Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

+1.
Hear hear, etc.

definitely agree this trial has to be the best one out..

It shows the results of all types of system flows and has been on going for a far while now..

I can't see many others to do the same thing, in their space/time..

so from me, Thank you for your time and advice on each stem..

Juergen

It has been interesting to watch the progress of this trial. I would have liked to see floating raft system in the equation.

One thing I noticed is that there seemed to be a big jump from syphon system to CF and then CF and timed were fairly close. For me this makes the CF system very attractive in that it is so basic. Just pump the water in and let it run out. No syphons, no timers, nothing.

Just a thought.

Murray has suggested Here that...



I'm presuming that he means "constant flood"...

Have you seen anything to suggest that this might be the case Joel.... or anyone else that has been runing "constant flood" for some length of time...

Who is that quote from?

This one...



Murray.. in the thread I linked to...

Nothing obvious as yet...

Though my oldest system at home is a classic example of a clogged bed, I'll try and get some pics later on. It's been running constant flow for probably 10 years or so now, but it's only grown water cress in it for the last 3-4 years, and the cress has never been pulled out, hence a fair bit of clogging, but that's a rather extreme situation.

Trial systems are still all ticking along nicely, here are some pics as they are at the moment.

System1


System2


System3




System 3,2,1 from left to right

We've had loads of tomatoes, the tomato plants hanging off the back of the beds have already been cut right back once, they are on a second growth spurt.

Do you think you would have a similar situation in your grow bed after 10 years...

If you were running siphoned, or timed F&D????

I think it would be the same no matter how it was run, most of the problem has been leaving in the water cress for years... Many people have experienced the "Ooops I left a watercress/mint/tomato etc in the bed for way tooo long." Water can't flow through your bed when all the air/water spaces are filled with roots.

So, any tracking, dead spots or "clogging"... is more a function of the grow beds becoming root bound.... rather than the methodology of the system....

Would sound both logical... and a "no brainer" to me.... and indeed, on not only my own systems, but those of clients... I always remove the bulk of root mass from longer term crops after harvest... and often actually leave the bed "fallow" for a period of time... to mineralise.... particularly if the system has multiple beds....

My scoria filled, siphon powered, blue barrel has a tomato that's almost totally choked the bed to the point where the water is an inch deeper at the edges than it is at the siphon. There's no sign of smell or anything, but it must eventually cause a problem. Although there is a chance that any dead spots will simply kill off the roots in them, and become free again once they break down.

If you put plants in a bucket with an inch of water, and forget them, the roots rot within a week or so, and break down to worm food in no time.

I've just pulled my tomato up to transplant it, but I'm wondering if all the root matter left in the media is going to cause an ammonia spike. There must be half a kg of fine stuff too small to pull out.

Anyway, my point here is that I'm pretty sure there are some spots in my VERY thoroughly flowing siphon based system that aren't seeing as much flow as they should be, so I'm guessing It would be the same in any system that gets root bound.

including a pot plant or a dirt garden

I tease out as much of the roots as I can and leave most of the media behind, throw in a handful of composting worms and replant immediately.Voila.
There doesn't seem to be a right or wrong way od doing things, just different.

Likewise... I remove as much of the root ball as possible when I pull them... leaving the remaining ball on top of the media so the worms return to the bed... and then shake the media out after a couple of days...

But if the whole bed has been planted, or is root bound... as it often is with a complete planting of tomatos... then I'll also literally turn the media in the bed several times and remove as much of the roots as possible...

But, yeah, there's no right or wrong way...

do you stop feeding or do anything special after pulling substantial plants out?

ie do you see a ammonia spike down the track after ripping out your tomatoes?