Aquaponics / Hydroponics advice would be greatly appreciated

[RedThorn]

Hi all

Anyone with experience with the title mentioned, please can you PM me....

I could possibly be in a situation where I gonna have roughly 35-50,000 lettuces on me hands every week and would greatly appreciate pointers....

[donnakebab]

Sorry RT, I only have experience of the Stereophonics.

Have a nice day.

[RedThorn]

All help most welcome, gonna need music to pick that many lettuces

[veggiechicken]

Do we get any more clues, Sir Nut, about your problem eating 50.000 lettuces a week? That's only 7000 or so a day. I make that 5 lettuces a minute that you have to eat, non-stop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Enjoy!!!!

[rustylady]

Oh Lord RT, what are you up to now?

[RedThorn]

Me? *bat's eyelids and tries to look innocent*

Let's just say this is gonna be an interesting week

Too nervous to get me hopes up too much...

EDIT: not trying to play hard to get, but there's a possibility for a lot of hard work ahead and possibly just possibly a shot at a new future

Off to bed to toss and turn will catch up and hopefully have someone come along who would be willing to talk me down or at the very least give me some pointers if needed *fingers crossed*

[woody21]

Hi all

Anyone with experience with the title mentioned, please can you PM me....

I could possibly be in a situation where I gonna have roughly 35-50,000 lettuces on me hands every week and would greatly appreciate pointers....

im playing with hydroponics this year but only 2 tomato plants in an ebb and flow (flood and drain) system.
while im a newbie i have read up a bit about all the variations of hydroponics and aquaponics/deep water culture systems and nutrients so might be able to point you to some good information ive already read.

are you setting up something new or have you taken on an existing commercial setup?

id be very interested to hear more

youtube has a bit to watch that may help you, heres a good one that i think is very much what you want as its commercially grown lettuce in hydroponics. (same method aquaponics pretty much)
Hydroponic Lettuce - YouTube

the aquaponics wiki is worth a read too
Aquaponics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

for aquaponics or deep water culture most important thing is making sure there is enough oxygen in the water/nutrient soloution.
Understanding the nutrients requirements for the plant your growing will also make or break it.

[bigchopsbilly]

Good luck RedThorn growing the hydroponic way in Aus sounds great you will find once you get into it you will be hooked.

Like woody21 after a lot of reading etc I took out my MFB,pots,rings,root trainers and trugs etc and changed my little outdoor 6x4 unheated greenhouse into a hydroponics recirculating drip/flood system so this year the 15 heirloom toms and 8 chilli plants have not seen soil.

As per the youtube link a lot of lettuce is grown on a floating raft system with the nutrient solution for lettuce being set with the correct PH and EC.

Hope the links works it gives a bit more info on correct Temp,PH and EC (electric conductivity-amount of salts dissolved) and other styles of growing.

Welcome to Dr. Howard Resh, Hydroponic Services

Also a good book is
Hydroponics: Indoor Horticulture: Amazon.co.uk: Jeffrey Winterborne: Books
This does carry over to outdoor/greenhouse systems but repeats itself but has good sections on nutrients and systems.

Good luck Bill

[Newton]

The videos are very interesting. What a fantastic way to make a living. Can it be done profitably in thE uk? What is the market like for the produce. I suppose the supermarkets will screw you to the ground?

I hope your venture/dream comes good this week redthon.......jubilee hydroponics.......queen lettuces....

[woody21]

The videos are very interesting. What a fantastic way to make a living. Can it be done profitably in thE uk? What is the market like for the produce. I suppose the supermarkets will screw you to the ground?

I hope your venture/dream comes good this week redthon.......jubilee hydroponics.......queen lettuces....

There are plenty of hydroponic commercially grown strawberry, tomato, cucumber, sweet and chilli peppers grown in the uk.
This is the most impressive facility in the uk that i have read about and i wanna have a day trip there!

Welcome to Thanet Earth: The biggest greenhouse in Britain unveiled | Mail Online

all i can say is WOW, and WOW again..... i want a greenhouse like that... i could fit my town in there 3 times over!

its those pesky supermarkets hammering prices down that are making hydroponic growing the future as it 'can' produce 3-4 times the amount of fruit or veg compared to the same amount of plants/area of soil grown.

you can see more of thanet earth in this youtube video, theres a great bbc video on the thanet earth website also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWKAY...eature=related

[woody21]

Welcome Bigchopsbilly

nice to see someone else on here and in the uk getting into hydroponics, what fruit and/or veg are you trying?

RedThorn -

in a true hydroponics system you would add liquid or powdered nutrients to your water and measure strength by testing ec which is easy to test.
Ph is Extremely important and if incorrect the root systems cant take up the correct amount of elements from the feed causing deficiencys or worse.

Aquaponics using the water containing waste products exceteted from aquatic animals is a bit harder to plan, measure and maintain.
you will need to measure more than just Ec, as you dont have an analysys of npk and trace elements contained in your fish poo nutrients you need to test for all and add individual elements as required for optimal crop but also taking into consideration the water quality as far as the aquatic animals are concerned.
would be simple to convert part of the system to hydroponics by adding a nutrient tank instead of the feed from the pond if you wanted.

Seek mentoring from the person/people running it as it is and you should be fine if your prepared for the hard work and a steep learning curve.
if you have a horticultural or agricultural college or similar nearby that could be a great place for advice and maybe get some contacts in similar industry through them.

Whatever the oppertunity it sure sounds interesting!

[RedThorn]

It's a current system, a mix of Hydroponics and Aquaponics and very very run down... guys wife passed away 3 years ago, and just come out of a 6 month stint in hospital...It was the hubby & wife team's passion and he lost focus. There's a lot of legalese going on so it's only a possibility, plus I'll still need to do my day job for 18 months to 2 years concurrently. He used to have trout and black goldfish in some of the systems and the tanks are 25 metres by 2 metre's each roughly(about 8 of these).... fingers crossed, who know#s time will tell, like you, been doing a fair bit of research, but not much practically so a steep learning curve. Ooh and I can finally then get some girls(chooks) again

[veggiechicken]

It sounds fascinating Sir Nut! If you can afford the money and the time - go for it! Opportunities are meant to be grabbed with both hands

[RedThorn]

got to be Sir Chief King nut for even considering this, but I cannot help myself

[Newton]

Best of luck with the legals.....

Keep us posted if you can.......I want a tour of Thanet too.......