Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

On our swales we usually have pineapple or vetiver planted on the top of the down hill side to help retain soil, as well as intercept moisture, especially in our dry season.

The swales accumulate nutrients, in this case especially the byproducts of maggot raising, the partially composted coffee grounds, the sitrus and banana peels, and the manure. One of the problems of agriculture in the humid tropical lowlands is poor soil and soil loss. Swales are an effective mechanism for combatting that.

Think contour lines on a map, the swales follow the contourlines, any topsoil that gets washed downhill settles against the swale wich is basically a terracing of the hill, water tends to pool there so you have good soil moisture also great way to establish trees.

any pics chris?

OOps beat me there Cris. What he says Bf. We have a lot of acid sulphate soil, high Ally content(it is a bauxite mine) and rampant nematodes here so makes it hard growing certain things here.

BF, hahaha, hard to get pics. Our whole farm is covered in trees and plants, making physical features hard to see. I have a pineapple swale that I could photograph fairly well, not a huge swale, but a nice small concise one, right by the effluent from our grey water system... will try to get the camera out today....

Many swales are done with earth moving equipment, but ours are done by hand, so the scale is a bit smaller than some examples out there.

that would be sweet chris. sounds like a good idea.

This relates a lot to the Keyline Plan, of Yeomans, from where? Australia of course! Very interesting read on water conservation techniques and erosion control:
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrar ... 25toc.html

Hayden

Its straight permaculture, and really useful as a design strategy, much more important as a moisture interceptor for drylands than for us, but as a soil accumulator... hard to beat. We do some spot composting above the swales, too, but I really love maggot raising....

I have just found damselfly larvae, and wonder what would eat it?

Hi Faye - r u Troutman's better half? Don't even know what damselfly is, but my perch would eat any larvae. Barra are a little more picky. I imagin trout would go for it.

um no! don't know troutman. damslfly are smaller than dragonlfy, not much of a meal.

There is a page with a couple of diff live foods for fish, and the mosquito and mealworms are both included, Tells you how to culture them, etc

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/man ... index.html

Fantastic link Daniel, thanks.