Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

good to hear these towers are catching on... but I will stick to one for now - it must prove itself first... going to stock it with assorted herbs...

Johny I have been thinking the same thing re: a planting tool. I am thinking something like a bulb planter only a smaller version. In the past other tahn using my fingers, I have just used 2 dibbler type tools to push back and hold the gravel until the plant is placed in, and then let the gravel fall back. I don't have an issue with the gravel hurting my fingers or anything (they become tougher) but do find it difficult sometimes to keep the gravel from caving in while trying to place the plant in a deep enough position.

I hear what your saying Johnnie and VB, digging in deep into the gravel trying to get some roots in, while the damn stuff just rolls back into the hole, it sucks...

I imagine it's way more of a battle to plant in those towers compared with a normal bed..... I see that in the original pics they used something like peat in the towers, it might be an idea to experiment with something along the lines of coco peat. I have seen normal growbeds that were filled with woodchips before.

how would (wood) wood chips or peate afect the water - or 'wood' it be okay?

I guess it would depend on the type of wood... I think cocopeat is fairly innert..

Good ..

I found gravel to be a little "heavy" ..

To try to dig a hole .. and plant a seedling .. I found difficult .. as I was damaging roots on the seedlings .. when I tried to plant them in my tower..

I guess I am just thinking of an easy way to plant seedling roots "deep" without damage to roots when using heavy media such as gravel.

There must be a tool or something that we can design to get over this problem.

time for a new thread by the sound of things...

Peat moss will have an acidifying and water softening effect (probably not much, voulme for volume of tank) and is great for protecting roots as it has anti microbial anti fungal properties. It used to be used as a wound dressing in war times and some people swear my it as a propogating medium for cuttings that are prone to disease, it absorbs water well too.

I have an idea, will post it in the other thread you set up, not going to be able to draw it well though. Simple idea but hard to explain.

What I was refering to is coco peat, at least that is what I have heard it called. I think it's just coconut fibre from the outside husks of cocnuts...

interesting about peat moss and it's anti microbial anti fungal properties, never knew that....

high in zinc too, i think that adds to its "ainti-microbialness"

so its "ainti-microbialness" will not interfear with the cycle in my system?

What. i like making new words

don't think so, its probably more of a localised effect

there is that phrase which makes me uneasy "I dont think so"...
guess we had better test it

I am thinking .. ...

I used gravel rather than clay balls...

I was worried about it all falling out of the tower ...

but ..

it was amazing! No loss!


Planting seedlings was difficult though ...

In a growbed .. planting seedlings was easy ... in this situation however .. much more difficult to bury the roots without damage ...

So can we focus on that particular problem here or divert to another thread .. cos this is certainly something worth knowing for those interested in "tower power"