Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

A friend of mine who works as a social ecologist for the NSW fire department did his PHd on forests in australia and how the trees talk to one another during a fire re pheremones - he reckons forests do this stuff all the time - alter their cgemistry and send fumes around to one another talking about stuff thats going on in the forest (very LOTR really).
When i studied permaculture we did this unit on trees which was amazing - alot of it went over my head quite frankly (as I was 7 months pregnant ans asleep under the desk for a lot of it unfortunately) but the most amazing thing was about how trees make rain (this part was very technical so i cant repeat it and give it any justice) and that we just dont get rainfall where we have chopped down all the trees. Very sad.
But on a more positive note, as I was the one who started this thread I'd like yoiu all to know i intend to put some dwarfies into my AP system - I wll start with some stone and citrus and see what happens.

go for it! we have a grape vine and some mulberry cuttings in some blue drums. I like the idea of a containable little orchard!

It is said that papayas do great in an aquaponics system if you support the tree and its fruit.

I have an avocado tree that's only a wee thing, I reckon it's up for the cause. I'll try DWC it and see if the roots rot or not. Unfrtunately it's off a seed and not a cutting so this could be a problem area.

Saw some macadamias sprouting wild next door but they take (???) years to fruit.

I am at this moment growing an almond tree I didn't know what it was until today when someone asked me if I was going to grow almonds in a planter.

ok, so i'm really keen to ket som AP fruit trees happening, but i want to get the hardware side of thisngs right first, so i welcome all to post descriptions and scketches of how you think it could best be done. I have a few ideas floating in my head already.

I guess some areas that i'd like addressed would be;

containers

drain plumbing

possible root interference with drainage

drip/trickle feed or flood and drain

I'm thinking of trickle fed half blue barrels with a 100mm hole cut in the centre covered with a square of perforated stainelss then filled with gravel.

this should proved block free drainage and excited roots could be pruned off.

It leaves me with a water collection problem, they would need to be slightly raised off the ground with a tray under them.

I'm thinking along these lines because;

1) i have the fear of a pvc fitting drain directly to the barrel becoming blocked with roots

2) The trees would be completely moveable within their pots

Steve, I've been thinking about similar ideas... I recently won a couple of eBay auctions for some planter/grow bags...... Pictured below....

Thought was I'd fill with husk chips or whatever, poke holes in the bottom to allow water to exit and drip feed....

Either just leave them within the bags (will contain roots) or place in a black poly pot to provide some extra stability....

What do you reckon... I'll have about a hundred of each, sure I could fix you up if need be... P.S. that's a twenty litre bucket for scale....

Have PM'ed you

Mine are up on sleepers on top of besser blocks. You probably could at a stretch access the centre bottom of the drum, but it would be hard.
I've just got 19mm poly loops coming out of the side of them (screened outlet on the inside, elbow to outside, poly loop)
They are watered on slow fill f&d, with 15mm gravel.
Part of their purpose is to act as anchors for the horizontal drums, so their sleepers don't roll over.

This is what I was talking about in Steves system thread.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espalier

Has other benefits including increased fruit production, speed of ripening, easier access to fruit among others.

that last pic is cool.

You think that last pic is cool, I am picturing a fruit salad tree (futurama fans?) pruned in the art of Arborsculpture (like the circus trees)

There are some really cool pics here:

http://www.arborsmith.com/index.html

and here:

http://www.arborsmith.com/treecircus.html

Now back on topic, once i have redone my system, i am planning to incorporate some fruit trees which are watered with ap water rather than grown in ap water........i figure i would loose less water this way than i would from transpiration

I have seen in my local hydroponics shop that they have some sizable trees in the store. If I recall correctly they sit in resin pots that are about 2' tall and 3' in diameter. Couldn't tell you what media they use, but I would guess hydroton. The trees are about 15' tall, so I guess it works.

If trickle fed is an option then there is a whole gammint of cheap alternatives avalible.

Any open ended sort of container that is big enough to hold the medium and tree siting in some sort of gutter would work.

For example half 44 gal drums with the bottom knocked out sitting on a sheet of corrugated iron that runs off into a piece of roofing gutter and then into a tank or another grow bed or something.

In any fruit tree setup it would be good if herbs could be planted around the base of the tree. This would be efficient since more GB space would be utilised (tree trunk dosn't take up much space and the espailered canopy won't shade the GB) and also allows for companion plantings (ie garlic or tansy to scare off codlin moth around apple trees).

thanks SG, am concerned about huge evaporation in summer thugh, sort of defeats the purpose a little, but you've given me another idea.

Why not copy some ideas from Gary.....use coco peat as the medium and run to waste in a 20l drum or blue barrel..

CP will stay damp for a considerable period - no need to water daily
.....ahhhhh forgot , this would mean manual watering
.....ahhhhh remembered :sign7: , Steve now has a manual waterer
.....ahhhhh cool , just checked distance from Melbourne to Bris

loveya Steve