Aquaponics / Plant Nutrients |Maryjane's Blog

This is an article I read at the end of last summer,my husband liked the idea of
a garden without using soil,so we are going to give this a try out this summer. I have encluded a few of the links if anyone has an interest in Aquaponics within the article.
Maryjane

                   Aquaponics / Plant Nutrients

In Aquaponics, the sole source of plant nutrients is fish waste. As unbelievable as this may seem, with a properly managed Aquaponics system, plants can thrive on this source of nitrogen. The key is to have a healthy bacterial colony growing in the system, which will convert the toxic fish waste into harmless nitrates which are an excellent fertilizer for the plants. The bulk of the bacterial colonies will be in the grow bed medium, often gravel.

In a newly set-up Aquaponics system, the bacteria will need some time to colonize the medium. This is why a process called ‘cycling’ is used. There are two methods of cycling your system – using fish right from the start or putting the fish in only when the bacteria have established themselves. The first method takes 4 to 6 weeks, while the latter is quicker and can be done in about 10 days. Cycling without fish (using ammonia) is also safer.

An important aspect in the system that is needed to ensure a steady supply of plant nutrients is pH. If this is not optimal, an accumulation of toxic materials will build up, and nutrient generation by the bacteria will be halted. In addition, pH outside the range will make it harder for the plant roots to take up nutrients and can harm the fish. Try to keep your pH at around 6.7 to 7. If your pH is outside the range, get commercial pH regulators to increase or decrease the pH. Alternatively use vinegar to lower the pH and calcium carbonate or baking soda to increase the pH.

Although some Aquaponics farmers use nutrient supplements, in a properly managed system supplements are never required. In addition, if you use supplements you need to be very careful, as some can harm the fish. As long as you keep the pH at 6.7 to 7, and the water well oxygenated, the bacteria will provide more than enough nutrients for your plants.

The only substance that it may be beneficial to add is salt. Salt is often added to Aquaponics systems at 1 to 2 ppt (parts per thousand; meaning 1 kilo to 1000 liters of water). Adding salt increases the resistance of the fish to disease and infections, because it has a positive effect on the mucus layer of the fish. If you decide to add salt, it is important to keep the concentration below 2ppt and to use pure sea salt – not table salt.

Maryjane Angelo

                                                   

How To Decide On Where To Put Your Garden |Maryjane's Blog

In deciding upon the site for the home vegetable garden it is well to dispose once and for all of the old idea that the garden "patch" must be an ugly spot in the home surroundings. If thoughtfully planned, carefully planted and thoroughly cared for, it may be made a beautiful and harmonious feature of the general scheme, lending a touch of comfortable homeliness that no shrubs, borders, or beds can ever produce.

With this fact in mind we will not feel restricted to any part of the premises merely because it is out of sight behind the barn or garage. In the average moderate-sized place there will not be much choice as to land. It will be necessary to take what is to be had and then do the very best that can be done with it. But there will probably be a good deal of choice as to, first, exposure, and second, convenience. Other things being equal, select a spot near at hand, easy of access. It may seem that a difference of only a few hundred yards will mean nothing, but if one is depending largely upon spare moments for working in and for watching the garden and in the growing of many vegetables the latter is almost as important as the former this matter of convenient access will be of much greater importance than is likely to be at first recognized. Not until you have had to make a dozen time-wasting trips for forgotten seeds or tools, or gotten your feet soaking wet by going out through the dew-drenched grass, will you realize fully what this may mean.

Exposure.
But the thing of first importance to consider in picking out the spot that is to yield you happiness and delicious vegetables all summer, or even for many years, is the exposure. Pick out the "earliest" spot you can find a plot sloping a little to the south or east, that seems to catch sunshine early and hold it late, and that seems to be out of the direct path of the chilling north and northeast winds. If a building, or even an old fence, protects it from this direction, your garden will be helped along wonderfully, for an early start is a great big factor toward success. If it is not already protected, a board fence, or a hedge of some low-growing shrubs or young evergreens, will add very greatly to its usefulness. The importance of having such a protection or shelter is altogether underestimated by the amateur.

Whether you're done this before or it's your first attempt! - RyanShedPlans will help you decide which shed project is bestsuited for you, how to execute it and bring professional results every time.

The soil.

The chances are that you will not find a spot of ideal garden soil ready for use anywhere upon your place. But all except the very worst of soils can be brought up to a very high degree of productiveness  especially such small areas as home vegetable gardens require. Large tracts of soil that are almost pure sand, and others so heavy and mucky that for centuries they lay uncultivated, have frequently been brought, in the course of only a few years, to where they yield 
annually tremendous crops on a commercial basis. So do not be discouraged about your soil. Proper treatment of it is much more important, and a garden- patch of average run-down, or "never-brought-up" soil will produce much more for the energetic and careful gardener than the richest spot will grow under average methods of cultivation.

The ideal garden soil is a "rich, sandy loam." And the fact cannot be overemphasized that such soils usually are made, not found. Let us analyze that description a bit, for right here we come to the first of the four all-important factors of gardening food. The others are cultivation, moisture and temperature. "Rich" in the gardener's vocabulary means full of plant food; more than that and this is a point of vital importance it means full of plant food ready to be used at once, all prepared and spread out on the garden table, or rather in it, where growing things can at once make use of it; or what we term, in one word, "available" plant food. Practically no soils in long- inhabited communities remain naturally rich enough to produce big crops. They are made rich, or kept rich, in two ways; first, by cultivation, which helps to change the raw plant food stored in the soil into available forms; and Second, by manuring or adding plant food to the soil from outside sources.

Learn how to make beauty products at home for fun and profit!
Make beauty products at home and earn an extra income.
Never pay for gifts again! Customize soaps, oils and beauty products for your friends.

"Sandy" in the sense here used, means a soil containing enough particles of sand so that water will pass through it without leaving it pasty and sticky a few days after a rain; "light" enough, as it is called, so that a handful, under ordinary conditions, will crumble and fall apart readily after being pressed in the hand. It is not necessary that the soil be sandy in appearance, but it should be friable.

"Loam: a rich, friable soil," says Webster. That hardly covers it, but it does describe it. It is soil in which the sand and clay are in proper proportions, so that neither greatly predominate, and usually dark in color, from cultivation and enrichment. Such a soil, even to the untrained eye, just naturally looks as if it would grow things. It is remarkable how quickly the whole physical appearance of a piece of well cultivated ground will change. An instance came under my notice last fall in one of my fields, where a strip containing an acre had been two years in onions, and a little piece jutting off from the middle of this had been prepared for them just one season. The rest had not received any extra manuring or cultivation. When the field was plowed up in the fall, all three sections were as distinctly noticeable as though separated by a fence. And I know that next spring's crop of rye, before it is plowed under, will show the lines of demarcation just as plainly.

Maryjane Angelo