would ever equate to profitable farming, however for cooking the broccoli and mustard greens are especially strong flavors that pack a punch in their mini form. A simple ham and cheese sandwich with mustard greens beats fancy stone ground any day.




With what I've learned on this web site since that build I would have done this using some type of flood and drain instead especially since I already had height and potential gravity thing going on. Any design input is appreciated this will eventually be located near by the fish (still building my 1st AP system) although running on a NON AP water source.

If anyone wants to try this at home, I suggest don't over kill like I did... you could grow these without trying, they will sprout under any light and require no nutrients because it has enough included in the seed to make it to sprout age. Start with a paper towel and basil if you want a sure win.

I threw my micro green seeds into the system, and harvested not long after...

It looks a little bit like your indoor build. I was under the impression growing microgreens with AP water wasn't safe or maybe just not necessary for nutrients maybe was the only issue. I have seen people at every farmers market in Florida selling these now days.

Its fallen into almost a trendy thing like vertical gardening or even AP. I will say it would be a great choice for someone new to gardening or someone looking for a project to do with children because its simple and quick. Another side note is the grow pad media might be interesting to try for AP starters if I cut the pads into very small squares. I will try that one day when I get to that point.


And because trends are interesting here is google search trends comparing aquaponics, verticle gardening, and microgreens searches all increasing fast since 2010.
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=aquaponics%2C%20vertical%20garden%2C%20microgreens&cmpt=q

Wow, that link was fascinating. I might have to try some other quires.

Notice the regional stats how 2 of the 3 searches are lead by our Australian friends and specifically, if you click it, you'll see western aus leads in search volume. I wonder if that has anything to do with water conditions or drought. It also means microgreens aren't popular there like they are here.

I spent many years doing online marketing and lead generation in the vacation and time share industry... don't ever buy a timeshare! And I'm sorry about all those pop ups. But ya that google tool is great for product research, politics, and all kinds of ways to use it. What gets really strange is when you look at home different marketing people pay different amounts for different keywords.

My parents bought a timeshare from Hilton in Hawaii. Hilton attempted to buy it back from them for the twice the price they paid. They can't all be bad. There is an interesting documentary called the Queen of Versallies. It is about the wife of the guy who did Westgate properties. It is pretty sad. Not that I feel for the guy, he basically admits that he helped rig the 2000 presidential election. He then admits that if he had not stuck his big nose into it, his business probably would not had run into trouble due to the economy failing.

True especially in Hawaii it can work in fact the point trading companies all have to weigh the point scale roughly 3:1 for swapping with Hawaii weeks due to demand. The majority now days in the "mainland" are revamped failed hotels that were redeveloped for time share.

Queen of Versallies... don't judge by the cover! Great example of money not equating to happiness! We watched that just recently on netflix... that guy lives in Orlando where I used to live, but I was with a different much smaller company. Ya that went every wild direction but where I expected it to go, but it proved to me it was real. It seemed as if by the end of the film he was so sick of the crew they must have had him in a tight sealed contract to finish the film or face penalty. When his company fell out in 2010 it caused a boom for smaller more liquid people to fill the gaps. But I think that whole industry will face serious regulation one day. Especially if the pool of people covering maintenance is reduced enough to make it turn upside down. We had people deeding back their properties to us just to get out of it in saturated areas like Orlando.

I did think it was interesting how the children actually gained some humility when the dirt poor cousin moved in with them. It was extremely sad when it was apparent that nobody knew how to do anything for themselves as they let the help go. "You never fed the lizard!" "We have a lizard?"

That had me thinking for days about how all of us can live in a bubble to some extent. Good point about the lizard that was pretty crushing disrespect for life. Also I loved the head maid who wanted to live in the old backyard playhouse. That lady should be sainted! And meanwhile she had family back home she had not seen in years yet still sent them money. Income despairity in their own back yard!

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Speaking of off subject madness your 1,000 page article you posted in your build thread about early American Indians about the scale of their population being under estimated....
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/03/1491/302445/?single_page=true
That had me half crazy for a few hours reading about Tenochtitlan mostly but plenty other great subjects covered as well. I walked away thinking about the Aztecs and Asian rice farmers methods of flood and drain on a massive scale. If we looked at the history of AP I believe its roots come from both of those.

NASA at their Florida location owns a massive chunk of land around their launch facilities that boarders "The Mosquito Lagoon", a very accurately named hot fishing spot and that boarders an even larger state park. The entire area is intentionally flooded yearly to release the larva into the main body of water to control the insects. Its almost the opposite where the land feeds the fish, instead of fish nutrients feeding the plants.

The last part of this tangent was river deltas like the Mississippi river where hundreds of years worth of top soil washed down and made it insanely fertile ground. Until modern fertilizer came along and the same drainage lead to algae blooms and a "dead zone" where the water can't even get oxygen anymore. And that only happens in the most developed areas of the world. So can we possibly learn that the best solutions will come from natural cycles? Maybe that is why AP is so cool to me?


Modern Day Aztec Tenochtitlan
Artist Credit here http://8eelze.deviantart.com/

If you think 1491 is interesting, watch the PBS Secrets of the Dead episode, Carthage's Lost Warriors.

All that research and no DNA test though... seems like they are ready to skip the science. I wish they had delayed production till the results came back. No luck finding any sort of follow up online either. But the axe head alone was worth the story. I found 2 other documentaries about the same tribe that made no reference at all to their fair pigmentation. It a bit awkward when religious scientists search for proof to back their accounts of history. Or in this case a German film maker searching for proof of Aryan looking native Americans. I always pause my documentaries when ever they mention a doctor's name or a financier's name and take a moment to go google them to sort out their agenda. A lot of times even with DNA proof we are still in the dark anyway. Example King Tut they determined shares genetics with 70% of men from the UK, and little if any DNA with current residents of Egypt. Or the 6 inch "Alien" named ATA who has human DNA but yet we can't explain why it appears to have the bone structure of a 6-8 year old health human despite its size.

Sometimes the religious, UFO, and ethnic goals of the researchers are so hopeful about their hypothesis they can't accept anything but the answer they want to find. On a personal level I usually end up believing about 90% of the conspiracy theories or far fetched concepts like these but even the ones I don't believe in are cool still fun stories.

We have taken this from Microgreens to timeshare to UFOs now.... pretty funny!

They had the results of the DNA test in the episode. And they were predominantly redheads, though there were blonds in there too. I always get upset when people say that aliens must have had something to do with this or that. Is does a disservice to humanity. I kind of thought of the episode as a "take that ancient astronaut theorists!" Though I must say, Ancient Aliens is fun to watch, even if 1491 takes on Erich von Däniken directly doing quite a good job of disproving everything he has ever written about or said.

Ya I saw the red heads (celts they assumed) and the blonds (cartheragens they assumed) but as for DNA in the documentary they swabbed the entire school of children especially the poor red head kid though he seemed proud to be special at least instead of singled out. hahaha

Anyway I was expecting them to come back and say something like, 80% share lineage with DNA from these regions etc... It didn't happen. As for my comment about no mention of blonds or redheads, after watching the video you recommended I found out both discovery and national geographic also made movies available on youtube about the same tribe without mention of their unexpected skin pigment. I want more info.

Finally Aliens, I'm with you when it comes to little green men and space craft amoung us. However, I am absolutely convinced based on randomness and the number of stars there must be at the very least some space bacteria or some ancient remains of primitive life out there floating around other than us.

Here is one for you....BBC Space are we Alone (Sam Neill)
Sorry for sub titles, the audio is as English as Sam Neill is!



part 1



part 2



part 3

Oh, I certainly believe that the odds favor intelegent life from other places, I just think that people do a disservice to humanity when they say that aliens must have helped.

I think this thread needs to be policed/organised a bit better.

Alternatively need to link that new guy with the desire for order to this thread.