Anyone have hydroponic experience?

[FnWeirdo]

Let me know how the build turns out. Hope you write an article on it. This could be interesting.

ill be sure to take a bunch of pics and do a thread on it when it comes time. ill post a link for the thread in here and my fodder adventure thread so those following along can see

 

[itsasmallfarm]

my cousin did hydroponics in his basement, he really enjoyed it but it cost him too much for the amount of produce he was getting, said it was cheaper buying his produce from a store.

have you looked into aquaponics pretty much hydroponics but with fish involved.

 

[Kris5902]

my cousin did hydroponics in his basement, he really enjoyed it but it cost him too much for the amount of produce he was getting, said it was cheaper buying his produce from a store.

have you looked into aquaponics pretty much hydroponics but with fish involved.

Very true for most crops! And you have to factor in electricity costs, nutrients, water cost if you’re on metered... but it’s hard to find cheap year round fodder... wheat grass in the plastic 4x6 nursery started pots here is $6... with even a 4x8 foot flood and drain table you could grow a lot more for a lot less!

Produce and veggies are definitely cheaper at the store!

 

[itsasmallfarm]

Very true for most crops! And you have to factor in electricity costs, nutrients, water cost if you’re on metered... but it’s hard to find cheap year round fodder... wheat grass in the plastic 4x6 nursery started pots here is $6... with even a 4x8 foot flood and drain table you could grow a lot more for a lot less!

Produce and veggies are definitely cheaper at the store!

his goal was to grow tomatoes and peppers which i think are high nutrient crops

 

[Kris5902]

Another consideration, especially for heavy feeders like tomatoes and peppers is nutrients, it’s fairly challenging to find good organic water soluble nutrients in many places. I’m in B.C. Canada and we have a really good availability for small hydroponics here

 

[BReeder!]

Another consideration, especially for heavy feeders like tomatoes and peppers is nutrients, it’s fairly challenging to find good organic water soluble nutrients in many places. I’m in B.C. Canada and we have a really good availability for small hydroponics here

We have a koi pond. I would just pump water out of it if I was to do hydroponics - I guess that would make it aquaponics though, especially if I drained the water from the plant trays back to the pond. I wouldnt mess with adding nutrients when I have a few thousand gallons of nutrient rich water sitting in my backyard.

 

[Kris5902]

We have a koi pond. I would just pump water out of it if I was to do hydroponics - I guess that would make it aquaponics though, especially if I drained the water from the plant trays back to the pond. I wouldnt mess with adding nutrients when I have a few thousand gallons of nutrient rich water sitting in my backyard.

Yes, that makes it Aquaponics... I would really like to try out a system like that, but I would want to use eating fish in it to be more sustainable. You still need to add in a filtration system “Rob Bob Aquaponics and Backyard Farm” is a great You Tube channel for researching aquaponics.

If you’re already keeping koi... then yep, use the poop you’ve got! I used to water my houseplants with the water from my tropical fresh water aquarium changes when I was younger. Those were just houseplants though, I didn’t get into serious Hydroponics and indoor crop growing until I was in my 20’s.

 

[FnWeirdo]

i haven't done my research om aquaponics yet but it is something i am interested in down the road. my nephew works with an aquaponics system at his school. it is an special needs school and they grow a lot of there own food there and raise chickens and other farm animals there. some of the kids stay there full time. i think its awesome cause it gives these kids a chance to learn how to farm cultivate and all that while providing the children that go there great nutritious food they do everything organic as well. and because i know someones gonna cry "exploitive labor" everything that they do stays in the school and the kids actually get paid. its part of a program to help the kids line up a job and on an application counts as a job. they help these kids into the working world and at the same time teach them to be self sufficient which is very hard with certain disabilities.

case in point my nephew uses what he learns at my house. and told me when im ready he would help me set up an aquaponics system. he was telling me a bunch of the benefits the other day. apparently you can do the fish in aquaponics along with worms which gives you "black gold" his words to depribe the worm poop which is great soil and compost. apparently this water is also recirculated into soil for the plants?

as i said haven't done the research on aquaponics yet but my nephew seems to have learned a bit so i think its something ill end up playing with

 

[Kris5902]

i haven't done my research om aquaponics yet but it is something i am interested in down the road. my nephew works with an aquaponics system at his school. it is an special needs school and they grow a lot of there own food there and raise chickens and other farm animals there. some of the kids stay there full time. i think its awesome cause it gives these kids a chance to learn how to farm cultivate and all that while providing the children that go there great nutritious food they do everything organic as well. and because i know someones gonna cry "exploitive labor" everything that they do stays in the school and the kids actually get paid. its part of a program to help the kids line up a job and on an application counts as a job. they help these kids into the working world and at the same time teach them to be self sufficient which is very hard with certain disabilities.

case in point my nephew uses what he learns at my house. and told me when im ready he would help me set up an aquaponics system. he was telling me a bunch of the benefits the other day. apparently you can do the fish in aquaponics along with worms which gives you "black gold" his words to depribe the worm poop which is great soil and compost. apparently this water is also recirculated into soil for the plants?

as i said haven't done the research on aquaponics yet but my nephew seems to have learned a bit so i think its something ill end up playing with

That is truly awesome! I love seeing kids (all kids) get involved in food production. It’s so rewarding, and they have such enthusiasm. They can go from “I don’t eat carrots” to “I grew this carrot and it is amazing” so quickly!

I looked over your other thread on your fodder adventure, it reminds me more of the sprouting jars I was doing for my own consumption a while back. If you’re wanting to upscale a bit, a fairly simple flood table and mesh frames would be my recommendation, less plumbing and less emitters that could clog and fail. Basically like the CropKing link but home made.

The best part of the fodder is you won’t need any hydroponic nutrients, high powered lighting or the ventilation systems that go along with that.

An excellent reference is “Gardening Indoors: the indoor gardener’s bible” by George Van Patten. It’s fairly inexpensive on amazon and very thorough. My primary reference for a decade! Looking forward to your updates

 

[FnWeirdo]

That is truly awesome! I love seeing kids (all kids) get involved in food production. It’s so rewarding, and they have such enthusiasm. They can go from “I don’t eat carrots” to “I grew this carrot and it is amazing” so quickly!

I looked over your other thread on your fodder adventure, it reminds me more of the sprouting jars I was doing for my own consumption a while back. If you’re wanting to upscale a bit, a fairly simple flood table and mesh frames would be my recommendation, less plumbing and less emitters that could clog and fail. Basically like the CropKing link but home made.

The best part of the fodder is you won’t need any hydroponic nutrients, high powered lighting or the ventilation systems that go along with that.

An excellent reference is “Gardening Indoors: the indoor gardener’s bible” by George Van Patten. It’s fairly inexpensive on amazon and very thorough. My primary reference for a decade! Looking forward to your updates

funny thing i actually have the book but they renamed it now. i picked it up along with some chicken books a while ago just started reading it. it is now called "Gardening Indoors with soil & Hydroponics by George F. Van Patten"

Tell me more on the mesh table. can you scale it down? i only have 13 well.... 12 chickens now i just lost my only pet chicken Tiny 2 days ago. i dont need alot of fodder for a couple years.