Earth Solutions introduced its Farm in a Box systems to the Bioneers community at the Bioneers Conference in San Rafael California this past October. This was the first time Aquaponics technology was displayed at Bioneers, heralding a gardening method that is considered by many to be the future of organic farming. Listen to David Epstein, President of Earth Solutions, explain how Aquaponics merges hydroponics (growing plants in a nutrient solution rather than soil) and aquaculture (fish farming) into a superior gardening technique that increases productivity and quality, while reducing costs and waste.

Aquaponics works best when people work less

Aquaponics is an innovative production method that does not require the fertilizers, costs or labor associated with in-ground gardening. Farm in a Box Aquaponics tells this story by creating an environment in which natural ecosystems between plants, aquatic life and microbes produce delicious organic vegetables and fish.

In each of these indoor and outdoor systems:

• Fish waste from the fish tank is transported up to a plant bed (the bog) where plants are housed in rocks, rather than soil. 
  

• The fish waste is utilized as a nitrogen rich organic fertilizer for the plants.

• In return, plants and friendly bacteria (living on the rocks) reduce ammonia and other waste.
  

• Naturally cleansed water then filters back down into the tank (the bay), and the fish thrive.

• By repeating that cycle every hour or so with an automatic pump, plants flourish!

Aquaponics is the merging of aquaculture (growing plants without soil) and hydroponics (the farming of fish and/or shell fish); and because one systems waste may be another’s sustenance, putting the two together creates a permaculture relationship. Permaculture is a permanent agriculture system that relies on renewable resources, and is molded after natural ecosystems working together. Aquaponics provide sustainability because:

• When Aquaponics transports fish waste to the plant bed(s), chemical fertilizers are replaced with organic fish waste.

• The nitrogen and water of the fish tank are no longer thrown away, instead they feed the plants.

• Likewise, the friendly bacteria that naturally colonize in the rocks in the plant bed, neutralize the ammonia from the fish waste, purifying the water naturally.

• Overall combining hydroponics and aquaculture into Aquaponics conserves water, re-uses ammonia and nitrogen, and eliminates the need to chemical fertilizers.