h a l f b a k e r y"This may be bollocks, but it's lovely bollocks."
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Dug and laid 5-15 cm under irrigation drip line, is an
open
half pipe with a concave net on it, which collects the
water
and leads it down to a central collection tank with fish in
it. This is pumped up to a small constructed wetland,
and lead back down via the irrigation pipes to water
the
fields.
Plants are laid on the side of the irrigation pipe, so that
rain continues to reach the aquifer, plants continue to
grow naturally, but when water is scarce, the roots
towards the irrigation path will take lead.
This simple invention brings water loss down to 1% (1
percent) of the original losses, if aquaponic growing
method numbers and claims can be relied upon.
Irrigation dripping was invented by Israelis in the Sinai
desert because the guy with the sprinklers didn't come
on
time. (As opposed to the cherry tomatoes invented by a
religious Israeli looking for a system where vegetation
was
not grown in the ground, so as to be exempt from the
Shemitta seventh year earth Sabbath).
Drip irrigation turned out to be a great idea, that saves
a lot of water. This idea is the follow up.
So, by cleaning the water and circulating it to the fish,
and then using the fish as fertilizer, the water is kept
mostly in the system, and is used only for building of the
plants (a small percentage) and lost to evaporation and
to plant perspiration (another small percentage).
BUT, Aquaponics is done above and disconnected from
the ground, and organic growing (probably having closer
ties with nature, will be discovered to have other virtues
as well) is not designated for aquaponics. Bringing the
aquaponics to earth, will designate them as organic.
-- If I understand correctly, in the US you don't have to
be connected with the ground for being confirmed as
organic growing. Sill, I'm sure there will be good reasons
discovered for growing on the ground, and this new
system is too simple to be ignored.
Coastal_20City_20Wastewater_20Relocation
[FlyingToaster, Feb 08 2012]
[link]
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There is a big difference between bringing water loss down to 1% (if you define "loss" as water not taken up by plants), and bringing water usage down to 1%. It seems implausible that any currently practiced system - even overhead sprinklers - uses 100 times as much water as that needed by the plants. |
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All of the elements of this - drainage channels beneath fields, drip-lines, and aquaponics - are baked. Various systems, soil and soil-less, involving lined channels or pits have also been widely practiced. Some of them could be considered in-ground, rather than above-ground, hydroponics or aquaponics. |
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Your particular system might be good in sand. In other soils, there is not the same problem of water being lost to below the root zone; likewise, little of the water would find its way into your channel, except in sand. |
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I may be getting dumber in my old age, but I didn't
follow this. |
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Is the idea to collect water soaking through the
growing area and recycle it instead of letting it
vanish into the ground? |
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If it is, I have a simple version of it baked and operating at
an undisclosed location in my spare room. I
wanted to have the advantages of growing in an amended-
soil medium along with the consistent operation and micro-
managable qualities of my hydroponic setup, so I modified
one of my deep-water culture systems to filter the nutrient
solution through soil and drain into a remote reservoir. It
works, but it isn't a major improvement over straight
hydroponics. I
think that's sort of what's being described here, only mine
doesn't have any fish in it. Some of the components were
purchased at a fish store, however. |
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As for organic growing, it doesn't even mean you have to
use soil at all. Plenty of organic growers* use aquaponics,
hydroponics, and aeroponics. |
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*On a side note, I'm amused at how many organic growing
proponents seem to be totally ignorant of what the word
actually means. In the '70s, my parents were members of
an organic farming co-op; one of the other members raised
a big stink one day when my mother was using sheets of
black poly to bed her plot instead of clear poly, because
the black poly contained "color additives." My mother
calmly explained that the substance used to make the
plastic black was carbon, which in fact made the black
even more organic than the clear. |
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Sand? Root zone? It's hydroponics. |
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Root zone was a good query, but I thought not well argued. |
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Tilapia &d Tomatoes! I envy you! |
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I dream almost every night how to make this work in the US
desserts |
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I am pretty sure your idea is entirely baked by someone in
northwest Houston. |
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It's not just being done here in Houston, it's being done all over
the place. |
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You're incredibly smart to imagine it on your own. |
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Tilapia, hydroponics, etc. Apparently the concept is far more
obscure than I had hoped. |
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[Z] You might like my treatment-plant effluent relocation idea <link>. |
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Zimmy, nobody uses the ground for aquaponics or
hydroponics. Both use elevated systems
DETACHED from the real mother earth. |
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The proposed system allows for both the rain and
real earth minerals and bio agriculture, while
enhancing it with a "side rail" of underground
hydroponics, connected to fish (for the
aquaponics part). |
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A "chicken tractor" could be used on it, something
a regular hydroponics / aquaponics system couldn't
dream of doing. |
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