Juicy Greens Aquaponics and Sustainibility Innovation Center

Going Completely Natural in South Africa, Sharing what we learn with our Community

[juicygreens]

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[macedon-ranges-aquaponics]

Bits Out the Back.

Hi Everyone, in my books, you have to give credit where credit is due and I have been meaning to do this for a while now, and I plan to do a few of these over the next month or so because there are some tumblrs out there that are just amazing.

I highly recommend taking the time to check out the tumblr “Bits Out the Back”

Rob is located in south-east Queensland here in Australia and he is sensational, he’s not just into aquaponics, but an entire lifestyle of backyard farming. Chooks, fish farming, DIY, wicking beds, worms, compost, soil quality, you name it and you will find Rob covers it. The amount of food that is produced in this little backyard is amazing. Seriously very cool work and worthy of credit where credit is due.

For a stunning introduction to what i mean start with his awesome tumblr:

http://bitsouttheback.tumblr.com/

Hit the ‘archive’ button and be prepared, because as soon as you do you will see what i mean, its flooded with colour and food!

For his Aquaponics, have a look at:

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=22408 http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=10478&start=285

His Facebook which is a must to follow:

https://www.facebook.com/Bitsouttheback?fref=ts

And for some absolutely brilliant videos, this is Rob’s youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/bnbob01/featured

I highly recommend your taking the time, i very much doubt that you will come away disappointed!

Enjoy your day!

Regards

[juicygreens]

Sharing is Caring...

[juicygreens]

July 2015 - This month’s project… Sorting out our housing, as space is really becoming an issue. We were living in a caravan for a couple of months here on the plot so that we can focus on building. The caravan served it’s purpose, but now has a new owner. We swopped it for a 3x6m Wendy. Now I’m busy extending it with a Recycled Pallets Woodhouse. Still a lot of work to do, but for the price thus far, I’m very much psyched to get it done

@foxypinder

[juicygreens]

How successful is an Horse Manure Compost heater?

Somewhat 2 weeks after building it, topping it up once with fresh manure and watering it 3 times to compensate for steam coming out of it so hot it is… Last night was our first real cold night of the winter with -2C and the fish tank water was an incredible 26C at 8am this morning

[juicygreens]

Some pics to show growth we've experienced after 10 days in the system. Our Nitrate levels are already sitting at +-35PPM. And that with 70 Tilapias ranging in size between 2cm and 15cm

[juicygreens]

Our first Mini Tunnel after completion. Did it so that the sides can be lifted for access to the interior. 01/06/2015

[macedon-ranges-aquaponics]

Is this not fantastic!

I have never grown lettuce like this before!! it is just gorgeous!

We started harvesting this in small amounts the other night and it was just delicious!

[juicygreens]

macedon-ranges-aquaponics Nice going and thanks for the Pics & updates. We are only starting to build now and its going way too slow in my opinion. Helps to see the rewards we are aiming towards

[cheese24k]

[machistado]

Dairy cows in Holland are let out to pasture for the first time since the winter months

This is the greatest video I’ve ever watched. Awards everywhere until the end of time. 

[el--chacal]

I just watched this three times omg the one that rubs its head all over the grass i so happy

[deactivated1649-deactivated2016]

implyingyoucare

[juicygreens]

First week of winter 2015 in South Africa now and I already feel all desperate for summer to come.. Msg to Cows: I feel ya

[juicygreens]

25-05-2015 Composting Heater in the making. I first used some old building rubble to make a Base to allow some aeration from the bottom. Then made a 200mm (8") layer of Horse manure and Straw. Next I coiled some Low pressure Irrigation pipe, 15mm, from the centre outwards, about 200mm apart. Placed bricks upright on top to hold the pipes in place, then topped it with another layer of Horse compost. Continued until the final spiral of the 100m pipes ended at the edge and covered with a last 200mm layer. I linked the pipework into my current setup do that water is pushed from the Sumps through the Heater pipe and returns to the top of my FT. Within an hour the water temperature rose from about 13deg C to around 20deg C…. Not bad I think

[juicygreens]

Going green means water becomes very precious in all you do. As part of our a off-grid approach I built us a waterless composting toilet system. 3x 220L plastic drums are enclosed in a passive ventilated cupboard, nice toilet seats and everything... An outside shower works brilliant and a small Camping Geyser heats the water on demand (yes sadly electrical, but soon to be replaced with a 100L solar geyser). A grey water tank collects all shower and washing machine water. Goodness, now we only realise just how much water gets flushed back daily to municipal sewerage, but now we re-use the water for gardening and in the construction process where needed

[juicygreens]

17/05/2015 - The growbeds taking shape. I decided to go with cutting the IBC tank frames vertically instead of the usual horizontal division, giving better support underneath the GBs, without need for use of timber to support. 2x4s are very expensive around here as the nearest forestry are many many hours drive away. No extra shopping other than the Techscrews I used to join the frames… ☺. Auto Siphons used inside the GBs are our choice of tools for this setup

[juicygreens]

Malawi Cichlids meet AP. Spinach, tomatoes, kale, celery, broccoli and Basil happens. Empty plot begins our new life. Site preparation, Greenhouse building and the adventure begins

[juicygreens]

15/05/2015 A new beginnng

Aquaponics in South Africa is quite new and from the looks of what we are doing currently, the bug has bitten us incredibly hard. We lived in town up till end of November 2014, a couple of small trials in the suburbs on setting up a system and needless to say... With even the littlest of input our system was already an incredible success.

We managed to strike a deal with friends who owns a Small Holding just outside of town & currently we are setting up house and all on a vacant part of this Holding.

Thanks to AP (Aquaponics), we are so hooked on Green that everything we build or do are done first approached with an eye on Eco and Green. From fencing, waterless toilet system, Grey water setup, Passive solar Greenhouse design, Green building techniques like Earthbag and Strawbale to use of Solar power and Mixed Media AP are all in the works.

Thanks for following our adventure and we hope to inspire, learn and change as we run this marathon with Mother Nature

[kmaquaponics-blog]

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you will clear the oceans and rivers of every last one. Instead, show him aquaponics

 Lao Tzu (via kmaquaponics)

[aquaponicsintaiwan]

Transferred our seedlings to the sponge thingos today - hopefully we weren’t too late

[juicygreens]

What kind of sponge did you use? Is it similar to the sponge used by Florists for flower arrangements? @aquaponicsintaiwan

[aquaponicsintaiwan]

Well, this happened a lot faster than expected and we got a lot higher take rate than expected. Good problems to have?

[juicygreens]

Please share info on how and what method you used for germination with these "pads" @aquaponicsintaiwan