Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i saw the verigrow system at disney (epcot )last year looked very productive.
i had a behind the scenes tour at 'the land'

soooo jealous Muzza. Can you tell us about the greenhouse in the background? It all looks absolutely sensational. Supposed to be going away for the weekend camping, but now all I want to do is build build build!!!!!!!!!

Monya

Muz,

I like the duct tape "rope on a roll", one of the greatest inventions of the last century, next to slicone sealant

Murray - strawbs look a bit sick. I would keep this well and trully in the shade until they adapt - ie root system gets going in the gravel.

VB Yes they do look a bit sick as I took a day longer than expected to build the tower, but they look better already...just had a look at them ....had to make sure my "engineering" was standing up to the rigors of pumping/ squirting etc that is going on.

Steve, around here we refer to "duct" tape as "100 mph" tape, marvelous stuff, can keep a load tied on the top of the ute at amazing speeds.

It is all a bit too temporary, I will carry out more mods tomorrow, better pipe work is needed and another couple of Grow Towers to make up a bank of them.

Monya, the structure you can see in the background is a “temporary” poly pipe with tarp stretched over which I put up 2 years ago, and like all temporary projects, it tends to become permanent It is now a junk storage place, but I have my temp fish tanks in there until I build a “real” greenhouse.

Muzza

Good going Murray - looks great! I got my gravel today, so I will try get my mini tower going tomorrow (children permitting!)

Cool guys, systems going up left right and center!

I'm stuck now until i build my green house, i desperatly want to put more growbeds in as i'm slowly transferring my jades outside. I think there are about 20 left inside.

kill rate with this lot?

ZERO!

One close one the other day when i was aclimatizing them to the outside waterin a bucket, and a close one today when i was carring the bucket outside, one jumped out and hit the floor from about 1m. didn't look to good, but put him out last, and he was looking "normal" again by then.

Was horrified that i'd have to post a kill . But its all good so far.

YAY, all's well then, GOOD...

My Grow Tower has survived it's first night on it's own. (worried daddy had to go down the shed at 11:00pm to check on baby......wife is beginning to think I must another woman stashed in the shed somewhere)

I am not feeling comfortable with the dependence on pumps for the whole thing to work....I guess I will get used to it..

The towers will need continuous flow, I feel, although I have no facts to base that idea on, I guess because there is very little actual mass in there. Whereas a standard Grow Bed could carry on for some time if the water flow failed.

I also feel that as the root mass enlarges then water flow will need to have more time to pass right down the column.

Because of the root mass the water may back up and spill out of the pockets in the pipe if the flow is to vigorous.

Right now it just goes through at an amazing rate. Perhaps that rapid flow might impede bacteria propagation. I don’t know, I am just thinking out loud . What do you think Steve / Earthbound ?

I really like the idea of grow towers for the likes of strawberries. I think a lot of different types of plants would do well in such a system.

Any suggestions on plant types that might do well in a tower system ?

I will continue with the concept until I feel it is running like it should.

I will very much appreciate feedback and suggestions on how to improve things.

Murray

Murray, I noticed the very high flow rate too - I was hopeing that it was because I had nothing in the tower yet... Perhaps I will hold off making more towers untill this little one of mine has proved itself...

I think you might be right there Murray, best to keep the flow at a reasonably slow rate. Yes, ok, it can handle a high flow rate at the moment, but it would be a real bugger to find that one rock dropped into the wrong spot, or roots have grown a bit and this allows the water to flow out over the lip and drain your tank...

Flow will definately have to be slowed down as sediment builds up and roots grow..

My tower goes up this weekend! I purchased a 2 m length of stormwater pipe today and have borrowed the plastic welder machne over the school holiday!

Wow ..The price of expanded clay balls .. $ 40. 00 a bag ... so I think I will be using some pea gravel.

To guard against overflowing pipes, place the system over the tank, a sump that has the return to the tank or a channel that runs into the sump or the tank.