Aquaponic and Hydroponic Hobby Growing

[Fapington]

Hey Folks,

Long time lurker, and for years I have enjoyed the various posts here on Thaivisa, but have never contributed. Now that I am living here in Thailand, I thought I'd share a bit as well.

For whatever reason, when I hit my late twenties I developed and itch for growing vegetables. I grew up in a farming community, but never recall seeing anything but commercial crops such as sugar beats, wheat, etc...being grown. I can remember my great grandfather having a garden, and how incredible everything tasted out of the garden compared to the supermarket.

The second motivation I have for growing veggies is the fact that seemingly, there isn't any good produce to be had. Maybe those of you up North have better access to quality "farang" vegetables, but I do not. Furthermore, I have yet to see one god dam_n decent tomato.

Here in Thailand, I have no access to soil. My entire yard is paved, so I had to find another means. I began researching aqua and hydroponics, and that has led to what you see below. The beauty of these systems is that they are customizable to the space you have available, require little maintenance, can be relatively inexpensive to set up, and produce quite well.

Here are some pics of the different systems.

I am currently growing 4 varieties of tomatoes, all of them heirlooms such as Purple Cherokee, Pink Brandywine, Rosentraube.

I have TONS of different seeds, so if you want to grow something, message me, I probably have seeds for it. I am far too lazy to put them in the mail though. I am in the Pranburi (Hua Hin) area.

Ryan

Edited February 27, 2014 by Fapington

[dasboot]

Hi Fapington,really nice looking systems,I’m up here to the north of Chaing Rai,almost to the border at Measai. Can i ask you where did you get your pulley system from ? I guess you brought them to Thailand with you.

[Fapington]

Hey dasboot,

I have seen your system(s) both here, and on the Backyard Aquaponics forum. Your stuff looks good man.

The roller hooks and vine clips I order from the US. Not sure if I could find them in country. A piece of string would work just as well I think, but the vine clips are really nice for attaching your plants to the string exactly where you want them.

What variety of tomatoes are you growing up your way?

Ryan

Edited February 28, 2014 by Fapington

[rice555]

Hello All, I don't know how good the TV search works, but I posted a contact #

for one of the guys from Take Me Home/D.A.L.T/Dutch Green in CM, I got mine

from Thomas in Pak Chong who was one that helped put up ACk's greenhouses.

They were 50 satangs each.

rice555

[Fapington]

That's good info rice555, can you post the contact info and number again in this thread?

The cost is never the issue, it's always the shipping I'd be embarrassed to admit what I pay in shipping monthly when I cant find a product locally.

Ryan

[rice555]

That's good info rice555, can you post the contact info and number again in this thread?

The cost is never the issue, it's always the shipping I'd be embarrassed to admit what I pay in shipping monthly when I cant find a product locally.

Ryan

Hello Fapington, thats why I mentioned the TV search function, that was 2 computers and

OS 9.1, it's in one of the 4-5 hydro threads, that's where I would have to look if I needed

more.

You might try some of the sources on the hydro/herb threat you posted on or adds in House

Ag Magazine that on most Thai newspaper/magazine shops/stands, there are some hydro

supply places every month, will check the new issue when I pick it up today.

rice555

[David48]

Great thread... really enjoyed what you have posted thus far ...

[rice555]

Hello All, there's the mag I mentioned and they have changed it to "home" from house.

OT, but a good book is A House Is Not A Home, Polly Adler<sp>.

Here is one of the adds(www.) that show up now and then, don't know what the sell/have.

Threw in a pic from this months 20+ pages of toms and saving seed.

rice555

[dasboot]

Hey dasboot,

I have seen your system(s) both here, and on the Backyard Aquaponics forum. Your stuff looks good man.

The roller hooks and vine clips I order from the US. Not sure if I could find them in country. A piece of string would work just as well I think, but the vine clips are really nice for attaching your plants to the string exactly where you want them.

What variety of tomatoes are you growing up your way?

Ryan

Not trying to be secretive but the three varieties i have grown have been Thai Seeds given to me by the father in law,everything on the packet in Thai,could do the Photo thing if it would be of interest.

Rice555 Thanks for the lead on the Tom clips.

One more thing,how do you deal with fruit flies,at the moment I’m getting hit bad.

Edited March 4, 2014 by dasboot

[rice555]

Hello All. 2 things for the fruit fly's, 1. is homed sticky traps made from yellow(some like like blue)

plastic cardboard, comes in small pieces where ever school supplies are sold, you can also get

full sheets roughly 4'X8'. Cut a piece 3"X6", punch a hole for string to hang by and put a light film

of Vaseline/KY to catch bugs. Clean and add more KY as needed.

The same with the yellow plastic cardboard and spray with Mag-Net, it may come ups in a google

or TV search, there's a pic of the can or add, can't remember which.

Mag-Net is a spray on sticky trap, it also has a bait in the spray and is a yellowish color and I also

have seen it sprayed on small clear plastic pop bottles hung by a string.(can be weighted so they

don't blow in the wind.

Or use whats in the picture if you don't make your own, this is from HomePro Korat, not cheap.

Vine clips are a must have if you are growing more than a couple of plants, tying takes too long.

rice555

[Fapington]

Hey dasboot,

I currently have no issues with fruit flies, nor have I had issues in the past.

What I do have issues with, however, are the &lt;deleted&gt; birds.

I went out and bought a bunch of fishing net, covered everything. There was small openings on the ends, and they still flew inside, all the way to the middle of the hydro setup, and ate their hearts out. These little &lt;deleted&gt; are pissing me off. ha! They won't eat just one or two, the pick a hole in anything that has just started to turn color. I'll just have to try to seal it up as much as possible with the net, and see if that will keep them out completely.

Ryan

Hey dasboot,

I have seen your system(s) both here, and on the Backyard Aquaponics forum. Your stuff looks good man.

The roller hooks and vine clips I order from the US. Not sure if I could find them in country. A piece of string would work just as well I think, but the vine clips are really nice for attaching your plants to the string exactly where you want them.

What variety of tomatoes are you growing up your way?

Ryan

Not trying to be secretive but the three varieties i have grown have been Thai Seeds given to me by the father in law,everything on the packet in Thai,could do the Photo thing if it would be of interest.

Rice555 Thanks for the lead on the Tom clips.

One more thing,how do you deal with fruit flies,at the moment I’m getting hit bad.

[shawn11]

Hi Fapington, I have been trying to contact you on TD. I was wondering if you could tell me where you got your clear polycarbonate sheeting. The only stuff I have seen aroung the place are the small twin walled sheets at Global (600+

[dasboot]

Hi Rice555, I hung the yellow card with vaseline and caught a few straight away,anyway i was in Chaing Rai this afternoon and stumbled across a farm shop stocking some Hydro kit,they had a small hydro unit working outside[the clue],so i popped in for a look at what they had. Going down through the shelfs i found basically bug glue looked interesting,then i found the fly traps and attractant so i bought one at 99 baht and a small bottle of fly attractant its only 10ml but you only use three drops every three weeks,this was 120 baht.

I have set it up and hung it in the garden in between the Tomatoes,i kid you not i was gone for a few minutes and there was half a dozen flies in it,so maybe it works i need to trial it over a longer period but if i can save a few Tomatoes it is worth it.

By the time i finished messing about down there it was to late to photograph it, but i will in the morning and post it.

Edited March 8, 2014 by dasboot

[Fapington]

Glad you found some methods of helping you out with the flies. People say that growing is always "fun" and "challenging". Sure it is, I get that, however being unable to control an element that is destroying all your food is not "fun", it's just frustrating. ha!

Hi Rice555, I hung the yellow card with vaseline and caught a few straight away,anyway i was in Chaing Rai this afternoon and stumbled across a farm shop stocking some Hydro kit,they had a small hydro unit working outside[the clue],so i popped in for a look at what they had. Going down through the shelfs i found basically bug glue looked interesting,then i found the fly traps and attractant so i bought one at 99 baht and a small bottle of fly attractant its only 10ml but you only use three drops every three weeks,this was 120 baht.

I have set it up and hung it in the garden in between the Tomatoes,i kid you not i was gone for a few minutes and there was half a dozen flies in it,so maybe it works i need to trial it over a longer period but if i can save a few Tomatoes it is worth it.

By the time i finished messing about down there it was to late to photograph it, but i will in the morning and post it.

[dasboot]

Fapington you absolutely right,i have been a fisherman and a fish keeper since i was ten,but have never had the inclination to grow anything until now,so the fish bit I’m happy with, the growing I’m still learning, but how frustrating to have some good looking plants growing were you think you have everything close to right,feeding supplements etc,then only to have the bugs turn up and give you another headache. Still if you reach a solution to most of these hiccups its bound to pay dividends in the end.

Can i ask ? what do you do for your supplements,iron.potassium etc.

[dasboot]

The trap with detaines,what i want now is the laugh from the pantomime villain,

[Fapington]

Dasboot,

I have been experimenting with different supplements to keep micro nutrients in my aquaponics. If anything shows hints of low iron, I add it directly in powdered chelated form.

For the other traces elements, I have a gallon of maxi-crop that I ordered long ago, and I put in a little if I think it needs it. When that is gone, the new alternative will be a locally sourced liquid fertilizer which is comprised of entirely trace elements. No nitrogen, just trace elements. I added some before, and it didn't seem to bother the fish at all. So that will be my go to solution. I can take a photo for you, and tell u exactly what is in it and in what amounts if interested, just let me know.

Ryan

Fapington you absolutely right,i have been a fisherman and a fish keeper since i was ten,but have never had the inclination to grow anything until now,so the fish bit I’m happy with, the growing I’m still learning, but how frustrating to have some good looking plants growing were you think you have everything close to right,feeding supplements etc,then only to have the bugs turn up and give you another headache. Still if you reach a solution to most of these hiccups its bound to pay dividends in the end.

Can i ask ? what do you do for your supplements,iron.potassium etc.

[dasboot]

Yes please Ryan, i gather all information concerning products and techniques people utilise it comes in handy,your iron which chelate do you use? i tried EDDHA but gave up because of the stupid red colour,didn’t see the fish for a couple of months. The product i would like to get my hands on is FE DTPA,my PH is 7 which is on the top end for this but it would be my first choice if i could find it.

[Fapington]

I'm currently using 3 things:

Chelated Iron, I order it online. That bottle has lasted me 3 years. A little goes a long way. As far as I am concerned, Iron is a necessity, as you will run into Iron deficiencies, and this is a must.

Maxicrop, with Iron. Not a necessity, but I also use it in my compost tea and things like that. I will not order more, once it's gone.

The pink box/bottle I got locally. It's all in Thai with the exception of the contents on the bottle, which gives the percentage of each micro-nutrient. I have put this in my system, and no negative affects. This will be my go to micro solution. I don't remember the cost, but it wasn't much. The recommended dosage is 10CC to 20L of water. It came with a cap to measure our CC.

[Fapington]

I'm currently using 3 things:

Chelated Iron, I order it online. That bottle has lasted me 3 years. A little goes a long way. As far as I am concerned, Iron is a necessity, as you will run into Iron deficiencies, and this is a must. (I know you know this dasboot, just putting up general info)

Maxicrop, with Iron. Not a necessity, but I also use it in my compost tea and things like that. I will not order more, once it's gone.

The pink box/bottle I got locally. It's all in Thai with the exception of the contents on the bottle, which gives the percentage of each micro-nutrient. I have put this in my system, and no negative affects were present. This will be my go to micro nutrient solution. I don't remember the cost, but it wasn't much. The recommended dosage is 10CC to 20L of water. It came with a cap to measure our CC. In my AP system, I am running around 3000L of water. I added 10CC per 20L and still have well over half a bottle left. It too, will go a long way, as I cannot imagine adding this more than 4 times a year (4 times maximum, probably more like 3, but that's just me. I don't have any science to back this up).

Edited March 9, 2014 by Fapington

[dasboot]

Busted,but every piece of information is useful. I wish the liquid seaweed was available here in Chaing Rai,i have searched to no avail there is an equivalent here called Florigen,its either maxi crop or seasol, but i have never been able to source it.

The Calcium Plus i use as well,now this product is a Foliar Feed supplement, it won’t make any difference added to the system but the mixing ratio is to low,i spray using there instructions occasionally adding 20ml of EM1A and a surfactant in the form of Castille soap one drop per gallon.I pour the gallon let it stand overnight,adjust the PH to 6.5 then add the soap,i then put the 2ml of Calcium in the bottle then add the water,spraying happens just as it goes dark.

With the last crop of Tomatoes i suffered Phosphate and Calcium deffiency,the Calcium i add as above the Phosphate I’m trailing spraying with Monopotassium Phosphate MPK,early days but with my PH stuck on 7 this seemed the route to take.Foliar Spraying means i don’t have to worry what my Ph is and i know I’m getting the supplements to the plants that are required,when or if my PH drops i will use the tried and tested route of dosing with Potassium Hydroxide and Calcium Hydroxide.

For my iron,there is a very small percentage in the Calcium Plus the rest i add one half a teaspoon of FE EDDHA per gallon,its a very strange red colour but seems to work,time will tell as i have my media beds planted with nutrient hungry plants and will soon have to largish DWCs running.

Hope you don’t mind me rambling on

My apologies i just went back and read the label IT is not the same product,it has the same name but different ingredients,i feel yours is superior for my use than the one I’m using,will search through the shops again.

Edited March 9, 2014 by dasboot

[Fapington]

To be honest, (I am about to say something sacrilegious here), I'm not sure we'll ever see aquaponics being used to grow fruiting vegetables (such as tomatoes) on a commercial scale.

I'm doing a lot of testing between hydro and aquaponics at the moment, with same varieties planted at the same time. We'll see how it goes. I can tell you that my hydroponic tomatoes reached a flowering and fruit setting stage much faster, but although they are behind, the aquaponics is also setting fruit. I'll measure yields from both, and we'll see. I am monetarily far more heavily invested in the aquaponics that the hydroponics, but so far the hydroponics is looking like its going to be incredibly difficult to "out grow", at least in terms of heavy feeders like tomatoes.

I really hate mixing up nutrients though. It takes 5 minutes, I'm just tired of doing it. I'm also tired of filling up the reservoir every day, because my tomatoes are going through 40 liters of water a day (they drink that much). So in that regard, I really like just tossing in some fish food, and calling it a day. ha!

Always pros and cons.

There, I matched your ramble eye for an eye. ha!

[Fapington]

To be honest, (I am about to say something sacrilegious here), I'm not sure we'll ever see aquaponics being used to grow fruiting vegetables (such as tomatoes) on a commercial scale.

I'm doing a lot of testing between hydro and aquaponics at the moment, with same varieties planted at the same time. We'll see how it goes. I can tell you that my hydroponic tomatoes reached a flowering and fruit setting stage much faster, but although they are behind, the aquaponics is also setting fruit. I'll measure yields from both, and we'll see. I am monetarily far more heavily invested in the aquaponics that the hydroponics, but so far the hydroponics is looking like its going to be incredibly difficult to "out grow", at least in terms of heavy feeders like tomatoes.

I really hate mixing up nutrients though. It takes 5 minutes, I'm just tired of doing it. I'm also tired of filling up the reservoir every day, because my tomatoes are going through 40 liters of water a day (they drink that much). So in that regard, I really like just tossing in some fish food, and calling it a day. ha!

Always pros and cons.

There, I matched your ramble eye for an eye. ha!

[dasboot]

You say that but how about Chattersons farm on BYAP,mind you he does have a lab set up to monitor nutrients,but if you look at his results pretty spectacular. This time i have 15 Toms in most of them Cherry there easier to sell here,10 chillies and 8 egg plants plus various others,the DWCs have 200 holes, so we will see how it goes. My honest opinion Hydro would be easier and out strip it AND cheaper.

But i get enjoyment from the Fish and the role there playing in everything green in my garden.

[WatUp]

Hey guys,

I'm just now building my system and am getting some hard to find products from Robert at aquaponics Thailand. He has seasol and dtpa iron from basf which the spec sheets say is good from ph 6-8. My system is not built yet so can't say how is working but he does have stuff available and I don't feel his mark up is unreasonable at all.

[Fapington]

You say that but how about Chattersons farm on BYAP,mind you he does have a lab set up to monitor nutrients,but if you look at his results pretty spectacular. This time i have 15 Toms in most of them Cherry there easier to sell here,10 chillies and 8 egg plants plus various others,the DWCs have 200 holes, so we will see how it goes. My honest opinion Hydro would be easier and out strip it AND cheaper.

But i get enjoyment from the Fish and the role there playing in everything green in my garden.

I love the fish too, and as I had mentioned, I really like not having to mix up hydro nutrients. &lt;deleted&gt; I'm lazy. lol

Have you established a decent customer base dasboot? Glad to hear you are moving some produce.

[dasboot]

I can sell everything I grow within reason,problem is the price,at the price I get at the moment it helps towards the electric and fish food to run it that's all,but we are hoping when we get the second dwc running plus seedling stage the plan is to visit the Hotels and Resorts to see if we can do better. Our inspiration comes fro a hydro guy locally that is getting 100 baht a kilo for green and red oak lettuce that is reasonable money for lettuce,the other day hydro green oak lettuce in Tescos was fetching 33 baht each and people were buying it,so the market is there.

With the Tomatoes,,as you know Thai toms are tasteless so my feeling is come up with the right varieties with taste and again with marketing they should sell,we are lucky enough to live rural but on the main route for Doi Mea Sa long so plenty of passing tourist and quite a few hotels and resorts. I feel it a case of going out with the good lady and find the customers for ourselves. If it doesn't work it won't be the end of the world but if it does it could be interesting.

I have decided the fish side of this is not going to be a sellable item,we will continue to eat the as they get big enough,but Iam seriously considering going over to Carp and Koi,they are basically pigs with fins,I recently added a few and my feeding has gone uo,interestingly not enough to give me a nitrate reading,maybe I will go on adding until the day I get a reading and see what improvements it gives.

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[Fapington]

I hear you brother.

I am paying 1b/fingerling for pla duk (cat fish) and something like 2/baht per fingerling for tilapia. I'm not crazy about eating fish, so I just let them all grow lol and will replace as necessary.

I can sell everything I grow within reason,problem is the price,at the price I get at the moment it helps towards the electric and fish food to run it that's all,but we are hoping when we get the second dwc running plus seedling stage the plan is to visit the Hotels and Resorts to see if we can do better. Our inspiration comes fro a hydro guy locally that is getting 100 baht a kilo for green and red oak lettuce that is reasonable money for lettuce,the other day hydro green oak lettuce in Tescos was fetching 33 baht each and people were buying it,so the market is there.
With the Tomatoes,,as you know Thai toms are tasteless so my feeling is come up with the right varieties with taste and again with marketing they should sell,we are lucky enough to live rural but on the main route for Doi Mea Sa long so plenty of passing tourist and quite a few hotels and resorts. I feel it a case of going out with the good lady and find the customers for ourselves. If it doesn't work it won't be the end of the world but if it does it could be interesting.

I have decided the fish side of this is not going to be a sellable item,we will continue to eat the as they get big enough,but Iam seriously considering going over to Carp and Koi,they are basically pigs with fins,I recently added a few and my feeding has gone uo,interestingly not enough to give me a nitrate reading,maybe I will go on adding until the day I get a reading and see what improvements it gives.


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Edited March 11, 2014 by Fapington

[cdmtdm]

dasboot , why not sell the fish ? whats the problem ?

[dasboot]

Aquaponic systems ideally need to run with near maximum stocking to achieve the feed to growbed ratio otherwise growth suffers and the chance of nutrient defficiencies. An example,I added a Swirl Filter that proved to be effective at removing solids,these were remineralised and the water added back into the system,but my remin tank was a large bucket with an air stone in it, the swirl would be discharged into this and the air stone added,48 hrs air stone out let it settle decant the clean water and start again.

This seemed to work but there was a noticeable slow down in growth,with the solids not being remineralised in the beds I was loosing out on nutrients,the swirl has now been removed and now a smaller version is just running for the DWCs,growth has picked up again. The same effect would be seen if I harvested the larger fish in one hit,say the big Tank had 20 500gr fish these were harvested and replaced with fingerlings my nutrient supply would take a hit and growth would suffer. With Koi the harvest rate is slower making it easier to manage.

Another point is I am surrounded by very efficient fish farms,the price they are selling at makes it difficult to make money,my system has been set up more on the Hydoponic side rather than the Aquaculture side I need the fish to provide my nutrients..

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