Fish, greenhouse, plants, no soil

[John G]

Here is an article which, while not exactly on aquatic plants, may be interesting to some of you. It is about a man who built a greenhouse, and fertilizes his plants only with fish waste. No soil involved at all.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/garde ... .html?8dpc

[DelawareJim]

Cool article John.

I've been doing this on a small scale with my house plants for the last year and a half. Using LECA clay pellets in a system called hydroculture. No soil, no molds, no bugs, no mess. Best move I ever made for my plants.

You can learn more at:
http://waterroots.com/abouthydroculture.htm

I use the traditional pot-in-a-pot and water guage system instead of glass vases, but the principle is the same.
Like this:
http://www.gardeningoncloud9.com/wp-con ... tem-01.jpg

Cheers.
Jim

[SCMurphy]

What feeds his winter crop of lettuce is recirculating water from the 150-gallon fish tank and the waste generated by his 20 jumbo goldfish.

I bet he grows some HUGE plants with that kind of waste production staff.

Thanks for the article John.

[Aaron]

Jim - Are you using the small pebbles for your emersed setups? I'm thinking of switching to something like this because I keep battling mold big time.

[DelawareJim]

Aaron;

I'm using Hydroton and an other brand of LECA called PrimeAgra for the easy stuff like Echinodorus, Anubias, Lagenandras, Crypt. wendtii strains and such. Haven't tried any blackwater species because I'm afraid of loosing the plants.

You can get a finer grade of PrimeAgra from Ray Barkalow at
https://www.firstrays.com/cgi/cart/comm ... t_match=on
I haven't tried any yet.

I still get some mold and moss outbreaks because the plants in LECA are mixed in with others in soil mixes. Beauty is if I do get a mould outbreak, I remove the pot, unpot the plant, swish the hydroton around in a bowl of soapy water, rinse, and microwave (in water). Clean, sterile substrate again. Some of the orchid folks flush their pots with hydrogen peroxide to kill off molds and mildews, but I've not tried that yet.

I'm planning to tear down one of my freshwater setups and put everything in LECA all in one tank so I can eradicate the moss, and duckweed and hopefully keep a cleaner environment.

Cheers.
Jim

[Ben Belton]

I have a 50lb bag of PrimeAgra I've been trying to get rid of for year. If anyone is interested, remind me next time I make it to DC. I know I know... no telling when that will be.

[DelawareJim]

I have a 50lb bag of PrimeAgra I've been trying to get rid of for year. If anyone is interested, remind me next time I make it to DC. I know I know... no telling when that will be.

PA or Hydroton? I'm interested.

I've got a ton of orchids and houseplants I'm still converting to S/H and hydroculture.

Cheers.
Jim

[Ben Belton]

PrimeAgra

[DelawareJim]

Yes!

You should come up for the Longwood show. I'm sure they have a Phal. violacea or two not in your collection.

Cheers.
Jim

[Ben Belton]

I'm sure they have a Phal. violacea or two not in your collection.

No Way!