by jaymesdec
Classroom Window Farm + Living Machine
11:11 pm in Uncategorized by jaymesdec
My class at GreenFab http://www.bronxgreenfab.org/ in the Bronx is building a rather large window farm that we plan on connecting to a living machine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_machines
The machine will consist of 4 cells of water with goldfish, snails, oyster shells, sand and gravel. Since we have animals in our system, we don’t want to use any chemical based plant food.
What do you recommend we do to feed the plants? We are hoping that the fish poo and oyster shells will provide nutrients, but I’m not sure it will be enough.
Has anyone tried to mix an aquarium with a window farm?
Also, we have huge window space. Enough for 9 columns of 7 plants! Do you think it’s a really bad idea to start off this large scale? We have all the materials and our columns are done, we just have to set up the reservoirs and hang the columns. But before I drill holes into the PVC, I just wanted to get some feedback on if we are trying to be too ambitious.
Any experience / advice for a system this big?
Bronx born salad…yummmm.
I have no feedback (I am new) for you except for the fact that I wish I was in your class!!
This sound super-cool! Unfortch I don’t have any knowledge of aquaponics that would help but surely someone here will be able to advise. I will be rooting for your success and watching for updates.
I’d try asking here as well: http://our.windowfarms.org/groups/aquaponic-window-farms/
It’s a group specific to aquaponics (the type of system you described). There are some very knowledgeable people there.
Simply join the Aquaponics group, I’m sure they’ll be able to help!
My grandson’s class at school has a whole hydroponic setup including fish which supplies all the nutrient for the plants. He’s 10 and pretty proud of their garden.
I would start small since it would be less complex to troubleshoot any problems…also I would imagine the fish waste would supply enough nutrients for the plants…The plants in turn should filter the water sufficiently for the aquatic life…
a very good article http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/garden/18aqua.html
One things you should ask yourself (because too few people involved in aquaponics seem to do):
Where does commercial fish food come from ?
Because: Feeding fish with shredded (marine) fish and leftovers from slaughterhouses is no good approach to something kids are supposed to learn sustainability from.
Seems like you’ll be learning something about wormfarms, too