Greetings
fellow gardener!
This
post is just that.
A
basic lesson in aquaponics as constructed from salvage, and used to grow
wheatgrass for juicing here at the greenhouse.
A
basic aquaponics system is really pretty simple. The configuration is only limited
by the gardener’s imagination.
The
only thing that will remain constant between one gardener’s system and another’s
is a water source with active balanced biology, and a slues to hold what’s
being grown, and a pump to circulate the water across the root zone of the
plants.
In
the picture above I used some scrap 2 x 10’s to make a box frame, then draped a
piece of pond rubber over that frame. Then I used scrap 1 x 4’s to make a
framework to support the slues which was made from scrap OSB screwed to some 2
x 4’s to form the water channel. The white liner in the slues is actually an
old discarded vinyl Coca Cola banner harvested from the trash downtown by my
friend Luke Ebner of Pemaganic.
This
system was an evolution of an earlier configuration that Luke and I had running
back in 2010 in one of our front greenhouses.
Here’s
a pic of the leftovers from the reconstruction. The Aquarium was our water reservoir.
In the back leaning up is a chunk of the slues that I cut off to make it fit in
the new location.
The
move was made to heated space for year round production that would also accommodate
fish and water plants in greater number than the test run.
The
new version could also handle a larger pump and a filter box to keep the pump
running with less maintenance.
The
pump we’re currently using looks like this one.
It’s
kind of hard to see because of all the duckweed but here’s a close-up of the
filter box.
Since
the water depth wasn’t deep enough for food fish like tilapia that are commonly
grown in such systems I went with basic outdoor pond goldfish thinking that
they would eat the duckweed. I was mistaken. Goldfish do not eat duckweed. Koi
do. One of these days I’ll spring the cash and go buy some Koi. In the meantime the goldfish have been
breeding and happily naturalizing in the system. J
A
quick overview of the mechanics here. The filter box connects underwater to the
pump. The pump output goes up some tubing to the emitter.
And
the emitter puts the water down the slues.
The
slues carries the water downhill across the root zone of the plants.
The
soil in the flats wicks the water up to feed and water the plants being grown.
The
water runs out the end of the slues back into the reservoir.
The
plants in the picture are parrot’s feather and water hyacinth, and of course,
duckweed.
The
game plan for this system is to introduce water chestnuts for some extra food
output. The shallow depth of a system like this may also be suited to
freshwater shrimp. Need to do a little more research on that one. J
Here
again the possibilities are only limited by the imagination and resourcefulness
of the gardener.
The
only real trouble I’ve ever had with system is the occasional visit from the
raccoons who will break in overnight and eat all the bigger goldfish. It’s happened
twice in 3 years. They don’t bother the fry or the eggs in the roots of plants
so the fish have always popped back. As you may guess there’s a a considerable
mess to clean up the following morning.
Now
for the really fun part. J
Using
the system for some vitamin rich body cleansing wheatgrass juice! WhooHoo!
Once
the grass in the flats reaches a height of about 5-6” simply cut the grass and
feed it through a juicer.
When
growing for juice, sow the flats thick. A really good crop looks like this
close up.
Grasses
don’t juice the same as typical fruits and vegetables so it’s best if you’re
going juice grass to buy a juicer that’s designed for it.
I
chose a Green Star 3000 that I paid about $400 for from discountjuicers.com
about ten years ago. The 2000 model is pretty much the same unit for less money
but I wanted the pasta making attachment that comes with the more expensive
model. Which of course is still in the box, but if I ever want to make my own
pasta it’s there. J
Here’s
a few pix of the unit which has served me well for a decade and is still going
strong.
What
makes a grass juicing unit different from typical fruit and vegetable juicers
is the grinding method. The Green Star is what is called a “twin gear” unit
which uses two counter rotating interlocking crushers to squeeze the juice from
the grass which separates the food value out of the indigestible beta cellulose
that grasses are built from. Basically, it’s a mechanical version of the
biological process that goes on in the rumen of a cow. Which is why cows and
other ruminant animals can eat grass and we can’t. Unless we juice it first.
Here’s
a shot down the muzzle of the juicer.
You
can just barely make out the interlocking stainless steel gears that draw the
clumps of grass in.
The
pulp comes out the nose of unit and the juice dribble out of a port below the
gears.
It
does get a bit foamy which is why we use a straining pitcher to catch the
output.
Once
strained into our catch vessel it looks like this.
I
snapped the picture above halfway through the session. We juiced a total of 3 ½
flats for a yield of about 1 liter of juice.
Wheatgrass
juice is perhaps one of the healthiest things you can put through your system.
It’s a powerful antioxidant and system cleanser, it contains just about every
nutrient the human body needs, it rebuilds and restores blood cell function, and
there are claims that it will even dissolve cancerous and pre-cancerous tumors.
Back in 2005 I decided to test that last claim with a lesion on my arm. I will
post that test as a separate blog.
I
hope you enjoyed this little romp through basic aquaponics and wheatgrass
juicing. J
Cheers!
From
left to right, Bob Viebrooks, Wayne Adkins, Al Funke.
If
you’d like to see the juicing process in video format Wayne, myself, and his daughter
Julie made a wheatgrass juicing video for Funke’s youtube channel that is
posted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eILUqzQ1zG8
It’s
a fun little 8 minute romp in the greenhouse and does show the guts of the
juicer and the operation.
One
final note about wheatgrass juice, it does NOT store well at all and is best
juiced and drank fresh.
If you like and/or use wheatgrass juice but don’t want to grow it and want a local source for nice fresh USDA certified organic flats of grass for juicing, David Rosenberg of Woodenshoe Gardens is an local excellent source. His contact information is Wooden shoe gardens,
5005
Wooden Shoe Hollow Dr, Cincinnati, OH 45232
(513) 542-1513
A video of him speaking at a CSA conference is
posted here https://vimeo.com/4492593
‘Til
next time,
Happy
gardening!
Al