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Comment by Damon yesterday

That's nice, Sheri. I saw someone selling IBCs on Craig's List in the farm section.

I've also talked with an old friend who works in a feed mill right here in the middle of catfish country. He's been interested in aquaponics for a while.

With the duckweed. Is that what you feed to the fish instead of a commercial feed?

What size pump? Lots of questions!

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on Sunday

Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy....

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DADS!!

Damon, an affordable tank is a used IBC tank. That's what our system is made of. We used a 330 gal for our FT, a 275 for our sump, and cut a couple up to make the growbeds. They run around $80-$125 here. Just be sure they were used for non-toxic things, like syrup, and not for pesticides, herbicides or anything that could absorb into and leach out of the plastic.

The roots just hang in the water. They aren't limited by soil.

This is a pic of our system when it was first built.

A recent picture. In the back is a 6' tall tomato that is in a separate 1/2 barrel. The strawberries are all over the place now, and a watermelon is growing like gangbusters that isn't showing here.

Duckweed trays (we feed it back to the fish and sell it.) In the top trays we sprout our lettuce and some other plants, and we grow our radishes.

More duckweed.

Turnips & a strange face. :)

A day's crop of tomatoes.

We grow as much in our 74SF of aquaponics than our 250sf of soil garden. Great stuff!

Comment by Karen Wortman on Sunday

Oh goodness yes.  I'm taking this afternoon off.  I need one afternoon to regroup, re-energize, and just plain relax.  I've been running a million miles an hour for weeks.....

Comment by Damon on Sunday

Anyone else busy beyond belief?

Comment by Damon on June 3, 2013 at 7:19pm

Okay, look at the epic root system, where do all those roots go?

Where is a good place to buy a stock tank? I looking for a 50 to 200 gallon stock tank for the aquaponic system.

Comment by Damon on June 3, 2013 at 3:05pm

Thanks Sheri. I remember "thumbing" through the Barrelponics manual a couple years ago. I think it's time to take a look at it again.

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on June 3, 2013 at 2:36pm

congratulations on your grandbaby, Karen! We just welcomed #9 and I think there is no greater blessing. :)

Damon, there were a few others who were doing aquaponics when we started, so we got our original tilapia from two local sources, both home systems. Since then we've been breeding our own and selling them to other hobbiests. Here we can do that, from hobbiest to hobbiest. We can't sell them as a business, though. We just traded some fingerlings with another person to get new bloodlines. If you can find local sources, you can save money. It adds about $100 to ship fish, depending on where you live in the States. It's tough to fork up $120 for $20 worth of fish!

I love it, Sam! That's what we seeing, too. Our tomatoes are in a 1/2 barrel and their roots have it filled from top to bottom! Our temps are up to 105 now, and the weather is dry. But we still have flourishing strawberry plants (no fruit) and tomatoes (lots of fruit!), along with radishes, basil, celery, watermelon, and lettuce. The lettuce is challenging now, though. Our tomatoes grew from 4" to 4' in only 3 weeks and started developing fruit two weeks before the tomatoes in the soil garden.

Damon, google "Barrelponics" and you'll find a PDF with very specific instructions on how to build a small system from a couple of blue barrels. It's a great way to get started with a small, low cost system and get through the learning curve. Then you'll be addicted, too!

We should have put up our shade a couple weeks ago, but we've been too busy. So this summer will be a thin crop in the soil garden. We didn't get our summer squash planted in time, either. Oh, well. Hopefully we'll get the shade up so we can start our fall crops early. 

We picked up 16 guineas keets to raise. Boys will be sold or used for food, and girls will be sold and used as garden pest control. We can't let our chickens into the garden or they'll eat the produce, so we're hoping the guineas will help out without hurting the plants. It's a fun adventure. They're funny little birds.

We also inherited a banty pullet that has been cruelly rejected by the flock, so she's being trained to be a show-and-tell bird for our kid classes. I'm taking her with me as I work so she gets used to people, being held, and travel. We're also making a diaper for her because she has house privileges...limited right now for obvious reasons! She follows me everywhere, though, and settles in on my desk when I'm on the computer. :) 

Comment by Karen Wortman on June 3, 2013 at 10:15am

awesome Sam! 

Comment by Damon on June 3, 2013 at 4:05am

I'm sold! Impressive. I may start out with a simple five gallon bucket system to gain some experience then build up from there. Man you should do a blog post on that. How's that book coming?!

Comment by Sam Burton on June 2, 2013 at 9:12pm

Here's a photo I took today of the root system of a purple basil I harvested.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that of the 6 plants I harvested this was the next to smallest.  I hope it encourages some of you who are on the fence to have a go at this wonderful gardening method.

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