Backyard Urban Gardening - Grow Your Own Food: Central Florida Aquaponics Tour

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Central Florida Aquaponics Tour - March 5, 2011

I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday than touring a whole bunch of backyard gardens. We started in Winter Park and ended in Brooksville (I drove about 350 miles round trip). The tour was organized by some very gracious folks that belong to the Florida Group on AquaponicsCommunity.com hosted on Ning.

Commercial style raft aquaponics, growing directly in media beds, homemade PVC, Zip Grow tower strips, and high tech hydroponic stacks were some of the various aquaponic styles being used by our hosts.

Here's a slide show featuring pictues I took along the way. I hope you enjoy it.

Build an Aquaponic System

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Amateur Hydroponic Tips for Deep Water Culture

1. Wash your hydroton before using it. I didn't do that in my first project and ended up with a film of clay dust throughout the water chamber in my deep water culture bins.

2. Adjust your lighting before planting. It's very difficult to make adjustments after you've planted when using deep water culture.

3. Use a commercially produced nutrient. DIY is great for most things, but why not take advantage of professional research and development to flatten the initial hydroponic learning curve?

4. Shop around for the best prices. Some hydroponic shops are "friendlier" than others and it follows that some have lower prices than the competition.

5. DIY is cheaper than paying full retail for a "kit" system. You can look around on the Internet and find several examples at inexpensive, but effective hydroponic growing systems you can assemble yourself.

6. Buy a commercial quality air pump for aerating your deep water culture beds.

7. Kick start your basement hydroponics by maintaining temperatures at optimal levels for the vegetables you're growing.