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  • From: venaurafarm <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] pc aquaponics
  • Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2012 11:57:31 -0400

On 10/8/2012 9:09 AM, KAKerby@aol.com wrote:
But have you actually LOOKED at any of the research being done? As I
pointed out, lots and lots of university research being conducted right now
in a
lot of different aspects of this approach, and yes nutrient density of the
resulting plant tissue is right up there.

This is good to know. I will try and Google this subject and see what I can come up with. Search term might be "nutrient density in food crops grown in aquaponic systems" and repeat with hydroponic substituted for aquaponic. Google Scholar articles would be desirable to find. I will post any interesting findings.

Brix measurements can be as
high or higher than the finest organic stands of soil-based agriculture for
leaf tissue. Complex nutrient density is present if it's present in the
system, and missing if it's missing from the system

See my last post about hydroponic cropping in perforated containers with high quality garden soil (formulated with the right permeability) irrigated with aquaculture water purified in a wetlands zone growing aquatic plants to feed tilapia. I assume that many nutrients and minerals essential for robust plant growth will exist in water flowing through the entire colletion of systems, dissolved or microscopic. Minerals in the soils in the containers will be made plant available through the action of microorganisms, in situ, then be leached into the water flowing into protein and aquatic plant (feedstock) production zones.

Thanks very much for the update, Kathryn. I really like long posts, the longer the better and the more often the better. BTW all posts sent to this list are mirrored at Google resources: a blog and a discussion group, all read only. Your posts really get out to the world this way and become even more useful reference material for those who need such things.

(just like soil-based ag,
where crops forcibly grown on tired out soils are going to be missing a lot
of nutrients). It's assumptions like this that are so very limiting. The
same assumptions were made about organic ag not 10 years ago - "it's no
more nutritious so what's the point"? If the nutrients are in the system,
the plants will pick them up. If the nutrients aren't there, they won't.
That's not a function of whether the plants are growing in a soil or
soilless media. That's a question of whether the nutrients are in the
system as a
whole. I've seen a lot of dead soils on working farms.

In an aquaponics, aquaculture or hydroponics system nutrients have to come from somewhere. The primary source, as I see it, could be the soil in the vegetable growing containers which leaches nutrients into the water which is used throughout the "whole system". Many of these nutrients will be retained and recycled within systems with nitrogenous materials as byproducts also recycled. Water in aquaponics systems growing shrimp, clams, fish, etc. could be periodically sieved and used to feed the soil growing vegetables and other crops in perforated conttainers. Chitin from insect bodies are an essential building block in achieving high quality soil.

Glomalin is important too. Here are fascinating articles on this subject. This simply points out the importance of microbiology and finely tuned, highly functional soil ecosystems when growing food crops in aquaculture/aquaponic/hydroponic systems. I posted to this list and to the marketfarming list a large string of reference material and research articles on this subject about a month ago. These are well worth reading, appropriate for the context of this particular thread.
Just a sample of what Google has to offer: Glomalin:

Glomalin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomalin
Glomalin is a glycoprotein produced abundantly on hyphae and spores of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in soil and in roots. Glomalin was discovered in ...
Glomalin: Hiding Place for a Third of the World's Stored Soil Carbon
www.ars.usda.gov/is/ar/archive/sep02/soil0902.htm
Oct 18, 2004 – Glomalin is causing a complete reexamination of what makes up soil organic matter. It is increasingly being included in studies of carbon ...
Glomalin Is Key To Locking Up Soil Carbon
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080629075404.htm
Jul 2, 2008 – Glomalin, the substance coating this microscopic fungus growing on a corn root, can keep carbon in the soil from decomposing for up to 100 ...
[PDF]
What is Glomalin - Agricultural Research Service
www.ars.usda.gov/.../54450000Glomalin/Glomalinbrochure.p...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
DOES GLOMALIN HOLD YOUR FARM TOGETHER? Plant, roots ... produce glomalin to coat hyphae to keep water and nutrients from getting lost on the way ...
Glomalin analysis
invam.caf.wvu.edu/methods/mycorrhizae/glomalin.htm
Glomalin is a glycoprotein produced abundantly on hyphae and spores of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in soil and in roots. Shortly after we Sara Wright and I ...
Images for glomalin
- Report images

[PDF]
Arbuscular mycorrhizae, glomalin, and soil aggregation
dbs.umt.edu/.../Rillig%202004%20Can%20J%20S%20Sc.pdf
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
by MC Rillig - Cited by 181 - Related articles
This review focuses on glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP), operationally ... glomalin (particularly at the biochemical level), it is concluded that research on ...
[PDF]
Glomalin in Ecosystems - Duke Forest FACE site
face.env.duke.edu/PDF/sssaj71-07a.pdf
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
by KK Treseder - Cited by 53 - Related articles
environmental controls on glomalin are not well understood. In addition, the ... have found evidence that glomalin may be related somewhat to a heat shock ...
Glomalin What Is It . . . and What Does It Do? - Bioenergy Articles ...
www.thebioenergysite.com/.../glomalin-what-is-it-and-what-d...
Glomalin is a glycoprotein, a sugar-protein compound that might trigger the formation of soil.

I'd rather take
food for my table from a system I know is balanced and working with healthy
plants and fish, rather than produce from those over-mined soils with a
history of herbicide and pesticide reliance. And a lot of folks have no way
to measure how tired out the soils were, which produced the food they eat.
Presuming that soil-based is better, is ignoring all the problems in
soil-based farming.

I agree completely.

And before folks start talking about "yea, but you have to introduce those
nutrients, so it's artificial", I would point out that's true for many of

That;'s not an issue with a natural aquaponics system. The goal is natural. Fukuoka's Natural Farming principles can be applied here too.

the world's soils as well. We have to supply a variety of trace minerals
such as selenium to our soils, to bring them into balance and keep them
there. Does that make our soil-based farming unnatural? Does that make
farming in whole regions with depleted soils, such as Australia, simply
unnatural? Or is that simply a reflection that no soil, anywhere, is perfectly
balanced? And even if our soils are perfectly balanced for that particular
crop
at that particular time, they won't stay that way. We'll have to
introduce some method of bringing those withdrawn trace nutrients back to our
soils, as they are removed by the crops and the crops removed from the system
(ie, eaten or sold). So from that standpoint, soil-based and soilless ag are
the same. The methods used to introduce those trace nutrients are the
same as well. Both systems have the choice to use natural or artificial
supplementation. With aquaponics however, you have immediate negative
feedback
if the supplementation is too harsh, because the health of the fish will
suffer. In soil-based ag, many times the farmer has no indication of
long-term issues at all. The folks downstream might not know it for years or
decades to come.

Another objection to aquaponics is that folks believe it's missing the rich
web of microscopic life that is found in healthy soils. Again, have you
actually LOOKED for information on that? One of the most exciting
developments for both hydroponics and aquaponics is that proactive
innoculation
with beneficial bacterial and/or fungal colonies works just as well in
soilless
ag as it does in soil-based ag.

I wonder how AACT could be used. This is aerated, activated compost tea. I'll bet it has a use in an aquaponics system.

That discovery was made over a decade
ago, and has become a fundamental part of disease prevention and nutrient
update for those growers who are interested in really giving their plants all
the tools available. Much like it's been a tool for soil-based growers for
millenia, but not everyone takes advantage of that option. If that sounds
artificial, does that mean soil-based ag should stop innoculating the soil
for things like peas and lentils, alfalfa and beans? It's more familiar
to us because it's been a part of soil-based ag for generations. But don't
assume hydroponics/aquaponics doesn't have that option too. It does, and
it's being used just as beneficially.

To make blanket statements about what aquaponics can and cannot do, or
produce, or solve, without actually working with this approach or reading the
research materials and day-to-day working results for those using this
system, is head-in-the-sand behavior. If you doubt something about it (or
any
topic), GO LOOK for information on it. You might be surprised at what you
find.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA

Excellent stimulus to go forth and do research, apply it and develop working systems for food and profit.





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