Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Any more info on the worm tube EB?

Was looking at my not used worm farm and a thought came to me. Wicking bed
I reckon the bottom would hold about ten litres of water. Not a very big growing depth but better than it sitting around doing nothing

All this talk about wicking beds, and to me the most obvious thing missing in the discussions is mushrooms. Mycelium holds soil better than any man made prodict as it heals its own tears, moves moisture fantastically well, and the fruiting bodies are delicious!

Thinking of ways to add to my planned system...

May have to wait until I get my system up and running for a while.

I have my wicking beds plumbed into my fish tank. Once a day I open the valves and let the water run one cycle through the wicking beds. Plants are growing great. Water clarity not so great.

Finally, I stumble on a thread where I feel like I have a little experience. I got into hydroponics and all the variations on wicking/earthboxes and such last spring after being frustrated by trying to grow anything on a patio in FL.

I've got three DWC buckets (still going) and made a vertical tower of wicking/self watering/whatever you call them pots. The vertical tower was super cool, I got tons of growth, but the pots I used were too lightweight and cracked under the weight. Any heavier and they probably would have toppled. Also, my main complaint are bugs, especially roaches (which I can't stand) that would come out of the dirt at night and eat my tomatoes and peppers!

Anyway, my next project is to modify this (Phytopod) to work as a wicking container for a corner past my pool that I can't run electricity. I just haven't figured out for sure how I want to do it yet. From the looks of it, it's got the pipe down the middle for deep watering, but no way to collect at the bottom. Maybe a tray of rocks and water inside the burlap? And I still have to kill the bugs.

Blast. Looks like one of my wicking beds drain got stopped up.

This is a lemon balm plant that was introduced to its new home a few months ago. It really took off inside the wicking barrel. Then we were drenched with rain a few times which kept me from strolling down to the garden area. Still haven't gotten any gravel for the walkways, just dirt and Georgia red clay.

Had what looked like an inch or so of water in there. No telling how long the tub has been plugged up. Poked a stick in there and water came gushing out. Can feel the shadecloth through the hold so there must have been a rock or large clump of clay in there.

Hope the plant lives.

And here are some more plants in their wicking tubs

This one may not look like much, but it was mostly dead when I stuck it in the barrel. Taproot had broken off and the whole thing was looking like fire starter. But it revived quite nicely.
Sweet potato plants were started from last years sprouts. Giving them a go in the wicking tubs, just to see what happens.

They all look like they are growing well Mr Bill... Shame about the lemon balm... Had the same thing happen to one of our first ginger barrels.. I had some holes about 3 inches above the drain just in case so wasn't that bad but it was a stinking mess after the anaerobic bacteria moved in.. My eldest has tried to start some sweet potatoes in a barrel full of tree mulch but it isn't "wicked" Will be interesting to see how it goes..

I made up a clip on how we put our wicking beds together for a friend in drought effected region of the US if anyone is interested


& am finishing another clip on IBC wicking beds today...

Last week we set up a bunch of old barrels and an old grow bed as wicking beds.






These are all the old barrels from my line of bamboo at the old house and that one experiment of a grow bed that didn't work so well. Should be ok as a wicking bed though.

I'm not terribly careful about how I make the bottom water holding area of a wicking bed. The big one has some perferated black drainage pipe in it and the others, well some have some stone and others have some perlite and others have nothing but some wood chips in the bottom, then we put mushroom compost and worm castings over it and planted. They all have a "gravel guard of sorts and a short stand pipe to make for a drain out the bottom.

@TC nice job on using a cattle panel to support your wicking bed liner.

How hard was it to weave your pipe thru the panel?

Can you give more details on that white liner you used? i.e. thickness, source, cost?

@power, could you give more details on how your wicking bed is plumbed into your fish tank and how it goes thru a "cycle"? Does some water in the wicking bed go back into the fish tank?

Great video BnBob.
Looks like you haven't been eating your kale

Thanks SuperVeg
**hangs head**
Its coming out our ears at the moment.. Really need to get back into juicing every morning... Wont last long then me I think..

yea just watched the vid, really great explanation.

+1