Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

would a steady drip of nutrients aimed over the root ball of a plant work? the rootball will be in darkness obviously, and you'd have them suspended in a deep box so that they can't fill the space and block up. if you used 5mm drippers you could pass solids to the plant (place biofilter after drippers)
the roots would catch the solids and use them up or they would eventually get flushed to the bottom of the tub and drain out. you'd probably find the root ball would become thick enough for worms to take up residence and help move the solids.

the design i see is a black nylex tub with a lid with sets of 30mm with 5mm drippers laid either side. your net pot (filled with perlite) with the plant goes in the 30mm and your 5mm drippers get embedded into the perlite and supply a constant drip out through the bottom roots. the bottom has large drain back into the fish tank.

Think you'd be better placing a biofilter before the drippers Timmy.....

Combintion of solids and biofilm will block the drippers over time and solids clinging to the root ball will lead to channeling of the nutrient supply and dry spots and/or root rot....

Plants only need the nutrient water to thrive..... very much a hydro type setup you're proposing....

If you go that way you will need to .... keep out all sunlight, have a fast flow/turnover and probably an airstone in the tub would be a good idea.

interesting, I think this is similar to hydroponics when the roots are sprayed.
Others will have to comment!

5mm is a fair sized pipe, i would contend it wouldn't get blocked.
the roots won't need an airstone since they will be hanging in the air, and the effect of the drip running down the perlite should force enough air into the root container.
the main advantage i'm aiming for is the solids, so that i don't have anything other then iron to add.
as for channeling, i'm not sure, since the drip will be dispersing through the perlite it will follow the path of least resistance which will be the roots.

OK, thought you were going to flood the tub with nutrient....

Regardless, I've had 5mm drippers block up with salts in normal hydro applications......

Give it a go..... in terms of solids for mineral supply, why not just use a normal flood and drain arrangement with gravel or clay balls.....

I've found perlite on it's own is a hassle to work with..... maybe a 25:75 mix of vermiculite/perlite as per hydro???

gravel is a pain and clayballs are expensive.
think if you didn't need the growbed medium and could get the same benefits - that's my aim.
the perlite should be ok in small amounts just in the net pots.
i'm going to give it a go when i move into my new place next week, i'll take one for the team and post pictures of my results.

Kewl...

Timmy, I am trying drippers ... using cocopeat in pots.

See my recent post (Friday dec 28th) here ...

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... 5&start=30

5mm will block, unless your running crazy pressures - I am going through the 'get home from work corn is laying on its side because the dripper is blocked' phase atm - it has taken 3 months for the film to build up enough to cause problems.

Deep water culture, simple: a bio filter, a tank, a bubbler for each plant, lots of water, a net pot, twine to tie it all up, and support above the plants.
There is not much info on this method outside pot growers. Its simple and in my test out grew all other methods if you let half the roots hang in air; the bursting bubbles spray water onto the upper roots. (tested against nft, raft, wick, flood, autopot, earthbox, low pressure sprayers aeroponics)

I have considered it, but to grow a couple thousand plants.. ahh no.. to much work for me.

In the long run you do more work tying up plants than washing gravel once.

seems like you'd chew a lot of power running the bubblers?

Yea but when you are getting a $ 1000 a plant return who cares

Saffron???

heh Saffron. The plants aren't expensive, it's the labour in retrieving the damnable stuff. Flower pollen as a spice! Which loony aristocrat came up with that?!?!

I agree that 5mm will easilly block. Don't underestimate biofilm.