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> I was wondering about hydroponics. We have tomatoes, lettuce and

peppers grown hydroponically during the winter here locally in

greenhouses. What type of food quality can we expect from veggies

grown hydroponically

Hi a:

Expect the level of nutrition in hydroponically grown food to be

malnutrition. Albrecht, the soil scientist, explains that the

nutrients in the water can not be at a high enough level for what the

plant needs, without being toxic to the plant. The minerals can be in

much higher concentrations in the soil, without being toxic to the

plant.

Chi

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  • 9 years later...

Daneen,

This site would answer your questions: www.aerogarden.com

The only thing i don't want about this machine is that it uses plant light that

is flourescent. Flourescents are known to emit mercury.

> >

> > I have been thinking of this for several months now. I am thankful for the

aerogarden (hydropohnics) i have. I use distilled water together with the plant

nutrient (don't know if it has radiation though). Maybe next time i will just

hydrogen peroxide drops. Yeah, truly they make the plants grow, flower and

fruit.

> >

> >

>

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I grow plants from cuttings using a hydroponic deep-reservoir system with a

bubbler. I also build a hydroponic garden with grow columns and a recirculating

tank for indoors to put over and around a sliding glass door. Fluorescent lights

have the wrong light wavelength to grow plants well unless they are

full-spectrum or plant lights. Halides are better.

all good,

Duncan

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MR CROW, very instresting regarding your Hydroponic system, any pics. would be

great.

Gerardo Barriga

From: Duncan Crow <duncancrow@...>

>Coconut Oil

>Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 9:54 AM

>Subject: Re: hydroponics

>

>

> 

>I grow plants from cuttings using a hydroponic deep-reservoir system with a

bubbler. I also build a hydroponic garden with grow columns and a recirculating

tank for indoors to put over and around a sliding glass door. Fluorescent lights

have the wrong light wavelength to grow plants well unless they are

full-spectrum or plant lights. Halides are better.

>

>all good,

>

>Duncan

>

>

>

>

>

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I don't have pics for my hydroponic systems but I'll describe two of them.

The first effort worked admirably well; I simply cut 15 round holes in the top

of each of two totes, filled the totes with solution, put in air bubblers using

aquarium parts, and placed the baskets in there. I would put fresh salvia

divinorum cuttings in there under a hood I made from 4 mil poly, box tape and

bamboo stakes until the roots developed. Under just one light, the 2-tote garden

was productive 12 months a year.

My advanced hydro system was much larger -- designed to be an apartment-sized

hydroponic garden in front of the 8 foot glass door -- but could be re-sized. I

used a soldering torch and tapered bar to carefully heat and flare the holes in

four 4 " predrilled septic field drainage pipes. They stand up in the corners of

a 2'x10'x1' deep rectangular tank. I capped the columns at the top with a frame

made of white 2 " ABS vacuum pipe. ABS frame hides water lines that recirculate

water from a pump in the tank to the tops of the columns. ABS frame also hides

wire drops to eight small high-output lights that can be raised and lowered by

their wires. The tank, which is made with particle board shelving lined with a

waterbed mattress material, kind of like a pond liner, has a styrofoam lid with

36 round 2 " cutouts for hydroponic baskets to nest in. The plants that are in

baskets contact the water in the tank, which is a deep well recirc system. The

recirc incorporates some air into the water. The four columns are full of rock

wool, but pea gravel will sag less next time. Some of the water is pumped into

the top of the corner columns to feed the plants and trickles down them into the

tank. Pump outlet hose can be detached and put outside to purge the the tank.

The whole rig is self-supporting in front of a sliding glass apartment patio

door, the kind with the heater along under the bottom, with just one pipe strap

to stabilise it screwed to the valance over the sliding door. Timers control the

lights and the circulating pump.

I have a list of Chinese longevity herbs that might be grown indoors; they and a

few salad greens was the original idea but you can certainly grow an entire

garden's worth of greens in there. Unfortunately for that project my wife Jo and

I moved soon after meeting and there was nowhere to set it up so I had to

dismantle it. If anyone on Vancouver Island wants to pick it up I'd sell the

prototype to recover $400 costs.

all good,

Duncan

>

> MR CROW, very instresting regarding your Hydroponic system, any pics. would be

great.

>

>

> Gerardo Barriga

>

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Thank U.

Gerardo Barriga

From: Duncan Crow <duncancrow@...>

>Coconut Oil

>Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2011 9:07 AM

>Subject: Re: hydroponics

>

>

> 

>I don't have pics for my hydroponic systems but I'll describe two of them.

>

>The first effort worked admirably well; I simply cut 15 round holes in the top

of each of two totes, filled the totes with solution, put in air bubblers using

aquarium parts, and placed the baskets in there. I would put fresh salvia

divinorum cuttings in there under a hood I made from 4 mil poly, box tape and

bamboo stakes until the roots developed. Under just one light, the 2-tote garden

was productive 12 months a year.

>

>My advanced hydro system was much larger -- designed to be an apartment-sized

hydroponic garden in front of the 8 foot glass door -- but could be re-sized. I

used a soldering torch and tapered bar to carefully heat and flare the holes in

four 4 " predrilled septic field drainage pipes. They stand up in the corners of

a 2'x10'x1' deep rectangular tank. I capped the columns at the top with a frame

made of white 2 " ABS vacuum pipe. ABS frame hides water lines that recirculate

water from a pump in the tank to the tops of the columns. ABS frame also hides

wire drops to eight small high-output lights that can be raised and lowered by

their wires. The tank, which is made with particle board shelving lined with a

waterbed mattress material, kind of like a pond liner, has a styrofoam lid with

36 round 2 " cutouts for hydroponic baskets to nest in. The plants that are in

baskets contact the water in the tank, which is a deep well recirc system. The

recirc

incorporates some air into the water. The four columns are full of rock wool,

but pea gravel will sag less next time. Some of the water is pumped into the top

of the corner columns to feed the plants and trickles down them into the tank.

Pump outlet hose can be detached and put outside to purge the the tank.

>

>The whole rig is self-supporting in front of a sliding glass apartment patio

door, the kind with the heater along under the bottom, with just one pipe strap

to stabilise it screwed to the valance over the sliding door. Timers control the

lights and the circulating pump.

>

>I have a list of Chinese longevity herbs that might be grown indoors; they and

a few salad greens was the original idea but you can certainly grow an entire

garden's worth of greens in there. Unfortunately for that project my wife Jo and

I moved soon after meeting and there was nowhere to set it up so I had to

dismantle it. If anyone on Vancouver Island wants to pick it up I'd sell the

prototype to recover $400 costs.

>

>all good,

>

>Duncan

>

>

>>

>> MR CROW, very instresting regarding your Hydroponic system, any pics. would

be great.

>>

>>

>> Gerardo Barriga

>>

>

>

>

>

>

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Duncan,

They are plant grow lights. They have three oval loops in a unit. You can see

them at this website incl. the plant food.

http://www.aerogarden.com/accessories-cat-index

The machine has a bubbler to provide oxygen. It tells you when to put water and

food. I have harvested three times from one seed and it is still producing more

seeds. Kinda amazing. We have tasted mustard, bok choy, tatsoi, etc. They

truly taste just like those planted on soil outside without radiation.

>

> I grow plants from cuttings using a hydroponic deep-reservoir system with a

bubbler. I also build a hydroponic garden with grow columns and a recirculating

tank for indoors to put over and around a sliding glass door. Fluorescent lights

have the wrong light wavelength to grow plants well unless they are

full-spectrum or plant lights. Halides are better.

>

> all good,

>

> Duncan

>

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Fluorescents have to be very high-output or they do very little and they have to

be close to the plants because they are low light. Halides are better,

especially halides in a plant light enhanced form. I picked up some useful

techniques from a legal marijuana grower; the hydroponic shop owner knows a lot

too :)

all good,

Duncan

> >

> > I grow plants from cuttings using a hydroponic deep-reservoir system with a

bubbler. I also build a hydroponic garden with grow columns and a recirculating

tank for indoors to put over and around a sliding glass door. Fluorescent lights

have the wrong light wavelength to grow plants well unless they are

full-spectrum or plant lights. Halides are better.

> >

> > all good,

> >

> > Duncan

> >

>

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Hi ,

Thanks for letting us know about these. I have always wondered if they really

worked and your experience is awesome! I'm definitely ordering one - or two or

three. Do you buy your seeds from them as well or do you have another source?

Best,

Dee

>

> Duncan,

>

> They are plant grow lights. They have three oval loops in a unit. You can

see them at this website incl. the plant food.

>

> http://www.aerogarden.com/accessories-cat-index

>

> The machine has a bubbler to provide oxygen. It tells you when to put water

and food. I have harvested three times from one seed and it is still producing

more seeds. Kinda amazing. We have tasted mustard, bok choy, tatsoi, etc. They

truly taste just like those planted on soil outside without radiation.

>

>

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Save your money. The little hydroponic kits " work " in that they can grow a few

ounces of real leaves, which amounts to just a couple of leaves every couple of

days if you don't overpick them.

Most food plants grow much too large for such a small grow station. You'll see;

it'll grow cress and oregano fine but food veggies are pretty big for such a

setup. Sprouting your own sprouts nets bigger returns of biological value.

A 4'x8' flood table and single 1000 watt bulb would be more appropriate for

growing some of the food for one person indoors. The hydroponic system I built

was only 2'x10' with 120 grow stations, probably not big enough yet.

Here's a short video of a flood table of a size that might help:

Here's a video that explains how to set one up:

all good,

Duncan

>

> Hi ,

>

> Thanks for letting us know about these. I have always wondered if they really

worked and your experience is awesome! I'm definitely ordering one - or two or

three. Do you buy your seeds from them as well or do you have another source?

>

> Best,

> Dee

>

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Duncan,

Just as a 2 x 10 foot table was too big for your apartment, a 4 x 8 ft. would be

too big for inside my house. These pots are perfect, however, for starting

plants from seeds which I can then plant outdoors. I live in Florida and my son

has already built a wall of containers for plants all around our deck. A couple

of the large hydroponic kits will also supply salad greens for the times the

weather doesn't permit growing outdoors and the cost will still be less than the

$400 you spent on the one you can no longer use (not to mention all the work

involved).

Dee

> >

> > Hi ,

> >

> > Thanks for letting us know about these. I have always wondered if they

really worked and your experience is awesome! I'm definitely ordering one - or

two or three. Do you buy your seeds from them as well or do you have another

source?

> >

> > Best,

> > Dee

> >

>

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I'm envious; growing in a subtropical climate no doubt introduces interesting

possibilities :) I'm temperate rain forest here and don't have outdoor space

with dirt that's any good for growing, being recently glaciated it's primarily

silt and clay. :(

I made a couple of piles of good compost though with my son at his place and

using it the next year we made a humdinger of a producing garden in just 7' x

22' outdoor space May-October. We also had enormous summer squash vines growing

right out of the compost pile and several yards across the neigbour's unkempt

back corner too.

I understand growing seedlings or buying them and transplanting them to dirt,

which is what I did in some cases afer sprouting food seeds in layers of wet

paper towel. In indoor gardening, bare-root hydroponics produced consistently

well and was less work than dirt for me; I was shipping bare-root plants. I

still use dirt for local plants.

all good,

Duncan

> > >

> > > Hi ,

> > >

> > > Thanks for letting us know about these. I have always wondered if they

really worked and your experience is awesome! I'm definitely ordering one - or

two or three. Do you buy your seeds from them as well or do you have another

source?

> > >

> > > Best,

> > > Dee

> > >

> >

>

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For those of you with an interest in HYDRO-ponics, you might also consider

AQUA-ponics...the Marriage of 'Aquaculture' (growing aquatic animals, ex, fish,

freshwater shrimp, etc) with 'Hydroponics' (growing plants without soil)....

....in AQUAPONICS, one uses the fish waste-water (transferred by pump/pvc pipe)

to fertilize and nourish the plants (which are grown in clay pellets or other

media in grow beds).

And one uses the plants (and nitrobacter bacteria, which break down the

ammonia'd 'fish water' to a form plants can use) to clean the fish water.

One throws in, say, some commercial catfish pellets to the front end, and

harvests veg and - occasionally - fish (tilapia and catfish are most typically

grown in USA) from the back end. And add water occasionally to compensate for

evaporation.

No need to buy spendy-n-mysterious hydroponic chemicals, hmm. And :: can be

truly and completely organic, depending on what one feeds one's fish.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/information.html

Very big in Australia, where water is at a premium; google 'Murray Hallam' on

you tube or http://www.aquaponics.net.au/

For micro-backyard-use, consider barrel-ponics:

http://www.saveourskills.com/complete-guide-barrelponics

....or google-up-yer-own.

~ ruby ~

> >

> > I have been thinking of this for several months now. I am thankful for the

aerogarden (hydropohnics) i have. I use distilled water together with the plant

nutrient (don't know if it has radiation though). Maybe next time i will just

hydrogen peroxide drops. Yeah, truly they make the plants grow, flower and

fruit.

> >

> >

>

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That is such a beautiful concept...

and very kind to the earth...

it demonstrates the cycle / circle of life...

one thing we may view as waste is a source of food for another organism...

is there concern at all about bad bacteria from the fish water?...

I had heard of one of these that 'went bad...and a major 'clean-up needed to be

done...

wondering if it was just poor maintenance or hygeine for the operation that was

the cause...

d

________________________________

From: arubyinthedust <arubyinthedust@...>

Coconut Oil

Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 9:19 AM

Subject: Re: hydroponics

 

For those of you with an interest in HYDRO-ponics, you might also consider

AQUA-ponics...the Marriage of 'Aquaculture' (growing aquatic animals, ex, fish,

freshwater shrimp, etc) with 'Hydroponics' (growing plants without soil)....

....in AQUAPONICS, one uses the fish waste-water (transferred by pump/pvc pipe)

to fertilize and nourish the plants (which are grown in clay pellets or other

media in grow beds).

And one uses the plants (and nitrobacter bacteria, which break down the

ammonia'd 'fish water' to a form plants can use) to clean the fish water.

One throws in, say, some commercial catfish pellets to the front end, and

harvests veg and - occasionally - fish (tilapia and catfish are most typically

grown in USA) from the back end. And add water occasionally to compensate for

evaporation.

No need to buy spendy-n-mysterious hydroponic chemicals, hmm. And :: can be

truly and completely organic, depending on what one feeds one's fish.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/information.html

Very big in Australia, where water is at a premium; google 'Murray Hallam' on

you tube or http://www.aquaponics.net.au/

For micro-backyard-use, consider barrel-ponics:

http://www.saveourskills.com/complete-guide-barrelponics

....or google-up-yer-own.

~ ruby ~

> >

> > I have been thinking of this for several months now. I am thankful for the

aerogarden (hydropohnics) i have. I use distilled water together with the plant

nutrient (don't know if it has radiation though). Maybe next time i will just

hydrogen peroxide drops. Yeah, truly they make the plants grow, flower and

fruit.

> >

> >

>

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I think aquaculture would be well suited to a type of catfish called Basa ,

which is a true catfish that USA catfish lobbyists don't want us to call a

catfish ;) because it tastes so much better than channel catfish. These are not

bony and while harvested fairly small and the fillets are a manageable 3/4 lb.

per side. They grow practially in any ditch full of water like a carp.

all good,

Duncan

>

>

>

> For those of you with an interest in HYDRO-ponics, you might also consider

AQUA-ponics...the Marriage of 'Aquaculture' (growing aquatic animals, ex, fish,

freshwater shrimp, etc) with 'Hydroponics' (growing plants without soil)....

>

> ...in AQUAPONICS, one uses the fish waste-water (transferred by pump/pvc pipe)

to fertilize and nourish the plants (which are grown in clay pellets or other

media in grow beds).

>

> And one uses the plants (and nitrobacter bacteria, which break down the

ammonia'd 'fish water' to a form plants can use) to clean the fish water.

>

> One throws in, say, some commercial catfish pellets to the front end, and

harvests veg and - occasionally - fish (tilapia and catfish are most typically

grown in USA) from the back end. And add water occasionally to compensate for

evaporation.

>

> No need to buy spendy-n-mysterious hydroponic chemicals, hmm. And :: can be

truly and completely organic, depending on what one feeds one's fish.

>

> See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics

>

> http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/information.html

>

> Very big in Australia, where water is at a premium; google 'Murray Hallam' on

you tube or http://www.aquaponics.net.au/

>

> For micro-backyard-use, consider barrel-ponics:

>

> http://www.saveourskills.com/complete-guide-barrelponics

>

> ...or google-up-yer-own.

>

>

>

> ~ ruby ~

>

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Hi Duncan:

Not to be argumentative, but I have never tasted _any_ farmed fish of

any species that equals the wild variety... and wild channel cat is

pretty tasty IMHO. But freshwater bass beats it a mile if it comes from

good water. Strangely, largemouth bass and striped bass, though

unrelated, taste remarkably alike and the meat looks the same.

Largemouth bass are sunfish and stripers are true bass. Largemouth can

do quite well in a small farm pond, but carp can breath air, so do well

in smaller ditches with low oxygen as you suggest. What I am saying is

that if I had a pond, it would have largemouth bass in it and I could

enjoy catching them too.

Regards,

Jim

I think aquaculture would be well suited to a type of catfish called

Basa , which is a true catfish that USA catfish lobbyists don't want

us to call a catfish ;) because it tastes so much better than channel

catfish. These are not bony and while harvested fairly small and the

fillets are a manageable 3/4 lb. per side. They grow practially in any

ditch full of water like a carp.

all good,

Duncan

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Hi, Don -

I am not *aware* of any diseases fish get which may be communicated to humans

(and I have been keeping aquaria for lo, many years now) or to plants (edible or

non-edible), for that matter.

That said, an aquaponics systems *does* need to be kept in Balance....as far as

pounds-of-fish v.

cubic-feet-of-bacteria-colonized-grow-bed(s)-filtering-those-fishes'-body-wastes\

....and :::: pumps need to be run consistently, with a back-up power source in

case of electrical outage...an electrical outage would cause one's Valued

Nitrobacter (bacteria) to suffocate/starve, so that they would discontinue their

conversion of fish waste, hmm, causing ammonia spikes, and also cause one's fish

to be deprived of oxygen, which could cause fish death, and so forth, and so

on....snd as with any aquaria, one should avoid overfeeding, and take out dead

fish, and depending on what fish one keeps, one might need auxiliary heat in

winter, and so forth and so on.

~ r ~

> > >

> > > I have been thinking of this for several months now. I am thankful for

the aerogarden (hydropohnics) i have. I use distilled water together with the

plant nutrient (don't know if it has radiation though). Maybe next time i will

just hydrogen peroxide drops. Yeah, truly they make the plants grow, flower

and fruit.

> > >

> > >

> >

>

>

>

>

>

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