Aquaponics: Sustainable Indoor Growing Systems

Sustainable Indoor Growing Systems

Article by M Wilson

Growing plants indoors has many advantages over traditional outdoor gardening. Indoors you have control of the environment and can create the ideal conditions for plant growth. With sustainable indoor growing systems you can produce food and other plants year round.

With indoor growing systems, it takes much less energy to grow plants than with traditional farming. When farming outdoors in the soil, massive amounts of energy are used to till the soil, transport and add fertilizers and pesticides. Not to mention the natural habitat that is lost on some of the most fertile land. Even with organic farming, sometimes even more energy is used to till in cover crops and other forms of organic matter.

With indoor growing systems, you can bypass the use of soil all together. Hydroponics and aeroponics have become popular systems for growing indoors, but these systems typically rely heavily on chemical fertilizers and can use a lot of water.

Aquaponics is a system that is just now starting to catch on and may be one of the most sustainable indoor growing systems available. Aquaponics can use as little as 2% of the water that traditional farming uses, and is all organic. Aquaponics has the advantages of hydroponics but without the disadvantages.

Aquaponics combines the advantages of hydroponics, with the advantages of aquaculture (growing fish). And the major disadvantages of both systems cancel each other out when you combine the two. This is one of those instances where two unlikely pairs come together and make a perfect match.

With aquaculture, one of the big problems is disposing of the water full of fish wastes and supplying the fresh water to replace it. With hydroponics, a big problem is supplying plants with a constant supply of nutrients. Since fish wastes are loaded with plant nutrients, and plant roots are excellent at filtering water, it only makes sense to combine the two.

In an aquaponics system, water from the fish tank is circulated into the grow bed, where the cheap ampicillin plants absorb the nutrients from the water. The cleaned water is then returned back to the fish tank to provide a clean healthy environment for the fish. Since no mechanicals filters are needed, growing fish this way is even easer than a typical home aquarium. And since the fish take care of watering and fertilizing the plants, it is much easier to grow plants this way. Plus there is no need to work with soil, pull weeds or any of the chores associated with growing plants in the ground.

Aquaponics systems can grow several times the amount of plants per square foot than you could in soil, and in less time. Since plenty of water and nutrients are delivered directly to the roots, plants can produce spectacular results. Plus the system will produce fresh organic fish. If you eat or sell the fish, it can more than cover the cost of fish food. And if you want to be really sustainable, you can grow the fish food yourself.

Aquaponics may be the most sustainable indoor growing systems available. And it is a relatively new method that is just developing, so there may be even greater future for it as it develops. It is very scalable, so you can start small and build on as you go.

You can start with a simple low cost system with the step by step instructions in this aquaponics guide. Learn everything you will need to know to start growing plants with a sustainable indoor growing system.

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You can get started with an aquaponics indoor growing system with this aquaponics guide.