Many people have heard of hydroponic gardening, but aquaponics gardening is a concept that not many people are familiar with. When done properly, aquaponics can be an excellent way of growing plants, as I’m about to explain.
Aquaponic gardening basically involves growing plants over a fish tank. The water that is used to hydrate the plants drip through the soil and back into the tanks, where the nutrients from the soil nourish the fish. That same water is then pumped out of the tank, filtered, and used to water the plants once again. It’s a simple cycle, but it has proven to have many advantages.
Advantages of Aquaponic Gardening:
Water Use Reduction
With this system, you end up using about 30% of the water that you’d use with a regular garden. While filling the tank initially will require a good deal of water, you will simply circulate the water through the garden back into the tank. The plants will absorb a lot of water to grow, but what isn’t absorbed into the plants simply drips back into the tank.
Clean Gardening
Thanks to the fact that there is no soil for bacteria and insects to grow in, there is almost no risk of your plants being infested by bugs, termites, aphids, ants, or anything else. There is very little need for chemicals and fertilizers, and using these strong chemicals would simply kill off the fish. This means that any insect infestations will need to be dealt with using organic treatments, and the result is clean, organic produce.
Reduced Space Use
As you’re growing the plants over the fish tank, you won’t need to make space for both the tank and the garden. The amount of space that you’ll need will be greatly reduced, and you can grow plants and have a fish tank even if you have only a very small backyard.
Plants Grow Better
Many people have found that their produce grows to be much bigger thanks to this method of gardening. The vegetables grown using Aquaponics often grow to be healthier, stronger, and larger than their counterparts.
Less Maintenance
The system is a fairly simple one, and it requires very little attention from the gardener once it’s been set up. As long as it’s working correctly, the aquaponics system will run well for months without the gardener needing to lift a finger.
There are, of course, a few disadvantages to using this type of garden as well…
Disadvantages of Aquaponic Gardening:
Costly to Set Up
Though the running costs of an Aquaponics gardening system are fairly low, the initial cost of setting up the garden will be a bit higher. You have to invest in a tank, a filtration system, a pump, and the grow beds. It can be costly, but you’ll save money in the long run.
Technical Knowledge Required
You’ll need to know how to run the water pump, balance out the pH level in the water, plant the correct seedlings for the system, and so much more. It’s a very technical sort of garden.
Higher Chance of Failure
Should the pump or the filtration system fail, there is a very real chance that your fish and your plants can die. They require the steady supply of clean water, so a broken-down pump or water filter can cost you.
