In Dortmund/Germany we just finished setting up our two 200m² research greenhouses after a mindnumbing grind for getting the required building permit. We are located on a former coking plant and had (and have) to remedy the soil contamination and take care of lots of other issues. The organic compound contamination is escaping the soil as vapor so we had to prepare the ground with a vapor barrier and we have to analyze the products before distributing anything as food. The requirements from the authorities were very demanding and waaaay over on the very very very safe side…
Next up we are going to build the interior, hydroponics, aquaculture and a thermal storage wall. We built two identical systems for research purposes, one greenhouse to conduct the experiments and the second one as control. We plan on getting the system online June/July. Will report and post more pictures.
We do not yet have the permit to rear fishes yet. That will be another application we are already preparing. Going for grass carp in low stocking density. Research wise we have two major topics: alternative business model and passive solar energy optimization.
The business model we are going to research is a rent-a-raft model. Renting out micro gardens for citizens who would like to produce their own food, but are not interested in an alotment garden. The plants in their micro garden are always watered and nurtured and higly productive. And if you don’t get along with your grow bed neighbour you can easily move the raft into another bed.
In this model revenue is decoupled from production and from marketing the produce, hopefully providing a sound financial foundation for small scale systems. Could also maybe be run as a CSA. We’ll see.
So rent-a-raft, remember you first heard it here.
This setup will also allow for examining other open topics. For example we could run a direct comparison of ‘coupled’, ‘decoupled’ and ‘partially coupled’ setups and shed some light and data on those two ‘schools’ of aquaponics.
Good Morning the whole concept of renting a growing space is part of my business model as well. I would be interested to know what interest, types of advertising and demand you will generate.
Well done. #gofoodsecurity
Here in the Philippines, we burn rice hull to run boilers for steam requirements and turbines for electricity. Resulting in tons of carbonized rice hull. Our governmeny also treats the bi product as ‘toxic’.
I saw it as an opportunity for discoveries. Decided to use it as my AP grow media back in 2017. And yes, I am still discovering new uses for the carbonized rice hull. I can produce leafy vegetables 18 inches long and 8 inches wide. My backyard research still continues.
Im now smiling at the ignorance and over reaction of the carbon fuss.
Yes, the black kind of coke. Coal that has been refined by removing the non carbon organic compounds. Operarion of the plant has been shut down in the late nineties.
Carbonized rice hulls sound really interesting as a growing medium. How is the mechanical stability? Does it grind down to small particles over time or is it mechanically stable?
It grinds into smaller particles which becomes a cause for clogging. But the positive trade off is it traps solids more and makes the growbed more nutritious for plants. I address clogging by reducing the frequency of pump on via a mechanical timer resulting in electricity savings.
Never use biochar in aquaponics especially inline. It WILL strip out your micronutrienst mainly iron, manganese, and molybenum but also zinc and copper. If you want to infuse biochar with mineralized fish waste thats fine but never ever put it into a live system it wil majorly screw up your nutrient balance.
Interesting! This would be a nice research topic for a students bachelor or master thesis. Setting up two different filtration devices, one with bio char. Does not even have to be in the production system, can be lab sized.
Will keep that in mind and propose to the next student asking to BA or MA topics.
