Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

are you in a greenhouse WD?

Hi Trachr
Our little place has all sorts of units, using different systems. One small greenhouse is used to grow seedlings which then go into hydroponics or AP, one larger greenhouse has mint and lemon verbena to supplement the salad mixes produced in AP and hydroponics. The AP set ups are in farm buildings and some outside where they produce huge amounts of water cress, brassicas and herbs, which are sold onto catering outlets and direct to customers. The water cress and some herbs keep us going through the winter months when we cannot produce quality lettuce, although we are going to have a go at warming up the small greenhouse with solar heating to see if get winter lettuce to survive.

Our trout and carp love our weather which is never too hot but gets pretty nippy in the winter.

We try to break even on our little farm here but this year with the poor weather we are going to struggle but no matter what you try to do in horticulture you will always have good years and bad years. Next year might be good for tomatoes and strawberries whilst this year has been a loss maker.

That's the way it is.You either accept it or go and get an office job - Crikey what have I said.


WD and OH.

Lots of other things said by others should give you food for thought so I'll only add......

There are very good reasons why commercial operations do things in certain ways. Before you decide to do something different you should understand what those reasons are for doing things the way they are done commercial operations that are already established.

There are very good reasons why commercial GH are designed the way they are. I'd adivse that you read up on GH design and operation.

If you take a steel shed and remove the cladding on one side you will completely compromise its structural integrity. When these sheds are designed the bracing provided by the cladding is crucial for them passing their certification. If you were to remove the steel cladding and replace it with a material that did not have as good structural properties you would be very likely to find that your shed failed during the first set of storms that it had to face.

Good point Stuart. The money saved by using the shed or pole building would likely be spent reinforcing with additional bracing.

Where perhaps building greenhouses extending out from the Shed so that fish tanks are in shed out of sun while plants can be out in greenhouses might be as cost effective and perhaps safer than trying to replace a steel roof with something to let light in.

Big greenhouses really aren't that expensive. It's the bells and whistles that get ya!

If you don't design large scale systems and have no experience doing it or running them, I would buy (or use for free)a proven design. You will end up saving money in the long run... Just don't blow all your dough on the design (I've seen some people quoting astronomical prices that wouldn't pay off in 20 years)

Hey I am exactly on the same boat. I do not know whether to invest in a large scale aquponic system or not.
I would like to know if there would be any extra costs to raise the fish in an aquaponic system than in an aquaculture system (other than initial cost differences) I also saw this very interesting commercial aquaponic farm : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=But_uh5s ... ure=relmfu
I do not know how it works exactly, but it looks interesting.