Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
"Vertical Farm Products: Easy To Construct And Transport"
In a Thorilex pilot glasshouse currently, as much measuring material is installed to generate and collect data of the growing process in the greenhouse. The goal is to get even more data on the function and the behavior of their products for vertical farming - even more than the company already gained from doing broad laboratory tests. "We've launched three brand new products bringing new light on the aquaponics, hydroponics and aquaculture market", Marek Hrstka with Thorilex explains.
The three new products are an automatic vertical hydroponic system, a multi-use hydroponic basket, and a self-cleaning fish tank. "We use quality materials like stainless steel for most products", Marek shows. "And logistics have our special attention. The products are possible to pack and delivery with minimal costs because the products are highly modular and it is simple to build without deep knowledge."
Hydroponic system
The Automatic Vertical Thorilex Hydroponic System is made from stainless steel. "It brings up to 9 times higher production, easier harvesting and better climate for the plants. The system can be up to 8 meters high and it is possible to choose from different growing boxes by species of plant. It is also equipped with the special spraying system and is operated with a control and security system."
For the system a special product website was custom built where a case study can be downloaded that provides more information about the product.
The patented hydroponic basket and fish tank
The Hydroponic basket for the multi-use is designed for long-life. "It has a modified bottom and thanks to the higher stiffness of the material easy and fast plant removing can be realized without the root system or basket damaging. It is suitable for our Hydroponic system."
Then there's the Fishtank. "Made from the stainless steel and it uses hydrodynamic water flow to remove the fish waste. It allows to regulate the height of the water and makes it possible to add an automatic feeder."
All the products are patented and right now the products are placed in the pilot project in 2 Ha glasshouse area. "To generate and collect more data than from the laboratory tests. The data evaluation is expected by the end of the year. It is possible to buy the products in advance booking for the introductory prices that will be provided during this year", Marek concludes.
For more information:
THORILEX
General Tel: +420 313 103 103
Publication date: 9/7/2018
Author: Arlette Sijmonsma
Copyright: www.hortidaily.com
Meriden Aquaponics Firm Scores $500K Investment For New Haven Expansion
PHOTO | TRIFECTA ECOSYSTEMS
JULY 16, 2018
Meriden-based Trifecta Ecosystems, an aquaponics technology company and indoor farm, has received a $500,000 investment to grow its aquatic systems in the New Haven region.
New Haven-based water provider South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority (RWA) announced Monday its investment will allow Trifecta Ecosystems to build a custom-controlled aquaponics system, an urban farming technology platform, and workforce training programs in the Greater New Haven region.
RWA, a nonprofit that provides water to 430,000 people in 15 municipalities throughout Greater New Haven, said the funds are aimed at creating sustainable agriculture and fish-farming practices in the area.
With board approval, RWA says it could invest another $1.5 million into the project.
Spencer Curry, CEO and co-founder of Trifecta, says the initial investment will allow his firm to grow a new aquaponics system in the New Haven region "that will combine food production, aggregation, processing, research, and workforce training at integrated locations, helping pave the way for statewide adoption."
"This investment will allow our company to continue towards our mission of creating the City that Feeds Itself, by providing communities the tools they need to grow their own food, cost-effectively, scalable, and repeatedly."
Under aquaponics farming, produce can grow naturally without chemical fertilizers in a system that uses less water because it is recycled. Aquaponic farms, which have a smaller physical footprint, reduce carbon emissions by using up to 95 percent less water vs. traditional growing methods.
Building a new aquaculture, which raises aquatic animals such as fish with hydroponics, in the region will help sustain farming and kick-start economic growth, RWA said.
"We believe the science of aquaponics holds real potential for Connecticut in addressing land management issues and overcoming resource challenges facing traditional agriculture," RWA CEO and President Larry Bingaman said.
Growing The ‘Pure Food Revolution’ In Washougal Wind River Produce Uses Unique, Sustainable Farming Practice Known As ‘Aquaponics’
By Dawn Feldhaus | August 30, 2018
Aaron Imhof (left), the "master builder" of Wind River Produce, in Washougal, checks lettuce while holding peppers grown in Carl Hopple's backyard. Hopple (right) founded the organic farm that uses aquaponics, in the Columbia River Gorge, in 2017.(Dawn Feldhaus/Post-Record)
Annie Stanton, a Clark College student who volunteers at Wind River Produce, plants Salanova Red Butter and Breen Romaine lettuce. Tomatoes and peppers are also grown in the greenhouse
Annie Stanton, a Clark College student who volunteers at Wind River Produce, plants Salanova Red Butter and Breen Romaine lettuce. Tomatoes and peppers are also grown in the greenhouse. At the top, greenhouse manager Jennifer McMillan opens the heads of red romaine lettuce to allow for air flow. At right, a variety of lettuce is grown at Wind River Produce in Washougal. (Dawn Feldhaus/Post-Record)
A variety of lettuce is grown at Wind River Produce, in Washougal, without using pesticides or fertilizers. The plants absorb nitrates and return aerated water to fish that were involved in the growth process. (Dawn Feldhaus/Post-Record)
A Washougal-area farm in the Columbia River Gorge has taken the soil out of the process and added in fish.
Wind River Produce owner Carl Hopple calls it “the pure food revolution,” but it’s more commonly known as aquaponics, a combination of aquaculture, or farming fish, and hydroponics, which grows plants in water instead of soil.
Aquaponics takes the best of both worlds, growing fish and plants in a system in which fish waste can nourish the plants and the plants can filter the water, keeping the fish healthy.
Here’s how it works: The fish produce waste, which contains ammonia. Microorganisms convert the ammonia to nitrites, and then to nitrates for the plants. The plants absorb the nitrates and return aerated water to the fish.
The farming method is more sustainable than traditional practices, using 10 percent of the water required in conventional agriculture and operating without a need for chemicals or pesticides.
Hopple, a residential and commercial developer with Fosburg Enterprises LLC, of Vancouver, grows lettuce, tomatoes and peppers with Aaron Imhof, the “master builder” of Wind River Produce, Jennifer McMillan, the greenhouse manager and Annie Stanton, a Clark College student who volunteers at the Columbia River Gorge-area farm.
Hopple discovered aquaponics in 2013 when he was working on a greenhouse project for one of his development company customers.
He met Imhof and Imhof’s wife, Kate Wildrick, owners of Ingenuity Innovation Center, in St. Helens, Oregon, during a greenhouse tour.
“They had a greenhouse with one of Murray Hallam’s backyard aquaponics systems in it, and had lemons growing in the early spring,” Hopple said. “I was fascinated with the system, and I enjoyed meeting them so (I) set up a time to come back and tour the facility and get to know them better. I also wanted to know more about this new way of farming that I had never heard of.”
Hallam, an aquaponics expert from Brisbane, Australia, offers in-person workshops and seminars, as well as an online aquaponics design course.
Hopple started Wind River Produce in 2017 and has since branched out, partnering with regional food groups and trying to bring the aquaponics message to the Pacific Northwest.
Wildrick, who provides community outreach services for Wind River Produce, said the Ingenuity Innovation Center is partnering with the Oregon Food Bank and developing an aquaponics training program for veterans.
“We also travel internationally to build aquaponic farms for vulnerable children and families in an effort to prevent sex trafficking,” Wildrick said. “We partner with the Fly Fishing Collaborative.”
The Ingenuity Innovation Center will be working in partnership with Wind River Produce to provide community education and outreach with sustainable projects.
‘It is possible to change the way we produce our food’
Hopple said anyone can participate in the aquaponics industry, whether they are building a small backyard system to feed their family, or building a 50-acre facility to feed the city.
“It is possible to change the way we produce our food, and Wind River Produce can teach them how,” Hopple said. “Food produced in an aquaponics system is higher in nutrition and more efficient with the resources we have.”
The Washougal farm owner wants to take his message far and wide to create a movement.
“By educating the public on the facts, we can create a pure food revolution,” Hopple said. “This, in turn, will help to make healthy choices available to all.”
Hopple estimates the cost for a 10-by-12 foot aquaponics system, with a greenhouse, training and support to run it, would be $5,000 to $6,000.
“That is a good supplemental food source for a family of four,” he said.
Hopple sells lettuce and other vegetables at the Camas Farmer’s Market, from 3 to 7 p.m., Wednesdays, through Oct. 3, in front of the Camas Public Library, 625 N.E. Fourth Ave.
For more information about Wind River Produce, call 360-903-7418, email carl@windriverproduce.com or visit windriverproduce.com.
Post-Record staff writer
Aquaponic Growers, Researchers, Educators, And Enthusiasts:
Hi Everyone,
Friday and Saturday Passport Tickets for the Putting Up Shoots conference are now on sale. Head to our Putting Up Shoots homepage to purchase tickets and for more info.
Best wishes,
Brian Filipowich, Chairman
Aquaponics Association
From now until the September Putting Up Shoots conference we'll be rolling out a steady stream of conference previews. Check out the content we've already featured:
The Aquaponics Association is proud to present our tentative program for the Sept 21-23 Putting Up Shoots conference!
Check it out here: http://bit.ly/2MHWXO0
Oh my! A tremendous learning experience with the world's top experts and over SIXTY unique sessions. You don't want to miss it!
ALSO - The conference room block discount at the Hartford Hilton ends TODAY! Get your hotel room ASAP. Click here for the room block:
http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/groups/personalized/H/HFDHHHF-NAA-20180920/index.jhtml?WT.mc_id=POG
Nick Savidov, Lethbridge College: Development of the First Zero-Waste Food Production System Based on Aquaponics
Ryan Chatterson, Aquaponic Engineering and Design: Finding Profitability in an Ever-Changing Aquaponic Landscape
Kevin Savage, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy: An Engineering Design Process Model to Teach STEM Education through Aquaponics
The Husky-Ponics Tour - visiting the University of Connecticut Spring Valley Student Farm and Bigelow Brook Farm
Carlos Leon, Acuaponia: Bio-Engineering for Commercial Aquaponics
Ken Armstrong, Ouroboros Farms: The Future of Aquaponics is Now
Vendor Spotlight: Stalite Environmental
This is a small fraction of all the great content we have in store. For tickets and other conference information, head to our Putting Up Shoots conference homepage.
PUTTING UP SHOOTS 2018 SCHEDULE
Don't forget we still have space for presentation proposals in our four learning tracks: Commercial Aquaponics, Community Aquaponics, Aquaponics Research & Food Safety, and Aquaponics in STEM Education.
We hope to see you in September!
Brian Filipowich, Chairman
Aquaponics Association
P.S. Don't forget to check if you qualify for the STEM & Community Aquaponics Discount:
Apply for the STEM & Community Discount!
Stories From Around the Food System
How to go from City Living to Urban Farming in Six Months [Northeastern]
Do you know where your leafy greens come from? If you’re dining at a restaurant in Boston, there’s a good chance the salad greens you’re eating have been grown by two friends inside a small apartment in the city’s South End neighborhood.
Urban Farmers Forced Off Land Find New Ground to Grow [Chicago Tribune]
The wind-whipped rooftop of a converted warehouse in the Kinzie Industrial Corridor might be the last place you'd expect to find fertile farmland, unless you're Jen Rosenthal, founder and owner of Planted Chicago.
Urban Agriculture Could Transform Food Security [SciDev.net]
Using science, technology and innovation (STI) could help promote the use of urban agriculture to sustain food and nutrition security in African cities, experts say.
Helping the Homeless Through Farm-to-Table Training [Great Big Story]
There’s a San Francisco garden growing more than just produce. In a city plagued by homelessness, the Farming Hope Initiative offers urban farming and cooking training to those without a place to live.
The Water Wars of Arizona [New York Times]
Attracted by lax regulations, industrial agriculture has descended on a remote valley, depleting its aquifer — leaving many residents with no water at all.
Weird New Fruits Could Hit Aisles Soon Thanks to Gene Editing [Guardian]
Smooth or hairy, pungent or tasteless, deep-hued or bright: new versions of old fruits could be hitting the produce aisles as plant experts embrace cutting-edge technology, scientists say.
Giant Indoor Vertical Farm Launches Just East of Las Vegas [CNBC]
An indoor vertical farm that uses 90 percent less water than conventional growers is about to launch in Las Vegas and will be able to supply nearly 9,500 servings of leafy green salads per day to casinos and local restaurant chains.
Meriden Aquaponics Scores $500K for New Haven Expansion [Hartford Business]
Meriden-based Trifecta Ecosystems, an aquaponics technology company and indoor farm, has received a $500,000 investment to grow its aquatic systems in the New Haven region.
Dubai Will Be Home To the World’s Biggest Vertical Farm [Smithsonian]
An indoor megafarm might be the best way for the United Arab Emirates—a country that imports an estimated 85 percent of its food—to attempt to feed itself
What Makes Your Lettuce Look and Taste So Good? It May Be the Fish
Karel Holloway, Special Contributor
Connect with Karel Holloway Email
That perfect lettuce in the clamshell box at the grocery store may owe its deep color and rich taste to fish.
More and more produce grown aquaponically is pouring into the highest-end restaurants, farmers markets and grocery stores in North Texas. Hydroponics, a similar water-based growing method, is increasing as well, providing the perfect produce prized by chefs and consumers.
One innovation is "living lettuce." The lettuce is harvested with the roots still attached. The roots harbor water and nutrients that continue feeding the plant, giving it a much longer shelf life. Mostly green leafy vegetables, like lettuce, and some herbs are grown aquaponically or hyrdroponically. Microgreens and edible flowers also are part of the mix. Larger vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are grown in some bigger facilities.
These types of farms require far less space, water and artificial chemicals than traditionally grown produce. Entrepreneurs and enthusiasts see water-based growing as the future in supplying urban areas.
Profound Microfarms owner Jeff Bednar harvests lettuce inside the hydroponics greenhouse at Profound Microfarms in Lucas.
(Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)
Fish or no fish?
Aquaponics uses fish, usually tilapia or koi, to provide nutrient-rich water that is circulated to plant roots. The plants clean the water, which is pumped back to the fish tanks.
Goldfish tank in the aquaponics greenhouse at Profound Microfarms in Lucas.
(Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)
Please, no jokes about lettuce growing in fish poop. The solids from the fish are cleaned from the water before it ever reaches the plants. Ammonia in the water is refined into nitrogen that feeds the plants. Aquaponics systems can be outdoors, but commercial growers usually use greenhouses.
Hydroponics systems don't use fish, instead depending on a mix of nutrients that are endlessly recirculated. And, please, no marijuana jokes.
The systems don't use herbicides or pesticides and are less subject to contamination.
Lettuce growing in the aquaponics greenhouse at Breeden Fresh Farms in Terrell.
(Erin Booke)
Upstart ideas
Harrison Breeden, 27, is president of Breeden Fresh Farms in Terrell. His aquaponics greenhouse produces 6,000 heads of lettuce a week on less than an acre of land.
"I'm passionate about this," Breeden says.
He had an interest in alternative ways to produce high-quality food and studied agricultural resource management at Texas State University. There was no class in aquaponics, but it was presented in some class materials. Intrigued, he put together a small system to see how it worked and was hooked. He decided he'd like to start an aquaponics farm, and his parents agreed to help.
"They believe it is the future," Breeden says.
The aquaponics greenhouse at Profound Microfarms uses koi fish and goldfish.
(Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)
'Let's move to the country'
Richard and Sharon Hastings of East Texas Aquaponics have a similar story.
They worked in technology and lived in a suburban home in an increasingly crowded Austin. Their kids were grown and they were thinking ahead to retirement.
"We certainly wanted to look at doing something different. We were getting more and more interested in food," Richard Hastings says. "I said, 'Let's move to the country.'"
While they thought it was a good idea, they weren't sure what to do. Neither had farmed and they weren't really interested in traditional growing. They had a large koi pond in their yard, which prompted them to look into aquaponics.
They studied it and decided it had potential as a business and bought a small farm in Mineola to begin their aquaponic adventure growing lettuce, herbs and edible flowers. They now have a 6,600-square-foot greenhouse and plan to expand. Most of their produce goes to East Texas grocery stores and farmers markets, and they also contribute to the East Texas Food Bank.
Profound Microfarms owner Jeff Bednar harvests lettuce inside the hydroponics greenhouse.
(Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)
A sustainable option
It was a small aquaponics kitchen experiment with his daughter, Lily, that led Jeff Bednar to create Profound Microfarms in Lucas.
He was working in real estate, tired of driving all over the area and missing his kids. He began researching and taking classes and decided an aquaponics farm was the business he wanted to start.
Growing crops traditionally didn't seem to be a viable business model, he says. Soil is depleted, it takes a lot of water, and is too subject to the weather, he says.
"I wanted to do something more sustainable for the future," he says.
He grows more than 150 types of produce, most of which goes to Dallas area restaurants such as Petra and the Beast, Cedars Social and more. Chefs are interested because they can get different types of greens when they want them and it's really, really fresh.
And because it's fresh, there is less waste.
"Chefs tell me that a typical box of lettuce from farms has about 40 percent waste. Ours is about 5 percent," Bednar says.
Swiss chard grows in a hydroponics system greenhouse at Profound Microfarms.
(Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)
A growing trend
What the three growers have in common is the desire to start a sustainable business that will help with food supply issues. The number of those like them is growing, though most of the evidence is anecdotal.
"We are seeing an uptick in young people looking to get back into agriculture," says Chris Higgins, owner and editor of Urban Ag News.
Hennen Cummings, a professor at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, concurs. He teaches aquaponics and has seen an increase in enrollment. Classes have grown to the point that students jostle for position in the Hydrotron, the university's name for the aquaponics lab.
Bednar thinks water-based crops will always be a small part of the market, but already there are restaurants and some grocery stores that get much of their greens from local water-based farms. Breeden supplies several large chains and is working to provide produce to school districts.
And even though the product is more expensive than traditional lettuce, it makes up part of the difference with lower transportation costs and less waste.
"It's not going to solve world hunger," Higgins says, "but there is value there."
Using A Hydroponic System Vs Growing With Soil
by Stephen Campbell
June 08, 2018
Ah, one of life’s great debates: growing with a hydroponic system or with soil, an especially difficult question to answer for your first grow.
History has given us great success using dirt as a base, and in 1953, Austin Miller referred to soil as ‘the skin of the earth’. Throughout the years, the soil community has learned a few tricks. By adding nutrients, balancing pH, and enriching soil with organic ingredients, producers have made advanced planting mixes to ensure healthy plant growth.
So why consider a hydroponic system at all if soil has come so far? Well for starters, the advantages of hydroponics include offering the grower higher plant yields and automation, which for most people, are two very powerful motivations to switch away from the past, and move into the future. Let's take a more in-depth look at the two mediums:
HYDROPONICS
In a nutshell, a complete hydroponic system is simply growing plants without soil. There are many different types of hydroponic systems, we've listed some of these techniques below.
Aeroponics - The process of growing plants in an air or mist environment, without the use of soil or aggregate medium. Plant roots hang in the air, and a mist of nutrient-rich water is sprayed onto the roots periodically.
Aquaponics - The combination of aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, or prawns in tanks) and hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. The waste produced by aquatic animals supplies nutrients for the hydroponic plants. In turn, these plants purify the water for the animals.
Drip Irrigation - Also known as micro or localized watering, small drip emitters deliver a constant drip directly to the soil. This ensures that the soil is always moist, but not over watered.
DWC (Deep Water Culture) - A type of hydroponics system where plant roots continuously sit in a highly oxygenated water and nutrient solution. Oxygen is usually supplied using an airstone that pumps air to into the water.
Ebb & Flow - In this process, plant roots sit in a coarse growing medium for support, while a water and nutrient solution periodically flows past the roots on a set time schedule. This is similar to the ocean's rising and receding tides. This allows for the aeration of the roots, while automating the job of watering the plants by hand.
Nutrient Film Technique - This technique involves running a continuous oxygen and nutrient rich film of water over the plants roots in an enclosed space or tube.
All of these different techniques have one thing in common: they don’t need the roots to spread out in soil to absorb nutrients. Instead, they are fed a concentrated solution of oxygen and nutrients. This allows the roots to be packed into much smaller spaces.
All of these systems allow you to be creative and in control. You decide what nutrients to add, how much, and when. This control contributes to the increased speed and yield of growth you will experience.
There are additional benefits to going the hydro route. With a hydroponic system, you are using less water, as it is being recirculated to your plants and only changed out every 7-12 days. No more watching 10% of your runoff go to waste each watering. You also have a secret weapon in your battle against bugs, since eliminating soil from your operation will also eliminate certain bugs that can attack your plants.
SOIL
When it comes to soil, there are many different types and blends of soil available. So what's what?
Sand - Formed from bits of rock including limestone, quartz, granite, and shale. Drains water quickly.
Silt - Fine particles of organic material combined with sand. Very fertile, drains water well.
Muck - Primarily humus from drained swamps or bogs. Dense with little potassium.
Clay - Fine crystals formed by chemical reactions between minerals. Very poor draining.
Loam - A combination of the above. Organic loams must contain at least 20% organic matter.
Compost - Decayed organic matter. Can contain good bacteria, fungi, insects, worms, and microorganisms.
So head outside with a bucket and shovel right? Yeah, not so fast.
You should always ensure that you are buying your soil from a bag and not just getting it from outside, as store bought product has been treated to remove all of the bugs and critters that can tear-up your garden.
Soil not only provides a secure anchor for your plants and it’s roots, but it also aids in the retention and delivery of nutrients. Soil can act as a buffer for those nutrients, making it easier for the gardener to maintain a perfect nutrient balance.
One thing to watch out for is watering soil, as it can be surprisingly tricky. The number one issue new growers have is overwatering their precious plants.
New growers will try to be extremely attentive to their plants, and they normally want to get the most growth possible. This causes them to water too much and results in killing their plants. Over watering is dangerous because plant roots need to eat and breathe. Too much water logged in soil depletes oxygen, and thus the roots do not get enough oxygen to survive.
When you water your soil, it’s helpful to have some water runoff to ensure you have fully saturated your medium. Once watered, the soil needs to dry out, allowing the roots access to air before letting them drink again. It is a balance that once achieved, will produce consistent healthy results.
The Final Choice
In the end, whether you choose to use soil or hydroponics is, of course, up to you. There really is no right or wrong answer. Just weigh the pros and cons of each style and method, make a decision that works best for you, and then get growing!
"You’re Never Too Young to Make a Difference"
Rikalize Reinecke goes to school, just like the average kid in their late teens. But unlike them, she has an unusual side business. In January 2014, when she was just 12 years old, she started her own aquaculture and aquaponics farm just outside Pretoria, South Africa. And the inspiration came from the movie Dolphin Tale.
The movie inspired her to start her own fish farm, but there was more to it: "At more or less the same time that I watched the movie Dolphin Tale, we learned at school about all the natural resources that are being depleted, and that in a few years’ time, there will not be any fish left in the sea", she tells us. "When I saw the dedication of the people at the oceanarium, working with the dolphins, and helping them, that changed my life forever.
"I realised two things: I would like to have a similar experience one day, and that I had to do everything I can to prevent fish from becoming extinct."
From aquaculture to aquaponics
Rikalize started with a pure aquaculture farm. However, she found that ammonia and harmful impurities in the water grew to such an extent that the fish started to die. This and the fact that her capital input was very limited, meant that aquaponics was her only option.
"Aquaponics quickly solved the problem of reducing the high and dangerous water impurities and also provided me with a small constant income." Although her passion is fish, and she would choose aquaculture any time, aquaponics "opened doors for me as an inland resident, with a very limited water supply, to farm with fish in a sustainable way", she says. "Aquaculture would be my first choice, but I realize the value of aquaponics especially in the DAPS application that I developed."
From lettuce to leek, and strawberries to spring onion
Rikalize and her team grow a wide variety of crops in the aquaponic systems: "About 22 varieties, from various lettuces, spring onion, leek, celery, cucumber, rock melon, peppadews, green peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, baby marrows to various herbs, etc."
Most of that produce ends up at the shop she opened late last year, and is sold directly to the public. "I also sell fish to wholesale distributors and chef schools. Previously we would deliver to restaurants and lodges and mini supermarkets, but now all of them can buy and collect from my shop."
And she's constantly looking to expand that range, with a section where they do research and feasibility studies and grow produce to determine if it can be grown successfully in the aquaponics set-up.
With two and a half years of school still left, schoolwork comes first for Rikalize, but she is engaged in high level discussions on expanding production and acreage. "Offtake agreements are one of the ways we are looking at currently and that is the short term expansion. I can say that I am in the process of constructing a new Catfish Hatchery based on a brand new mobile and modular principle to be rolled out over Africa, the first POC will be ready end of July."
Spreading the word on aquaponics
Rikalize tells us that the aquaponics industry in South Africa has grown a lot since she took up farming three years ago. "One of my aims is to put a lot of effort into creating public awareness and hence grow the industry." And it hasn't gone unnoticed. "Aquaponics is now like the next best thing," she says.
One of the ways Rikalize is spreading the word is through the development of an app, which is now in the final testing phase before being rolled out on public platforms. "The team that worked on the design did a great job. The roll out date will be announced soon." She also provides training courses. "Training is the base of knowledge and education. As long as I need to build systems there will be training."
Her ultimate vision is to roll out the modular aquaponics system in Africa and all around the world, to equip people with the opportunity to have a job and provide food to their families. "Aquaponics is the most sustainable farming method of the new century," she says. "This system gives you the opportunity to process food in your backyard and generate a small income. One system can feed a family of 4-6 people sustainably."
And for all the young growers out there, Rikalize has a special message: "You’re never too young to make a difference."
For more information:
La Pieus Aqua
Publication date: 7/12/2018
Author: Jan Jacob Mekes
Copyright: www.hortidaily.com
How To Start An Aquaponics System
Bacteria are the magic in an aquaponics system that converts the fish waste to a near perfect plant fertilizer. In this article, we de-mystify the process of establishing a beneficial bacteria colony in your aquaponics system.
Takeaway: Bacteria are the magic in an aquaponics system that convert the fish waste to a near perfect plant fertilizer. In this article, we de-mystify the process of establishing a beneficial bacteria colony in your aquaponics system.
The process of establishing a beneficial bacteria colony in your aquaponics system process is often called system cycling. I will talk about cycling with fish.
You will also understand what you can do to make the process less stressful for your fish and your plants, and what you can do to speed up the process.
Cycling In Aquaponics
Cycling starts when your fish (or you) first add ammonia to your system. Ammonia (chemical formula NH3) is a compound made of nitrogen and hydrogen.
It can come either from your fish or from other sources that we will discuss in the next issue. Ammonia is toxic to fish (more on this later) and will soon kill them unless it is either diluted to a non-toxic level or converted into a less toxic form of nitrogen.
Unfortunately, nitrogen as found in ammonia is not readily taken up by plants, so no matter how high the ammonia levels get in your fish tank, your plants will not be getting much nutrition from it.
The good news is that ammonia attracts nitrosomonas, the first of the two nitrifying bacteria that will colonize your system.
The nitrosomonas convert the ammonia into nitrites (NO2). This is a necessary step in the cycling process; however, nitrites are even more toxic than ammonia!
But again there is good news because the presence of nitrites attracts the second kind of bacteria we require: nitrospira.
Nitrospira convert the nitrites into nitrates, which are generally harmless to the fish and excellent food for your plants.
Once you detect nitrates in your water and the ammonia and nitrite concentrations have both dropped to 0.5 ppm or lower, your system will be fully cycled and aquaponics will have officially begun!
Importance of Testing Tools for Aquaponic Systems
Cycling typically requires four to six weeks to complete. With this is mind, as you proceed you need a way to tell where you are in the cycling process.
Specifically, you must monitor ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels as well as pH so that you know that all these elements are in range, or if not, that you know that you may need to take corrective action.
This is also the only way that you will know when you are fully cycled and ready to add more fish (or your first fish if you have been cycling with no fish at all).
Plus, watching the daily progress of the cycling process is fascinating and something you can only see through the lens of a test kit.
By the way, once you reach the point that your system is fully cycled, you will need to do much less monitoring than during the cycling process.
So, get through the cycling process and look forward to reaping the fruits (or should we say, the fish) of your labor.
To do their testing, most aquaponic gardeners use a product by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals called the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. This kit is easy to use, is inexpensive, and is designed for monitoring the cycling process in fish systems.
You will also need a submersible thermometer to measure your water temperature. Temperature affects both the cycling rate and the health of your fish and plants once you are up and running.
Cycling in Aquaponics: Adding the Fish
Ammonia is the ingredient that starts the cycling process. You must have some means to feed ammonia into the system so that you attract the bacteria that are at the heart of aquaponics.
There are two ways to introduce ammonia into your system: with fish and without (fishless). In this article, we talk about cycling with fish and tackle fish-less cycling in a future article.
Ammonia
I cycled my first aquaponics system using fish and I suspect this is how most people approach cycling. In some ways it is the easier of the two methods because there are no extra inputs. However, it is definitely the more stressful of the two options because live critters are involved.
The idea is to add fish on day one and hope that they make it through the cycling process alive.
The challenge is to get the system cycled fast enough that the ammonia concentration from the fish waste drops to a non-toxic level before the fish succumb from exposure to their own waste.
I strongly recommend that you don't stock to your tank's mature capacity (1 lb. of adult fish per 5 to 10 gal. of water) but to less than half that.
You might also want to consider these fish as sacrificial and perhaps use inexpensive fish from the pet store.
They are likely more tolerant of ammonia than the prized game fish with which you may ultimately envision stocking your tank. Also, do not feed these fish more than once a day and then, only feed them a small amount.
Fish excrete ammonia through their gills as a bi-product of their respiratory process. Without dilution, removal or conversion to a less toxic form of nitrogen, the ammonia will build up in the fish tank and eventually kill the fish.
In addition, ammonia continually changes to ammonium (NH4+) and vice versa, with the relative concentrations of each depending on the water's temperature and pH.
Ammonia is extremely toxic to fish; ammonium is relatively harmless. At higher temperatures and pH, more of the nitrogen is in the toxic ammonia form.
Standard test kits measure total ammonia (ammonia plus ammonium) without distinguishing between the two forms. You will need to monitor your tank water daily during cycling for elevated ammonia levels.
If those levels exceed the levels on the charts provided, you should dilute through a water exchange by pumping out up to one-third of your tank's water and replacing it with fresh, de-chlorinated water.
Adjusting the pH of an Aquaponic System
During cycling with fish, you should try and keep your pH between 6 and 7. The range does not go below 6 because most fish prefer slightly alkaline water and few fair well below 6.
The range does not go above 7 because of the ammonia toxicity issue described earlier (higher pH readings suggest higher ammonia concentrations). So how do you keep pH in such a tight range?
The first rule is, whatever you do to adjust pH in aquaponics, do it slowly! Fast, large pH swings are very stressful on fish and will be much more of a problem than having pH that is out of range. Shift your pH no more than 0.2 per day and you should be fine.
The safest way to do this is to use diluted phosphoric acid. Don't use citric acid as it is antibacterial!
If you need to raise pH, alternately add calcium hydroxide-also known as hydrated lime or builder's lime-and potassium carbonate (or bicarbonate) or potassium hydroxide (pearl ash or potash).
Typically, you will be trying to lower pH during cycling, and then once your system is cycled you will probably notice that the pH will fall and you then need to switch to keeping it up. You will probably find that it is easier to increase pH than it is to decrease it. The
ideal pH of a mature aquaponics system is 6.8 to 7. This is a compromise between what the plants prefer, i.e., a slightly acidic environment of 5.5 to 6.5, and what the fish and bacteria prefer, i.e., a slightly alkaline environment as we discussed before.
Why Fish Hate Nitrites
Nitrite is to fish like carbon monoxide is to air breathers. The nitrite will bind with the blood in place of oxygen and keep the fish from getting the oxygen it needs.
Fish poisoned with nitrites die of what is called brown blood disease. If the nitrite levels in your tank rise above 10 ppm while you are cycling your system with fish, you should do a water exchange as discussed above.
Adding Plants to Your Aquaponic System
I recommend adding plants to your new aquaponic system as soon as you start cycling.
Plants can take up nitrogen in all stages of the cycling process to varying degrees, from ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates, but they will be happiest when cycling is complete and the bacteria are fully established because so many more nutrients become available at this stage.
When plants are first transplanted, they focus on establishing their root systems in their new environment.
You may initially see some signs of stress-yellowing or dropped leaves-and you will probably not see any new growth for a few weeks. This is fine.
Adding plants to your system right away lets them go through the rooting process early on and readies them to start removing the nitrogen-based fish waste from your aquaponics system as soon as possible.
I recommend adding some Maxicrop to get your plants off to a good start during cycling. Maxicrop is derived from Norwegian seaweed, is organic and is used primarily as a growth stimulant, especially to enhance plant root development.
It is extremely effective at giving plants a leg up after being transplanted into your new aquaponics system, is absolutely harmless to the fish, and probably beneficial for the bacteria.
You can find Maxicrop in garden centers, hydroponic stores and online in both liquid and dry form.
While there are no hard and fast rules about how much Maxicrop to add during cycling, I recommend about a quart of the liquid product for every 250 gal. of water. It will turn your water almost black but don't worry; this will clear up after a week or so.
Speeding up the Aquaponic Cycling Process
Cycling is in some sense akin to any hunting activity that uses a lure. We start by putting out the ammonia. This attracts the Nitrosomonas bacteria which in-turn produces nitrites.
The nitrites attract the nitrospira bacteria that produce the nitrates that are harmless to the fish and delicious to the plants. These two beneficial nitrifying bacteria are naturally present in the environment.
As I stated earlier, this process will take four to six weeks if done with fish, or as little as 10 days to three weeks if done fishless.
But what if you could speed that up significantly? What if instead of waiting for the bacteria to show up to the party, they actually are part of the party to begin with? You can do this by introducing nitrifying bacteria into your aquaponics system.
Adding Bacteria to the Aquaponic Garden
While there are many ways to do this, they all boil down to two basic strategies: use bacteria from an existing aquaculture or aquaponics operation or from a nearby pond, or instead, purchase bacteria from a commercial source.
Good sources of beneficial bacteria from existing systems are ranked here, starting with the best:
- Grow media from an existing aquaponics system
- A high-quality nitrifying bacteria product
- Filter material (floss, sponge, biowheel, etc.) from an established, disease-free aquarium.
- Gravel from an established, disease-free tank. (Many local pet and aquarium stores will give this away if asked.)
- Other ornaments (driftwood, rocks, etc.) from an established aquarium
- Squeezings from a filter sponge (any pet and aquarium store might be willing to do this.)
- Rocks from a backyard pond with fish in it
Managing Water Temperature
Water temperature dramatically affects cycling speed. The optimal temperature range for the water is 77 to 86°F. At 64°F, bacteria growth slows by 50%. At 46 to 50ºF it decreases by 75%, and stops altogether at 39°F. It will die off at or below 32ºF and at or above 120°F.
Water Temperature
pH68°F77°F
6.515.4 ppm11.1 ppm
7.05.03.6
7.51.61.2
8.00.50.4
8.50.20.1
Cycling with fish is the most widespread and straightforward of the cycling techniques, and it certainly works. However, it is stressful to your fish and therefore somewhat stressful for you. Next month we'll go over another technique called fishless cycling that uses pure ammonia to cycle your system. Either way, it's time to get up and grow!
Written by Sylvia Bernstein
Sylvia Bernstein is the author of Aquaponic Gardening: A Step by Step Guide to Growing Fish and Vegetables Together. She is also the former president of The Aquaponic Source, and the co-founder and past vice chairman of the Aquaponics Association. Before discovering aquaponics, Slyvia was the vice president of marketing and product development for AeroGrow International. Full Bio
Aquaponic Atlantic Salmon Are First-Ever Grown 0n US Soil And Harvested Commercially For US Customers
Superior Fresh of Wisconsin celebrated July 4th by taking one giant leap for the U.S. economy: their Atlantic Salmon became the first ever grown on U.S. soil and harvested commercially!
Superior Fresh’s Atlantic salmon have some of the highest omega-3’s compared to all other salmon, were raised with minimal environmental impacts, are fed an organic diet, and have never received antibiotics or pesticides!
The U.S. imports over NINETY PERCENT of the seafood we consume. We need more local aquaculture.
With aquaponics, Superior Fresh uses the waste stream from the salmon to also produce the highest-quality leafy greens. This is a win-win situation for our environment and the economy.
The Quirky Plan To Grow Fruit And Vegetables On Manchester City Centre Rooftops - Using Live Fish
Manchester’s city office blocks and apartment towers are powering a regional economy like no other. That much is obvious. But could they also be growing salads?
Experiments have revealed that city centre buildings could be turned into market gardens producing up to 180 million packs of salad a year
By David Thame 21 JUL 2018
Dr Andrew Jenkins and inset, the garden on the rooftop of Irwell House, Salford
Manchester’s city office blocks and apartment towers are powering a regional economy like no other. That much is obvious. But could they also be growing salads?
Experiments by a Belfast-based academic and a local property developer have revealed that city centre buildings could be turned into a market garden producing up to 180 million packs of salad a year.
Crops harvested could include lettuces, Swiss chard, chillies, courgettes and even strawberries.
The astonishing research suggests that if the walls of buildings are adapted, and roofs covered in polytunnels, individual buildings could produce tens of thousands of crops each year using soilless agriculture systems.
The high-level market gardens would rely on aquaponics – using live fish to provide nutrients to help plants grow – and hydroponics, which relies on water alone.
The high-level market gardens would rely on aquaponics – using live fish to provide proteins to help plants grow
Dr. Andrew Jenkins, now a post-doctoral research fellow at Queen's University Belfast, first worked on the idea in partnership with designers and BDP and local developer Urban Splash as far back as 2013.
The project at Irwell House, Blackfriars, Salford, demonstrated that older buildings could take the weight of rows of fish tanks, pumping and filtration systems.
They grew crops that needed more serious root systems against the windows, to give them more light, and put the heavier fishtanks on the building’s structural steel work.
The result was the potential to grow 16,000 vegetable servings a year from a single office block. The cost of the installation was just £28,000 – but a full commercial growing system would be considerably more expensive.
Dr Jenkins explains: “We extrapolated the data from Irwell House across the entire city centre’s stock of buildings – which meant designing a 3D model of the city so we could see what their surface area was, and which areas fell into shade which made them unsuitable for growing.
Crops harvested could include lettuces, Swiss chard, chillies, courgettes and even strawberries
“What we discovered is that the total surface area of the city’s big buildings is 445 hectares (1,100 acres) – of which 360 hectares (890 acres) fulfills the basic requirements for growing things.
"So there’s about 360 hectares (890 acres) of growing space within the realms of possibility, and the roof space is easier to use that the vertical wall space, because installing the tanks and coverings is more low-tech.”
However, the project has had to adapt to Manchester’s somewhat variable weather. Crop tanks on the roof need protection from wind and cold weather – meaning structures like polytunnels.
Dr. Andrew Jenkins
The fish used in aquaponics also need to be hardy: at first they used quick growing Red Nile Tilapia – but native species like the common carp might be happier in the winter, and would not need heated tanks.
If there were four harvests a year Manchester could produce up to 180 million fruit and vegetable servings from its roofs and walls.
Could it really work? Dr. Jenkins says it certainly could.
"We’re having conversations about how you do the farming,” he says.
“It could be automated, which reduces cost and increases productivity – or maybe you can create jobs – or a mix of the two. But it is certainly true that people can’t be replaced in animal and plant husbandry and it could mean up to 8,400 new jobs.”
The project at Irwell House, Blackfriars, Salford
Landlords will be glad to know that if the idea catches on they will not need to make very expensive changes to their buildings. “The weight of the tanks is not carried on the floors, but on the structural steelwork,” Dr Jenkins says.
However useful market gardening on office blocks may be, Dr Jenkins cautions that it is no substitute for sorting out the U.K.’s long-term food security.
“We are hitting the hypothetical limits of agriculture in the UK, which means we are pushing our soils as hard as they can go.
"People hear of urban agriculture of the kind I’ve been investigating, and believe it could be a solution.
"If we used the external surfaces of urban buildings we could only deliver about 1.5% of the UK’s food needs. That's enough for about one million people per year, which is small in the grand scheme of things but could ultimately transform local economies and job creation in many cities in the future."
Manchester Evening News
From Fish To Farm To Table: Busy Chef Has A Bold New Project
From Fish To Farm To Table: Busy Chef Has A Bold New Project
Chef Cara Stadler's new aquaponic greenhouse is shooting up fast and may be growing vegetables for her three restaurants by this fall.
BY MEREDITH GOAD STAFF WRITER
Chef and restaurant owner Cara Stadler is hoping to open an aquaponic greenhouse in a 55-by-60-foot, two-story building that will also house a new café and a commercial kitchen in the fall. Photo by Meredith Goad
It’s not as if Cara Stadler has nothing to do. The 30-year-old chef already has three restaurants, the newest of which – Lio – opened in Portland just last month.
Now, drivers passing by Tao Yuan in Brunswick are watching the busy chef’s next project come to life before their eyes. Five years in the making, it’s an aquaponic greenhouse in a 55-by-60-foot, two-story building that will also house a new café and a commercial kitchen to supply Stadler’s restaurants. Both Stadler and Kate Holcomb, the 31-year-old project director, say they hope the facility will open this fall.
Chef Cara Stadler left, and Project Director Kate Holcomb pose inside the aquaponic greenhouse being built in Brunswick. Staff photo by Joel Page
When it does, it will be just one of a handful of restaurants around the country that have such a facility. Stadler believes her restaurant-based project will be the first of its kind in Maine.
Aquaponics is a marriage of aquaculture and hydroponics, which is the cultivation of plants in water. Aquaponic greenhouses raise fish – in this case rainbow trout – that produce waste that fertilizes plants growing in water. The plants, in turn, filter the water for the fish. It’s a closed-loop system that sustainable agriculture groups are eager to develop.
Most aquaponics projects are either school-based, such as in Maine those at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham and the University of New England in Biddeford, or independent businesses that sell to restaurants and retailers, such as Springworks Farm in Lisbon.
Brian Filipowich, chair of the Aquaponics Association in Annandale, Virginia, said he knows only of a “small handful” of restaurants that are trying aquaponics; he thinks that more restaurants are experimenting with hydroponics. It’s hard to be sure because no good statistics exist on the number of large-scale, commercial aquaponics systems in the United States, say for wholesale or run by restaurants, he said, adding that the Farm Bill just passed by the Senate directs the USDA to start collecting more data on the subject.
Stadler believes her aquaponics facility will bring her food and transportation costs down and will shrink her carbon footprint. She intends to grow, in part, hard-to-source Asian greens and herbs. Eventually she’d like to share what she learns with other restaurateurs.
“This is all very new territory to most of the world,” Stadler said, “and people are still figuring out the systems and what works best, what gives the highest productivity.”
Stadler and Holcomb see the aquaponics greenhouse, which will be called Canopy Farms, as a community project that could become a model for others. It’s a big experiment to discover which equipment will work best and which plants will thrive in Maine, especially over the winter. They want to create something new, helpful, affordable and scalable that would work not just in a rural setting but urban areas too. Something people will actually invest in. Something other restaurants could use to feed their customers.
“This is one of the ways we can help and contribute back to what I find sometimes can be a depressing world,” Stadler said. “Ideally, we can create a system that is positive for us, positive for the future. You realize that, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much you care. If you can’t make systems financially viable, the world won’t care. So we wanted to create a green system that is financially viable.”
Filipowich says if someone like Stadler can overcome the hurdles inherent in such a project – startup and training costs, sourcing fish and maintaining fish health, and energy costs – Canopy Farms could end up making a real contribution.
“If they could get to a point where it could be replicated on a larger scale, it could be extremely useful,” he said.
What about winter?
The cost of heating a greenhouse in winter is a huge obstacle to aquaponics in colder parts of the country, like Maine, Holcomb said.
Kate Holcomb, project director, and Cara Stadler plan to use solar panels, radiant floor heating and an “energy curtain” to offset some of the effects of the long, cold Maine winter on a year-round greenhouse operation. If they can raise the money, they also hope to recapture heat from the commercial kitchen and use it to heat the greenhouse. Staff photo by Joel Page
“Sustainable agriculture doesn’t, I think, have to look one specific way,” Holcomb said. “As more and more people live in cities, as the population continues to grow, there have to be ways for people to grow food in a sustainable manner where the people are. People love local produce, and Maine has an incredible sustainable agriculture scene, but we have a long dark winter.”
The Brunswick project will fight the cold with strategies such as solar panels, radiant heat flooring and an “energy curtain” that can be used as a shade in summer or an energy-efficient curtain in winter. The biggest weapon, if they can raise enough money for it through an upcoming $25,000 Kickstarter campaign, may be the plan to recapture the heat from the commercial kitchen and café and use it to heat the greenhouse.
Stadler says the kitchen at Tao Yuan often gets so hot, the staff props open the outside door even in the middle of winter. Why waste all that energy? It’s like tossing money into the snow.
The entire building, Stadler says, is built to be “smart” about the way it uses energy. If it works, the payoffs will be big.
“Your food costs go down, and you’re getting a product that will last you twice as long because it’s picked and in your fridge,” Stadler said. “There’s no transportation. There’s no sitting in a farmers market stand for three hours before you pick it up. There’s no driving it down for two hours just to get it to the farmers market.”
Stadler and Holcomb hope to hire student interns to help run the place. They’re working on an arrangement with Harpswell Coastal Academy, and may also invite students involved with aquaponics at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham.
“Once you get (the system) cycling, then the idea is that it is an ecosystem,” said Holcomb, who also works as a server at Tao Yuan, and is getting a master’s in business administration from the University of Southern Maine. “It needs to be maintained, and it needs to be closely watched because if something goes wrong, it can go wrong quickly and on a really big scale. If something is off, you could kill all your fish in a day.”
From the outside, the greenhouse – the structure, along with the energy curtain and grow lights, came from a Portland company called ArchSolar – looks almost complete. But the inside is still pretty much a shell, awaiting the arrival of the solar panels and greenhouse glass from China, while the scream of buzz saws and other equipment from construction workers on the job dampens the noise of traffic streaming by.
The next big steps will be making the fish tanks water-tight, building the grow beds, and adding plumbing, Holcomb said. The greenhouse is expected to cost about $200,000, and the café and commercial kitchen about $1 million, according to Stadler. April Robinson, the pastry chef at Tao Yuan, will own and operate the café, which will serve breakfast and lunch, a menu of pastries and modern American food.
The greenhouse will house two 4-foot-deep fish tanks, each 5-by-15 feet, plus a dozen or more 4-by-16-foot grow beds of different types. The system will use 5,000 gallons of water.
As for the fish, the plan is to use rainbow trout from a private fish hatchery. Tilapia works better, Stadler says, “but no one wants to eat tilapia. It makes me sad, but it’s a reality of our society that everyone associates tilapia with childhood fish sticks.”
“The fish is really a secondary,” she continued. “It’s a byproduct of the system. It will be a rare moment when you see trout on the menu, but you’ll see produce all the time.”
The plan is to start with plants that grow easily in an aquaponic greenhouse, and are in high demand at her restaurants – leafy greens, pea shoots and microgreens. Next, they’ll experiment with Asian herbs and vegetables. Stadler and Holcomb call this “the fun stuff.”
“I really want to try growing rice paddy herb because it grows in rice paddies, and being an aquaponic system it makes sense that that would thrive in the water,” Stadler said. “And I love rice paddy herb.”
The chef is excited to try growing wasabi and would love to have a reliable source of winged beans. “We’ve ordered them, but half of them are moldy before we even get to touch them,” she said.
Then there’s celtuce, which has a thick, asparagus-like stem topped with light green leaves.
“It’s very edible, but the outside is super, super bitter, so you need to peel off the exterior,” Stadler said. “If you don’t peel it, if you leave any of the skin on it, it will blow your palate with bitterness.”
Peel it down to the core, though, and “it’s sweet and delicious.”
ONE OF JUST A FEW
Stadler and her mother, Cecile, who is also her business partner, started talking about having their own farm to supply their restaurants years ago. It’s a model used by several other restaurants in Maine, including Miyake and Vignola Cinque Terre in Portland and Primo in Rockland. They wondered what they could do that would also be “helpful for Maine.”
Stadler mentioned the idea to Holcomb, who is her oldest friend; they went to preschool together. Holcomb had gone into agriculture and was bouncing around from farm to farm on the East Coast when Stadler was opening Tao Yuan and Bao Bao.
When the Stadlers began to focus on aquaponics, Holcomb recalled, “Cara called me and said ‘Hey, do you want to move to Maine and help me make this happen?’
It was 2013, and Holcomb was working in New York. She quickly packed up her things and moved to Maine.
“I had been organic farming in soil on a traditional farm, so for me, aquaponics was a totally new way of growing things,” Holcomb said. To get herself up to speed, Holcomb visited the University of Maine’s Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research in Franklin, which had an aquaponics demonstration project (it closed in 2015, unable to keep a greenhouse warm enough for winter production, according to its website), and she attended a workshop at the University of New England, where another aquaponics project is about to expand, according to Jeri Fox, an associate professor of aquaculture. Holcomb also reached out to Carey Phillips, a Bowdoin College emeritus professor of biology with an aquaponics project in South Carolina. Holcomb and Phillips collaborated on the Canopy Farms system, “but it’s much more his design,” she said.
Around the country, a few other restaurateurs have embraced the idea and are tailoring their systems to their own restaurants. In Minneapolis, Gandhi Mahal has a system that produces, according to the restaurant’s website, Malabar spinach, cilantro, hot peppers, salad greens, ginger, turmeric and curry leaf. Minneapolis winters are as tough as Maine’s, but the restaurant got around that by putting its aquaponics system in its basement. They call their cuisine “basement to table.” Page Restaurant in Sag Harbor, New York, grows produce in four aquaponic systems, including in the basement and on the walls.
BAO BAO, BUGS AND BUZZ
Stadler has always been the ambitious sort, according to her mother, the kind of person who had a 10-year plan by the time she was 16. She’s also an experimenter, most recently hosting a pop-up edible insect dinner at Bao Bao Dumpling House. Stadler said she wanted to do it because “Bugs are the future, and very much our past and present, depending on the culture.”
Food & Wine magazine named Stadler one of the country’s 10 Best New Chefs in 2015, an honor that goes to chefs age 30 or younger who are “likely to make a significant impact on the industry for years to come.” In 2016, Condé Nast Traveler listed Stadler as one of its 10 Young Chefs to Watch, a group of chefs age 30 and under who are “making outsized impressions around the world.” She’s been a semifinalist for the James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year award four times, and a finalist once
Stadler says she and her mother “did really well” in the first few years of Tao Yuan, and they could have just sat back and enjoyed the ride. But they wanted to find ways to build the company, provide good jobs for employees who want to grow with the company, and give something back to the community that contributed to their success. The aquaponic greenhouse is part of that plan.
Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:
mgoad@pressherald.com
Twitter: MeredithGoad
Senate Farm Bill Includes Provisions for Aquaponics and Hydroponics
Read what the Senate’s Farm Bill includes for Aquaponics, Click Here: Senate Farm Bill Fact Sheet
Read what the Senate’s Farm Bill includes for Aquaponics, Click Here: Senate Farm Bill Fact Sheet
The U.S. Senate on July 5 passed a draft of the 2018 Farm Bill that includes provisions specifically relating to aquaponics, hydroponics, and other sustainable growing methods. (Maybe our 200+ signature sign-on letter had an effect!)
The Senate’s draft is an improvement over the House draft, which did not even mention aquaponics. But Congress must still do more to support local, efficient agriculture.
The House and Senate must now reconcile their two versions and vote on a final version in the upcoming weeks. We need to make sure that, at a minimum, the Senate’s aquaponics provisions are included in the final draft.
The Farm Bill is intended to provide an adequate national supply of food and nutrition. It is passed once every five years. Both the House and Senate version of the 2018 Farm Bill allocate over $400 billion in spending.
In February, the Aquaponics Association sent over 200 signatures to Congress. We asked Congress to ensure that crop insurance, crop subsidy, research, conservation, and all other Farm Bill programs apply equally to aquaponics as to traditional soil growing.
We need to make sure Congress supports sustainable agriculture.
Click Here to join the 2018 Aquaponics Farm Bill Coalition.
Next week we’ll send another letter to Congress reminding them of the importance of aquaponics to the future of food production.
Innovative, Sustainable Aquaponics Production In Berlin
Innovative, Sustainable Aquaponics Production In Berlin
By Lloyd Phillips
June 26, 2018
With arable land under increasing pressure, there is a strong push to use urban space in new ways to help meet the demand for food and fibre. Lloyd Phillips visited one such initiative in Germany’s capital, and came away impressed with its innovation, flexibility and success.
ECF’s 1 800m² closed environment and climate-controlled fish and fresh produce farming facility in Berlin was built in 2015 at a cost equivalent to R20,4 million today. Photo: Courtesy of EFC FarmSystems
Tucked away in a revamped industrial area of south-central Berlin is an innovative farming operation that seeks to be a leading example of intensive and sustainable urban food production in Germany and across the world.
These are the premises of ECF (Eco-Friendly Farming) Farmsystems, the brainchild of entrepreneurs Nicolas Leschke and Christian Echternacht, who are using technology to maximize production of quality foods in a limited space and with relatively few resources.
Marie Schönau, the management assistant with ECF, says that Nicolas and Christian were driven to develop their urban agricultural system through a desire to use fresh food ingredients that did not have to be transported long distances.
“The aquaponics concept appealed to them the most,” explains Marie.
“But they knew they’d have to design and incorporate technology-based systems to maximize the efficient use of space and resources for the fish and fresh produce they wanted to grow, consume and market.”
In 2012, the two started to implement their vision using a cargo container to house fish tanks with a glass greenhouse constructed on the container’s roof for growing tomatoes and lettuce.
Funding for this early venture came from friends and family, who were lightheartedly made ‘godparents’ of the first fishes grown at the facility, and even received certificates to this effect.
When the first small-scale fish and fresh produce harvest was achieved in 2013, Nicolas and Christian hosted a fish braai at the facility where donors and interested people from across Berlin could sample the food.
Many visitors wanted to buy fish and fresh produce from Nicolas and Christian, but demand greatly exceeded the facility’s production capacity. The pair realized that they needed to expand their business model, and ECF Farmsystems was born.
Two-loop system
Nicolas and Christian soon discovered that aquaponics concepts that worked on a small-scale would not necessarily be effective at a much larger scale.
So they conducted extensive research to determine which approach would be efficient, effective, sustainable and profitable.
Based on this research, they developed a two-loop water circulation system that enabled them to adjust the quality of the water moving between the fish and fresh produce production systems and vice versa.
The idea, says Marie, was not to create yet another research aquaponics farm of the type already common in Germany and elsewhere at the time, but to develop a full-blown business that produced fish and fresh produce for profit.
Another important focus was to develop a supply chain to distribute the larger-scale facility’s products to consumers.
Finally, Nicolas and Christian wanted their concept to be attractive to investors and like-minded entrepreneurs around the world.
Funding for a full-scale facility
Their idea of an adjustable two-loop system was so innovative that they were able to secure a grant from Germany’s Climate-KIC Green Garage, an EU-funded incubator for green start-ups.
The remainder of the funding was sourced from a major private investor and the Innovation Bank of Berlin.
The pair then designed and built a 1 800m² closed environment and climate-controlled facility in 2015 at a cost of €1,4 million (about R20,4 million at the current exchange rate).
Of this, 1 000m² is a greenhouse for fresh produce production, 400m² is for fish production and the balance is used as processing, packaging, input storage, and office space.
The urban farm employs 10 full- and two part-time staff, most of whom have a tertiary qualification in horticulture or aquaculture.
Marie, who joined ECF at its inception in 2015, says that while Nicolas and Christian originally had a clear vision of what products their facility would produce and market, they soon discovered that not all were feasible due to the size of their operation. Their intended market also had specific demands for what it wanted from ECF.
The company currently raises freshwater Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).
“We chose the Nile tilapia because there’s already widespread knowledge and expertise on growing these fish in an aquaponics system, and the species is well-suited for recirculating aquaculture systems,” explains Marie.
“It’s a hardy fish, so it fits in well with our goal to avoid using antibiotics and other medication in their production.”
ECF imports the live fry, each weighing just 0,2g, from Til-Aqua hatchery in the Netherlands. The hatchery uses YY-technology to naturally change the sex of all its hatchlings to males, which grow faster than females.
This is achieved by manipulating water temperatures in the first few days of the hatchlings’ life. ECF then grows the tilapia in large tanks over the next seven months.
When the fish reach an average live weight of 600g, they are removed, gutted, cleaned and packaged for delivery to retail outlets in Berlin. Being situated close to central Berlin, ECF had a direct sales model for its products, allowing consumers to visit the premises where the food is grown and to buy it from there.
Reality check: lessons from the market
To support production and supply planning, ECF also used a subscription system where clients could order fish and fresh produce ahead of time and collect the products weekly.
“We soon discovered that the subscription direct-marketing model together with our diverse range of fresh produce became very complicated to manage and implement,” recalls Marie.
Other subscription models tend to source a variety of fresh produce from multiple growers instead of a single facility trying to produce everything itself intensively in an urban environment.
“We just couldn’t meet the demand for such variety,” says Marie.
A change to a weekly outdoor market at ECF’s premises was also short-lived. While it attracted consumers during the warmer months, numbers dwindled during Berlin’s frigid winter.
“We learnt many valuable lessons during our early stages and eventually decided to
become more specialised,” says Marie.
“We stopped using the direct-marketing model and instead established supply agreements with retailers in Berlin. We now produce mainly tilapia and fresh basil for our retail clients.”
For its freshwater needs, ECF harvests as much rainwater and snowmelt as its on-premises water storage capacity allows, but this is insufficient for all of the farm’s needs during the Northern Hemisphere’s drier summer months.
Thus, while the aquaponics facility is extremely efficient at recycling its water, it still needs to supplement this from the municipal freshwater supply.
Independent, but linked, water systems
Marie explains that unlike conventional aquaponics systems in which fish and food plants are produced in a common water circulatory system, ECF operates two water systems: one for the fish, and the other for the plants.
They are linked, however, with ECF’s monitoring technology.
The ideal water pH for plant production is a slightly acidic 5, while for fish production it is a neutral 7. The system adjusts the pH of nutrient-rich water traveling from the fish production circuit to the plant production circuit.
While the water in the fish circuit is laden with nutrients such as nitrates that are diverted to the plants, any nutrient shortfall can be supplemented by the monitoring technology as the water passes from the fish to the plant circuit.
To ensure that only best-quality water flows from the plant production section to the fish section, the water is collected from water vapor that condenses on the greenhouse glass in the plant section.
Being pure condensate, it is free of any contaminants that might harm the fish.
A further benefit of the double system is that either side can be shut down independently for maintenance.
According to ECF, its farming system produces food using up to 90% less water than that required by conventional agriculture.
The system also traps and uses carbon dioxide in its plant production processes and converts this greenhouse gas into oxygen for use in the fish production system.
The company also reports that it can produce 1kg live weight of fish from 1,2kg to 1,4kg of feed. By contrast, at least 8kg of feed is required to produce 1kg live weight of beef.
Spreading the message of sustainability
“Through the combination of responsible use of water, fertilizer and carbon dioxide, we’ve boosted the sustainability of our products and secured a much better bargaining position with retailers of our products than our competitors,” says Marie.
ECF’s designs and technologies have become so popular that the company now not only grows, processes, packages and markets its own fish and fresh produce in Berlin, but designs and constructs similar facilities for entrepreneurs elsewhere in Germany and in countries such as Switzerland and Belgium.
The lessons learned by the team are also shared with clients of ECF’s design and construction section to give them a strong start.
Contact ECF Farmsystems at +49 307 551 4840 or info@ecf-farmystems.com. Visit ecf-farmsystems.com.
Lloyd Phillips visited ECF Farmsystems as part of a tour to the 2018 International Green Week in Berlin, Germany, sponsored by the German Federal Foreign Office.
US (MO): Aquaponics Facility To Alleviate Food Desert
US (MO): Aquaponics Facility To Alleviate Food Desert
Nonprofit Nile Valley Aquaponics is raising fish in a Kansas City food desert—and they’re creating jobs, providing healthy food and promoting sustainable urban farming in the process. To help the nonprofit lead the community to greener and healthier living, American architecture and engineering firm HOK designed the Nile Valley Aquaponics Facility, which could double the annual harvest to 50,000 pounds of fish and 70,000 pounds of vegetables.
The building would be constructed using sustainable building methods and feature resource-saving systems such as rainwater cisterns and a wind turbine.
Designed to cover a 0.7-acre lot, the Nile Valley Aquaponics Facility aims to expand the nonprofit’s food production capacity and introduce additional eco-friendly farming features. The urban farming effort not only gives the community greater access to fresh produce and fish but also provides low-income youth with economic and educational opportunities through jobs, lessons, field trips and mentoring.
The new facility would include two new greenhouses that could increase the output of fish from 25,000 to 50,000 pounds and the production of vegetables from 35,000 to 75,000 pounds. A third greenhouse would be used for education.
Read more at Inhabitat (Lucy Wang)
Publication date: 6/22/2018
Works Credit Union Launches Aquaponics Facility
Works Credit Union Launches Aquaponics Facility
June 21, 2018
Green Works for healthy, wealthy living
A view of growing plants at the Green Works aquaponics facility of Works Credit Union at its Spring Garden compound.
Works Credit Union has started on a journey to feed Tobagonians with its Green Works initiative for sustainable food production – an aquaponics system which was launched on Monday night at its compound in Spring Garden.
The Green Works aquaponics system will utilise waste produced by farmed fish or other aquatic creatures as nutrients for plants grown hydroponically – that is fish and plants will be grown together in one integrated system. It is seen as safe, uses 90 percent water less than soil farming, is less labour intensive, virtually operating itself, uses less space and can reduce the food import bill.
Speaking at the launch, President Fitzroy Ottley said the initiative was focused on strengthening the livelihood of Tobago families, especially members of the credit union.
The project envisages nonchemical, healthy produce for Tobagonians as well as exports to Trinidad and the wider Caribbean in the future.
Ottley said Green Works was particularly relevant for Tobago with the continuing increase in the cost of food on the island.
“Tobago has been challenged in many ways to put food on the table and to rely on it coming from Trinidad. What we are about is to ensure that we reach out, connect and supply the needs of our people,” he said.
Sean Austin of Sean’s Rabbitry & Aquaponics presented the idea to the credit union two years ago as an income boosting project.
Guests marvel at the fish farm at the Green Works Aquaponics facility of the Works Credit Union at its Spring Garden compound at the launch of the Works Credit Union’s Green Works aquaponics facility on Monday night.
“The idea of aquaponics is a stepping stone for diversification…to provide our members with the opportunity to provide food for themselves. The board of Works Credit Union took a decision to build a structure in Tobago, turning it into a thriving aquaponics production area.
“This facility will not only contribute to the economic development and wealth of Works Credit Union, but it will also contribute to the wealth to the members of Works Credit Union,’ said Ottley.
He said the facility will be managed by a team and after a cycle, that team will go into its own project, being replaced by another team drawn from credit union members.
“This will continue until we are at the place where every single member of Works Credit Union who have a piece of land and want to go into agriculture production - that is safe from pesticides, safe from all the ills and chemicals that unknowingly contribute to our death - has had an opportunity to participate in the project.
“Until that time we are now on a mission to encourage our members to eat the right foods,” Ottley said, adding that members can save $350 weekly if they begin to plant their own non-chemical produce.
He said another event will be hosted to celebrate the first harvesting of the produce grown at the facility in the coming weeks - seasonings, lettuce and kale.
“We are going to make contact with all the hotels, guest houses and we expect if you want a safe product, you will visits the credit union on a daily basis and purchase some. It makes no sense that there are members who belong to a credit union who boast of an asset base of in excess of $260 million, and is bountiful and wealthy, but you haven’t figured out how can you personally become wealthy too.
“As the tide turns and the economy turns, we cannot lead if when we look behind, all our members are stumbling. We cannot survive if we continue to lend money to only buy fridge and car. We have to face the challenges, move forwards and make it work,” he said.
Superior Fresh Poised To Sell First US land-Raised Atlantic Salmon
Superior Fresh Poised To Sell First US land-Raised Atlantic Salmon
By Matt Craze May 31, 2018
Wisconsin-based aquaponics firm will provide America's first-ever commercial harvest of Atlantic salmon from a land-based facility
While the attention of the US seafood industry is focused on the massive recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) projects planned in the USA by Atlantic Sapphire and Nordic Aquafarms, Wisconsin-based hydroponics farm Superior Fresh is about to sell the first land-raised Atlantic salmon in the United States.
Superior Fresh is on schedule to harvest its first fish in July, a year after opening an aquaponics facility, President Brandon Gottsacker told Undercurrent News. The state-of-the-art facility located in rural Wisconsin utilizes the nitrate-rich discharge from fish held in RAS tanks to fertilize and water leafy greens in an organic, closed-loop system.
“We plan to have the first land-based American grown salmon in retailers the week of the Fourth of July,” Gottsacker said.
Superior Fresh and others are responding to growing consumer appetite for locally sourced food. US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said earlier this month that he will seek to make the US into a net exporter of seafood compared with the market currently where it imports more than 80% of seafood needs. The US imports close to 500,000 metric tons a year of Atlantic salmon mainly from Chile and Norway.
The wealthy Wanek family, owners of US furniture outlet Ashley Furniture HomeStore, built the space-aged greenhouse with an investment close to $100 million. Ashley Furniture has annual revenues close to $4 billion a year and the family also owns the Winghouse Bar and Grill, a Florida-based restaurant chain.
Superior Fresh pumps out 2m pounds of leafy greens every year from a 100,000-square-foot glass greenhouse that is 30 times more efficient than a conventional lettuce farm, per square meter. The plant only requires four additional gallons of water a minute, about 20 times than conventional lettuce farming.
Solids from the fish house are broken down from ammonia to nitrates. After treatment, Superior Fresh sends this water from the bluehouse to greenhouse to water the plants via underground piping. The water is cleansed by the leafy greens and is pumped back into the 40,000-square-foot aquaculture system in filtered form.
Superior Fresh was awarded the Monterey Bay’s green-ranking for its fish “right off the bat”, Gottsacker said.
The RAS facility will harvest Atlantic salmon and steelhead on a weekly basis. Atlantic Sapphire’s first harvest from its dedicated grow-out facility currently being built near Miami will occur in 2020.
Both hydroponics facilities and dedicated grow-out plants such as the Atlantic Sapphire facility are complementary, said Steve Summerfelt, director of systems research at the Freshwater Institute, a non-profit organization that specializes in the study of RAS systems.
Superior Fresh’s model will supply about 160,000 pounds (80t) a year of Atlantic salmon, much less than Atlantic Sapphire’s fully operating nameplate capacity of 10,000t a year, Summerfelt told Undercurrent. That said, the proliferation of the Superior Fresh model could boost locally grown fish and vegetable supply across America and create thousands of jobs, he said.
Contact the author matt@sphericresearch.com
An Aquaponic Farm Produces Both Crops And Fish In A Self-Contained System
An Aquaponic Farm Produces Both Crops And Fish In A Self-Contained System.
Ndwewe aquaponic farm continues to thrive
June 9, 2018
example of an aquaponic system created by Durban University of Technology (DUT) students.
The modern-day aquaponic system, which has its roots in South China and Southeast Asia, is rapidly gaining in popularity.
Here on home soil, an aquaponic farm in the rolling hills of Ndwewe, which was established by a group of big-hearted Durban University of Technology (DUT) students back in 2016, continues to thrive.
From subsistence farming in rural areas to large-scale commercial farming in peri-urban areas, as well as vertical and indoor farming by hobbyists to feed neighbors and beautify urban spaces, when it comes to aquaponics, the possibilities are endless.
Situated in the Noodsberg community, the project came about as a partnership between international non-profit organization Enactus and the Ford Motor Company Fund, the philanthropic arm of the global automaker.
Recycled drums and organic compost used to grow tomatoes
Every year, Enactus and Ford call on universities and colleges around South Africa to design innovative, student-led projects that address critical community needs.
Also read: Bold KwaDukuza couple follow their hearts in farming
Guided by academic advisors and business experts, participating Enactus students develop the kind of perspective and skills that are essential to leadership in an ever-challenging world.
“We can have these innovative concepts and ideas, but without sponsorships, they would never be realized,” said Luvo Gugwana, Enactus DUT President, who has led the KZN aquaponic farming project since its inception two years ago.
Aquaponics in a nutshell
Aquaponics is a combination of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (the soil-less growing of plants).
This form of agriculture produces both crops and fish in a self-contained system.
The fish waste provides food for the plants, and the plants filter the water for the fish.
Example of the fish tank used for the aquaponic system
Vegetables grown in aquaponic systems are organic and pesticide free and are said to have better flavor and a longer shelf-life than vegetables grown in hydroponic systems or in the soil.
Once they reach a certain age or size, the fish can be sold unprocessed on the informal market, or gutted and gilled and sold on ice to retailers and restaurants.
"Because of low water usage, effective nutrient cycling, and needing little space to operate, aquaponic farms boast a small environmental footprint."
Gugwana and his team set up three aquaponic systems for Philani Ngcobo, the beneficiary of the project, who always had a passion for agriculture, but was beset with challenges which prevented him from realising an increase in his crop yield.
Although start-up costs for an aquaponic system can be high, the running and maintenance costs are relatively low.
“Each of the aquaponic systems is composed of a fish tank and the growing mediums,” explains Gugwana.
“Each fish tank can accommodate at least 300 fish. And we have two types of growing mediums: the one with clay balls, and the other one with floating rough systems. In the one with the clay balls, we grow heavy plants like cabbages. In the floating rough systems we grow lightweight plants like lettuce.”
“In 2017, we did a recycling drive to collect empty two-liter plastic bottles to construct a second greenhouse.
We also use recycled plastic drums, and PVC pipes for vertical farming.
"We use organic compost where we grow tomatoes. And each drum can accommodate more than 80 crops.”
In honor of World Environment Day on 5 June and Youth Month in June, Ford would like to commend the efforts of the Enactus DUT students on their continued success with this project,” says Dudu Nxele, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa.
“We hope to see their wonderful work replicated in other areas, and the continued upliftment of our communities.”
Belgium: ECLO Produces Micro-Vegetables At Abattoir’s
Belgium: ECLO Produces Micro-Vegetables At Abattoir’s
In the Abattoir cellars, not just mushrooms are grown. Only recently micro-vegetables were added as an extra activity. In fact, a micro-vegetable is merely a tiny version of a “normal” vegetable like radishes, broccoli, red cabbage, mustard, sunflower, rucola … They are often compared to germ vegetables with such a difference that the seed is not eaten but stays in the substrate. Placed under LED-lamps they grow as nowhere else, enjoying the warmth and the CO2 that comes free during the first weeks of the mushrooms’ growth.
So from now on the Abattoir site hides two producers of microgreens or micro-vegetables: BIGH in the greenhouses on the FOODMET’s roof, and ECLO in the cellars next to the mushroom-growing company “Le Champignon de Bruxelles”. By eating them in the very first phase of their growth, they contain a very high concentration of tastes, colors and nutrients. Top-chefs are loving them, not only for decorating their dishes but also for their specific flavor.
During the last couple of months, M. Quentin Declerck, founder of ECLO, has worked himself into the mushroom growing activity in view of solidly increasing his micro vegetable production. Coincidence or not, but the Abattoir cellars do offer lots of space.
For more information:
Superior Fresh – Largest Aquaponics Facility In The World
Superior Fresh – Largest Aquaponics Facility In The World
Linked by Michael Levenston
Uses LumiGrow LED Grow Lights
LumiGrow Lighting | May 21, 2018
Superior Fresh is the largest aquaponics facility in the world. Their state-of-the-art fish facility is coupled with a 3-acre glass greenhouse where they grow various leafy greens and herbs. They grow everything from seed in their greenhouse under LumiGrow grow lights and produce 1.8 million pounds of leafy greens each year. The leafy vegetables make their journey from the greenhouse to supermarket shelves within 48 hours.
Superior Fresh’s fish house and greenhouse have been meticulously designed and built using state-of-the-art technology to maximize profits with a superbly modern facility. For their greenhouse lighting, Superior Fresh is using LumiGrow LED grow lights paired with LumiGrow Light Sensor technology to ensure yield and quality goals are met consistently while reducing energy costs by 50% compared to traditional HPS lighting.
The light sensor technology allows Superior Fresh to monitor the exact light levels in the greenhouse and create programs that automatically adjust the fixtures to efficiently meet production goals year-round.
“Our biggest leap forward has been the [LumiGrow] smartPAR software,” says Adam Shinner, Head Grower at Superior Fresh. “…When we have enough sun, the lights turn off. When we don’t have enough sun, they turn back on. It allows for full integration of our lighting system [with the greenhouse zoning], which has truly not been possible up until this point.”
“Understanding that we are going to have 9 billion people on this planet in the next 30 years or so, we have to start thinking about how we’re going to efficiently grow food close to the marketplace,” says Brendan Gottsacker, CEO at Superior Fresh. “LumiGrow has allowed us to grow food right here in Wisconsin in the middle of the winter.”