Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Have any of the members here done any comparison growth studies of the plants grown aquaponically vs. what you might get from soil grown plants? I have seen a couple of table from UVI that compares field grown lettuce and okra with their AP stuff and the difference was quite impressive. To be honest though, most of the pictures I have seen on this site appear to be somewhat spindly (sorry!). What I'd like to see is some charts that show soil grown tomatoes produce 5 pounds of fruit per plant per week and aquaponic vines produce 12 pounds a week. Do any such charts exist on this site? Obviously we get the benefits of extended season growing but week by week, does AP out-produce traditional growing methods?

Additionally, it bugs me to see all that wasted area under the grow beds - the most recent pictures from synaptoman's (sp?) South African project are a great example. Has anyone built a system to eliminate that waste? I have a couple of ideas, but I am looking for confirmation before I take the dive.

Thnx for your thoughts.
Rob

Sorry, spindly is the last word for AP that comes to mind





No wasted areas under here

There is probably loads of things you could keep under the stands/GB's, If I was into quail as a food source I would fence the area off and keep them there, or even make the section part of a chook run so I could throw the unwanted greenery there.
The thought opens all sorts of possibilities as I have a bit of room.

What, wasted space???
I haven't seen many double decker soil garden
The space under the grow beds is where you put your stuff!
Is some one trying to pick holes in the process and not having much luck

creative1,,,settle petal,,newbie asking questions.
Rob,,many area challenged people have the growbedsbuilt over the fish grow tanks.

Rob asks"Have any of the members here done any comparison growth studies of the plants grown aquaponically vs. what you might get from soil grown plants?
Answer,,no,,,and could you please do this and add to the forum?

Rob asks"What I'd like to see is some charts that show soil grown tomatoes produce 5 pounds of fruit per plant per week and aquaponic vines produce 12 pounds a week."
Answer,,,Rob we look forward to you also adding this valuable information.


I imagine Rob will be quite busy but we very much look forward to the data,,,thanks Rob:)

Same here - that is where I keep those bits and bobs which I would be forced to throw out otherwise....

chappo makes a great point.

for a small cheap system, get a 5 gallon bucket and a 10 gallon tote(Rubbermaid makes a great size one) a pump, some fish and aquarium gravel. and make a small AP system

and get another 10 gallon (same one), poke holes in the bottom, and add soil.
add some tomatoes seeds.
and wal'la you have the same growing space for both soil and AP systems.

now calculate the differences between AP and soil.
like:
fruit produced
water consumed
nutrients consumed
and total price per lb of tomatoes for both systems.

i would think AP would be cheaper and more "green" then soil over a couple of crops.

My wife loves her soil garden and she kicks arse over me on the root vegies (onion, beetroot, carrot etc)...she has bowed to my greater skills in lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, sweet corn spring onions, celery, rhubarb etc...basically all the leaf and fruit type vegetables

Then there is the fish, no weeding, no back breaking planting


Sorry, got carried away a bit there Poppa

Poppa - sorry if I sounded harsh - my bad, Soz.

But in all honesty if you live in the burbs or any place else that has been treated with a whiteant (termite), spider
or other nasty soil treatment for bugs in the last 250 years, I wouldn't be growing anything that I intended to eat in any of the soil(sand) that is nearby.

For me space is not an issue... however, as Gnash has pointed out, the void could be filled with all manner of livestock.

The 'no bend' garden is good for me.

There have been many attempts to evaluate BYAP V Soil, there are too many variables. ( about 100,000 posts ago)

To me it is simple: No dig no pain, no watering = minimal water use, soil quality = unknown, water quality tested, fish and plants V plants and soil maintenance.

Sory to rave on!

We have more water under our growbeds to add to the heatsink in the solar greenhouse. I've also considered if I could possible grow mushrooms or some other item in the leftover spaces.

As to quantifying, the only thing I remember seeing was a comparison done between hydroponics and aquaponics. It was posted somewhere here on the forum and as I recall, hydro beat aqua for the first x number of months and then aqua beat hydro's buns.

My own system has looked spindly as I've been running a full system of vegies with only 5 full size fish. Just got the fingerlings and anxious to have my plants turn into the lovely items I've seen in some of the pics here. If you've only seen spindly here, you need to look further.

I've got lots of wasted space. And it bugs me that I have to keep mowing it. None under the GB's, thats all concrete.

One thing that seems to be the only common denominator of every aquaponic system is that its everyones own take on it. If space is an issue a hobbiest-aquaniuer would build to suit. If space isn't an issue well...

something to keep in mind with a side by side comparison is that a brand spanking new AP system would not be ideal.

Id much prefer to see and aged system plumbed in to a side by side. I think this was the problem with so many comparison trials before...........people did as described, whacked the fish in and ran a test for 2 months, then rules that AP was no where near as good as dirt, when in fact the system may have only just cycled let alone reach a "maturity point" that so many of use with systems years old can attest to.

now you got me thinking about what animals i can grow under the GB's not that i'm lacking space.........

And if you mowed the lawn you would have a lot more

Space was an issue for me, not that I havent got a back yard but rather my wife wont hand it over. I think I've done alright with the little parcel of land she let me have, not too much wasted space...