vermicompost - Ala Growing Power

[KentUB]

I have been looking at the Growing Power web site lately as we are looking at where we are going to go from the small system we are building. I see they run water from the fish tanks, through gravel beds and use vermicompost in the grow beds and finally back to the fish tanks. The first thing that came to our minds was how do they keep the material out of the fish tanks and how good an option is using the vermicompost in a few grow beds especially for plants that prefer dryer roots?

[zact01]

hiya KentUB. now form what i have read from heare and there it is not a good idea as the vermacompost will hold too mutch water. please keep in mind i have no idea what i am talking aobut never having made a system myeslf. just reading and reading hehe. i have seen on the new invetors
(where i was intraduced to ap) where they had a rotaing nft system that passed threw verm on the way up to the nft pipes. then on the way back to the fishtank to remove any potental solids from reentering the tank. the worms were fed fish poo and castoff plants/roots form the system. the main point of the system was to have fresh fish and plants avadable to a small shop owner. aparenlty these ppl "invented" ap (hehe what a load) but it was intresting to see(sry cant remeber what epasode). i know that ppl put worms in there systems to help with digestig wormpoo and adding some nutes to the tank water. so i guess it can work. well enuf rambling form me.

thanks

zact01

[KentUB]

Actually I am thinkinig more from an integrated system point of view where only a few beds are vermicompost and use drip or spray irrigation for them. However any water left over I want to return to the system some how.

I am creating a system than is more than just gravel grow beds. There will be other methods used to suit the plants I am growing.

I see that Grow Power has HUGE vermicompost beds, however they do not give up much info unless you pay for one of their classes. I guess before too long I am going to have to arrange the time to go.

[KentUB]

Well I have my answer, what appeared and alluded to in the pictures and videos of Gowing Power to be Vermicompost beds are really what Growing Power calls NFS beds. NFS is their twist on NFT and involves rather wide (2 ft) beds with poam boards across them, with thin nutreint flow through them.

I discovered this when I found a USDA grant final report from Growing Power that detailed a small 200 gallon fish tank system. The report can be found at: http://www.datcp.state.wi.us/mktg/business/marketing/val-add/add/pdf/2003/18056.pdf

I believe now that the vericompost is only used in the hanging flower baskets and their outside grow beds.

[Heaven Net]

Vermicomposts, which are produced by the fragmentation of organic wastes by earthworms, have a fine particulate structure and contain nutrients in forms that are readily available for plant uptake. In greenhouse trials, the growth of marigold and tomato seedlings, in a commercial horticultural potting medium (Metro-Mix 360), was enhanced significantly upon substitution of Metro-Mix 360 with 10% or 20% vermicomposted pig solids or vermicomposted food wastes, when all required nutrients were supplied. Same enhancement in marigold and tomato seedlings' growth occurred also upon substitution of Metro-Mix 360 with composted biosolids, but not with leaf compost. The shoot dry weights of raspberry plants, grown in a mineral soil mixed with vermicomposted pig wastes weighed more than those grown in unfertilized control soil, and were as great as those in soil receiving a complete fertilizer treatment. By comparison, raspberry shoot growth in soils amended with yard, leaf or bark composts, was poorer than that in the unfertilized control soil. Amending the soil with 4% chicken manure compost killed most of the raspberry plants. However, plant mortality was reduced and growth restored when the chicken manure compost was mixed with vermicomposted pig solids, but not with bark or yard composts.