At DenverFarmer.com, we spend months planning for the spring planting season. In order to utilize our space most efficiently, we test a great many of the plants and variety of plants we plan to grow. During our testing phase, we play close attention to seed germination, growth rate and size. Once a plant has matured we also are recording yield and taste. This testing is crucial to determining which plants we'll be providing to our customers.
Our Grow Lab is an essential part of the testing phase. We thought we’d give you a tour of our “Lab” and share with you how it works and how it helps choose the veggies you eat.
It would probably be of some use to define Aquaponics at this point:
According to Wikipedia, Aquaponics is a food production system that combines conventional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In normal aquaculture, excretions from the animals being raised can accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity. In an aquaponic system, water from an aquaculture system is fed to a hydroponic system where the by-products are broken down by nitrification bacteria into nitrates and nitrites, which are utilized by the plants as nutrients. The water is then recirculated back to the aquaculture system.
We made our aquaponics system, after copious amounts of research and considering the space limitations of our mud room (aka the Grow Lab), we decided on a 200 gallon system. One tank is used as a fish tank; the other is a sump tank. The total water in the system is about 175 gallons at any given time. In the fish tank, we have 50 fish including Tilapia, Yellow Perch, and Channel Catfish. The Tilapia are warm water fishes, so we built a tank heater. Our custom made thermostat kept the water in both tanks a cozy 70 degrees all winter long. Our timed automatic fish feeder makes sure that the fish have the right dose of food twice a day. The system design is fairly self-sufficient, which gives us time for more pressing duties.
We constructed three media grow beds that are 48 inches square and 12 inches deep. The grow beds were raised over both tanks to allow water to drain back through the bell siphons (see graphic above). The media in each of the grow beds is expanded clay pebbles. The pebbles allow for water and oxygen to circulated around the plant’s roots, as well as giving the plant something to grip for stability.
Most plants will grow in the clay media, but root plants like Onions, carrots and radishes are often misshapen because of inconsistent pressure by the media. To overcome this problem, we incorporate fiber Aquapouch fabric pots and Dual Root Zone mesh bottom pots that contain and use potting soil in the system. We purchased the Aquapouch fabric pots and Dual Root Zone Pots from The Aquaponic Source located in Longmont Colorado.
The Grow Lab has been indispensable in our quest to provide our customers the highest quality vegetables and herbs. Just as important to us, the lab also allows for us to raise fish for our private consumption. We'd love to show you our Grow Lab, so stop by and take a tour. If you have children, bring them along. We enjoy explaining how bio-systems work to the little ones. Make sure you ask about our free coloring pages and crayons to let your kids take a bit of DenverFarmer.com home with them.
Sincerely,
Brad and Sally Wicks
We are changing the way we live, let us help you change the way you eat!
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Brad and Sally Wicks
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