It Just Keeps Growing...

In the last post, about if you didn’t believe in aquaponics, I showed you how an aquaponic system can make your plants grow faster than soil agriculture. Well I think the images are self explanatory.

Anyway, today I just want to show that it keeps growing. The water is still clean and the plants are doing very well; in fact, the first small melons are starting to show up. However, I must say that you should not grow melons on a 4 inch PVC pipe. This pipe is just too small for that. Melons like to grow an awful lot of roots, so they are going to clog the pipe eventually.

Other plants like watermelon, cucumber and tomatoes can take you to the same place. So, if you have this pipe already, just use fewer plants. However, these melons keep growing and the flow has not been interrupted, so there is nothing to worry about.

As you can see, there are a lot of flowers and some insects have taken care of the pollination. It’s a shame that there are not bees around here, but that is the life in the big city.

The nice thing about melons, is that they tutor themselves. Unlike tomatoes, you don’t need to use thread or other things; they have their own. In this case, I use galvanized wire to support the plant and it will keep growing “on the air”. At first, my intention was to let them grow downwards, but my dog made me forget about that.

Well, I think it will look nicer like that. Anyway, if you are going to start your aquaponic system, better to use something else. Tomatoes and peppers are my all time favorites for starters. There is a lot of information on the net about those, so it is easier to get all you need. That doesn’t mean you should forget about the others, but I find it good to have some “sure thing” plants so you don’t think this doesn’t work because you chose a rare species of… something.

After all, aquaponics is easy.

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If You Didn't Believe

Probably you have read something about aquaponics or hydroponics and thought that it was too good to be true. Well, getting as much as ten times the produce that you can get from soil with traditional agriculture sounds a little hard to believe. This is true, but depends on what you have.

In “watery” plants, like tomatoes, melons and things like that, you can get impressive results. With some others like lettuce and spinach, you can get a double yield. In any case, you will have a greater produce with aquaponics than the one you can get with soil culture. Hydroponics can give you something like that but fish are more fun.

Anyway, today I want to show you two pictures. Both are melons and both were sowed the same day. As you can plainly see, there is a great difference between the two. Of course I’m not neglecting the soil one; I water them daily and get weeds away (another advantage of aquaponics; no weeds to deal with). The garden is fertilized with vermicompost (humus made by worms) and I think I take good care of it. The idea is to get organic produce in the comfort of my own home.


No matter how good is your soil, aquaponic plants will normally do better. I can’t guarantee you anything, but you can expect to, at least, double your results. The best part is that they will be organic results. Unless you are feeding something rare to your fish, all the process is a natural one.

If you take the proper measures in your aquaponic installation, you can even have it certified as an organic facility. I haven’t gone that far… after all, it is a DIY system; however, I do get more than I need, although is not enough to sell… I don’t have too much space here.

Anyway, as you can see, aquaponics can give you fish, double (at least) the produce and everything will be organic. You can take care of your health and get very good prices in the market.

Give it a try. Aquaponics is not rocket science and if you were willing to take care of a garden, an aquaponic system will take all the hard work out. I'm a DIY kind of guy, but you can just buy a commercial system; there are a lot of them out there. Make up your mind, start eating healthy and give a little help to your planet!

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