Growing Plants Using Aquaponic Fish Nutrients

Growing Plants Using Aquaponic Fish Nutrients

Aquaponics Fish | Home gardening has taken on a new meaning thanks to the aquaponics process. This particular type of gardening does not use soil, but instead provides aquaponics fish nutrients directly to the roots of the plants. For most plants that grow well in the area in which you live and can stand getting their roots wet, aquaponics is the answer.

What is Aquaponics?

Aquaponics uses fish nutrients in the water supply to run across the roots of plants, providing them with what they need for growth. In fact, this particular type of gardening can grow plants faster than standard soil and under the right environmental conditions can grow year round as well.

Well over 300 varieties of plants have been successfully grown using fish nutrients. About the only type of plants that are not suited are root vegetables, but virtually all other types made for aquaponics gardening. Many varieties of flowers, fruits and vegetables grow abundantly in an aquaponics garden.

The Advantages of Aquaponics

There are many advantages to using the aquaponics method for your home garden. This is especially true for those with little outside space for traditional gardens.

Speed: Thanks to the aquaponics fish nutrients used in the water system, plants in an aquaponics garden can grow up to four times faster. This means that your plants will mature and ripen quickly as long as needs of the plants are met.

Space: While you can certainly use aquaponics outdoors, it is quite common to have aquaponics gardens inside the home or similar enclosure. Because many of the plants that do well with aquaponics fish nutrients take up little space and do not need much in the way of light, you can literally stack your aquaponics garden in the corner of a room if you wish.

Variety: You can grow a wide variety of plants in an aquaponics garden, from flowers to fruits and vegetables. Salad variety plants such as tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, celery and the like grow quite well in this environment.

Convenience: Because there is no soil involved and if you grow your plants in an environment that can be controlled, you can enjoy a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and other types of plants at your convenience. The aquaponics fish nutrients work exceedingly well with many different varieties of plants so you can choose not only what, but when you want to grow them.

If aquaponics does have a downside, it is that you must monitor the nutrient flow and pH balance of the water supply more than you would with soil. This is because soil is a natural filter that helps balance out these particular issues with plants. However, such maintenance with aquaponics takes only a few minutes a day and becomes second nature quickly.  

Using aquaponics fish nutrients, a running supply of water and a controlled environment you can grow the types of plants that you want anytime of the year. Aquaponics is the simple, straightforward gardening technique perfect for the gardener in all of us. 

Discover all the tips and tricks for growing vegetables and herbs using an Aquaponics system in Aquaponics 4 You. Click here

Hooked On Home Aquaponics

Hooked On Home Aquaphonics

Home Aquaponics | Aquaphonics is a food production system that combines aquaculture, which is essentially raising aquatic animals such as fish, snails, fish, and types of crawfish in tanks, with hydroponics, which is cultivating plants in water, in an environment that works well for both parties. The water is recycled in this system and is used by the plants in the system as nutrients. 

Aquaphonics is a good way of growing your own food and vegetables but what makes it such a popular way of food growing is the fact that you can do it straight from your own home. You can organize how you want and create it from the ground up how you would like, as long as you have the basic irrigation systems in place needed for the plants to thrive and grow. 

Home aquaponics is an amazing way of providing yourself with a set of food and nutrients needed for daily growth and saves you plenty of money. A lot of people choose home aquaphonics as their method of growing food over traditional plant growing as it is quicker and much simpler. It is also a way and means of teaching you to be self-sufficient in the world and allows you to be at one with nature. 

Home aquaphonics is also a great way of growing your own fish. Many different species can be grown and these species you select depend on a lot of factors including, but not limited to, government regulations and how expensive you want the nutrients you provide to be. Your grow beds are to be filled with gravel and clay pebbles as they are a common and cost effective method of growing these plants within the system. 

However, plants can be grown in foam rafts that sit on the water. You can even grow the vegetables by removing a percentage of the fish water every day and watering the plants with it. This is a nice cycle of recycling that can be beneficial to you and your harvest.

Discover all the tips and tricks for growing vegetables and herbs using an Aquaponics system in Aquaponics 4 You. Click here

Commercial Aquaponics: Top Tips

Commercial Aquaponics

Many start out with Aquaponics as a hobby, and quickly scale up to do it on a commercial scale once they realize how profitable it is. Start up costs are low, because you can build the system yourself using materials found that your local hardware store. Running costs are also minimal, because nutrients and resources (such as water) are recycled between the plant ecosystem and the fish ecosystem, and the two sustain each other. Profits are high, because fresh organic vegetables and fish fetch good prices. Here are our top tips to get you started in commercial Aquaponics:

1. Research the local market. This will dictate what vegetables and fish to grow. You want to choose the ones with a high demand, high price, and possibly low competition. Of course, do not choose a fish/vegetable species that requires climatic conditions that are very different from what you have in the area. For example, tilapia require warm temperatures, and if you live in cold areas you’ll have to spend significantly on heating to grow these; a better option would be trout. In addition, you may consider growing fish to sell them as pets instead of food: in many areas there is a considerable demand for goldfish, for example. Same when it comes to plants: in some areas, you’ll find that it is more profitable to grow herbs instead of vegetables. In addition, it is usually profitable to grow off season produce, but this will require heating (and hence heating costs). It’s all about finding the optimal balance to maximize profits. Do your research properly.

2. Find your customers. If you sell directly to the consumers, you’ll get to keep all your profits, but it can be a hassle. Instead, you can get a deal from a local grocery/fish monger and you can sell all you produce to them. However, you’ll have to give them a lower price than what you’ll give to direct clients. If you are selling fish as pets, consider placing an advertisement in your local newspaper.

3. Start small, think big. No matter how thorough your research, only when you’ll actually start your venture you’ll get to know all the things involved and the profit margin. Therefore, you should start small, as this will give you the flexibility to adapt. It’s also easier to run a smaller system, and if you are new to Aquaponics you’ll have some learning to do to run it efficiently. In addition, when you’re just starting out, things will go wrong and it is easier to fix them on a small scale than if you are running a massive Aquaponics farm.

Learn how to make it BIG with aquaponics farming in Aquaponics 4 You. Click here

When Will I Harvest My Vegetables?

When Will I Harvest My Vegetables?

If this is your first time with aquaponics, then you are probably very exciting to start enjoying the food you have grown yourself. Obviously, vegetables and fish require some time to grow fully, although this will depend on the species of plants and fish you have in your system. Aquaponics is a natural system and no chemicals or additives are used to speed up growth of either vegetables or fish. Hence, they will take up their natural time to grow and mature, ensuring the best quality and taste.

When purchasing plant seeds, check out the information on the package – it will tell you how long the plant normally takes to be ready for harvesting. Now, if this is the first time you are setting up the Aquaponics system, you won’t be able to plant the seeds immediately. This is because the wastes from the fish will need about 3 months to be turned into nutrients by the bacteria. However, if you want to start planting immediately, you can supply the nitrates into the water yourself.

Once you have planted the seeds, the plants will grow at their natural rate. Remember that you will be growing organic vegetables, free of artificial additives. The best-growing plants in an aquaponics system will be the same ones that grow best in your area (depending on the climate, etc…). Of course, you may grow plants which require very different climatic conditions than those in your area (e.g. some plants grow best in the cold or in the heat), however, in this case you will need to heat or cool the area accordingly.

A large number of plants can be grown in an aquaponics farming system, mainly with the exception of root vegetables. However, for most above-ground plants, aquaponics is an ideal set-up to grow these. Very common plants grown in these systems are herbs and green leafy vegetables, as well as plants such as tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, chili, red salad onions, celery, broccoli, beans, and cauliflower. Common herbs grown in aquaponics farming include parsley, watercress, basil, sage, and coriander.

If you are running an aquaponics system for profit (i.e. to sell the vegetables and fish), then the species you choose to grow will also depend on the current demand and prices in your area. Most people find that they can charge higher prices for the same foods than those found in supermarkets, because organic home-grown foods attract a premium. Many start out with aquaponics as a hobby, and it ends up being an important source of income!

Discover all the tips and tricks for growing vegetables and herbs using an Aquaponics system in Aquaponics 4 You. Click here

Fishless Cycling

Fishless Cycling

Aquaponics fishless cycling is a method of starting up your Aquaponics farming system without using fish. When you first start an Aquaponics system, there will be no bacteria. Bacteria are crucial in the running of the system, as they are responsible for breaking down toxic fish waste and transforming it into nutrients for the plants. In traditional cycling, you put your fish into the newly setup system, and they will start generating ammonia (fish waste). Eventually, nitrosomonas bacteria will colonize the system, and these will break down the ammonia into nitrites (which are still toxic). Another species of bacteria will then colonize the system – nitrobacter – and these will break down the nitrites into nitrates, which make excellent plant fertilizer. The problem is that colonization by bacteria takes time, and in the meantime ammonia and nitrites can build up in the water to toxic levels, harming and possibly killing the fish. Aquaponics fishless cycling avoids this problem, as fish are introduced only after the bacterial colonies have established themselves.

To carry out Aquaponics fishless cycling, you need to buy a source of ammonia – generally found in Cyclic Kits. Next, add in the ammonia to the fish tank’s water until you get a level between 2 to 4ppm (parts per million). For fish tanks smaller than 100 gallons, add half a teaspoon of ammonia at a time, and test. Consult the mixing instructions on the ammonia you buy, as different types of mixtures have different strengths. If you overshoot, and you get a reading higher than 4ppm, simply remove some of the water and add in fresh water to dilute the ammonia strength.

Once you get a level of 2 to 4ppm, you should test the water every day for ammonia, nitrites and pH levels. When ammonia levels start dropping, add some more to keep a level of 2 to 4ppm. Once nitrates appear (at least 5ppm), stop adding ammonia. Shortly after, the ammonia and nitrite levels should drop to below 0.5ppm. What this happens, the cycling is over and you can safely add the fish. During the cycling process, try to keep the temperature of the water to about 77 to 86°F and the pH to around 7 to 8, as this will speed up bacterial growth.

Aquaponics cycling without fish is safer than when you use fish, and much quicker. Typically, with the fishless method you can get your system up and running in just 10 days, compared to the 4 weeks it would take if you opt for cycling with fish.

Get step-by-step guidance on setting up and starting up your Aquaponics farm in Aquaponics 4 You. Click here