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Michael LaCroix posted an update in the group
Aquaponic Window Farms: 2 years, 1 month ago · ViewHI just wanted to introduce my self. I heard about you all on NPR this weekend and am always fascinated by small scale sustainable agriculture. I currently have a small aquaponic set up going for about a year now. I am growing mixed asian greens with red claw fresh water lobsters. It has worked great ! I would post pictures if I knew how. Looking forward to learning and sharing.
Michael L -
first sorry for my english but i’m french. I want to advice you about the possible contamination by the bisphénol A or others hormones and VOC contained on water bottles. When this kind of plastic is in contact with sun or heating they liberate this contaminents in what it contains like your water, the earth inside the bottles and finally your vegetables. A lot of research exist on it, one of the aricle who explain that :
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090326100714.htm
Hi Alexandra. Thanks for the great information! We’re starting a new category for called ”Environmental Impact” If you could re-post this there as a blog post (you can find this in the menu bar at the very top of the page) that would be great. Then you can put a link to it in each of the groups you belong to. Thanks a lot!
-Dave
thanks, i try it.
Thank you for your important input, Alexandra, I have been watchng the Bisphenol A situation since the ”Babies feeding bottle” scare in the US – I notice babies bottles in the UK are gradually changing over to the less transparent lower toxicity ones. The water bottle manufacturers seem to be keeping quiet about this at the moment.
I am using Polyypropylene milk bottles which as far as I am aware do not have serious issues although I would suggest that ALL plastics release small quantities of undesirable chemical into their contents. The argument is whether there is a safe level of pollution.they exist now new babies feeding bottles without toxic emanation, i don’t have the name, i found it in a ecological ’'babies store’’.
Alexandra: i speak english but french as well. so…
C’est très important de savoir ce que vous dites là. Il faut bien choisir les conteneurs pour les plants. Aussi quand je regarde bien le système , je ne suis particulierment fan d’un systeme hidrophonique. Je suis en train de chercher d’autres systemes pour les adapter a cette bonne idée de windowfarms…. ce sont les acuaponics. C’est un peu different. Ça peux s’approcher à un petit ecosystème en boucle.
Il y a un group qui parle de ça aussi sur cette windowfarm web.Merci pour l’information…en français. En effet je trouve moi-même l’idée des windowsfarms très intéressante et je pense que l’on peu y trouver une alternative, j’irais voir ce groupe. Merci.
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That sounds very interesting – are red claw fresh water lobsters easy to look after? – do they need a big tank?
Post pictures?
Use the gray dropdown bar at the top of the screen. MyBlogs>Our.windowfarms.org>New Post. (Thanks Britta)
Hey Michael, I missed that NPR report. I will have to look that up. Glad to hear your system is working well. Are you going to make it into a window farm set-up?
Hi all, sorry it took me so long to get back to your replies. The red claws are really easy to care for. There is a lot of info about them at a web sight called crayfish mates http://www.crayfishmates.com. As far as tank size it all depends how many you want to keep. They start out the size of a pencil tip and grow to about 8 to 12 inches long. I have mine in a 55 gallon tank for now. I hope to move them to a small outdoor pond for the summer. I live in the north east USA so temperature is a consideration as they are a tropical species. I hope with some solar heating I can get them to live outside for about 4 months or so. Its all an experiment at this point. Thanks for telling me how to post pictures I’ll give it a try.
Bevan I have not made it into a window farm yet. I would like to try it. My house is south facing and I have big windows, so it makes sense to do so. It will certainly help my electric bill since I use grow lights now. I just have not settled on a plan yet. I’m trying to find something simple to set up. I’m leaning towards the vertical PVC towers that this guy in South Africa is using (Synaptoman). It seems like a lot less parts and pieces from other systems I’ve looked into. I really should get back to doing my @#$% taxes that’s all for now. Michael
Crawdads would be cool, though I have been clamped by one, not a fun thing.