Lights Camera Basil!

The Aquaponic Garden with Grow Lights (20,000 Lumens)

The lights have arrived!

Ive got the system set up now so the lights are on a timer, and the pump plugs into the light, so it will come on when the lights come on.

The water is crazy clear right now. Its so fun to watch the fish darting around! Plants move and grow too, but theyre not as exciting to watch. Ill be interested to see how much they grow with the lights!

The only two herbs they had at the grocery store were basil and mint. I bought a basil and transplanted four of the plantlings into my growbed. The rest will go up to the kitchen for now.

I didnt buy the mint, because mint is crazy. I might set up a "windowfarm" next to the aquaponics units and risk mint in those. Mint is very aggressive and develops roots like theres no tomorrow.

I think if the world were struck by some disaster that wiped out almost all plant life, mint would be amongst the plants that survived. However, no need to give mint a place in my garden.

In other news, I havent heard from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Theyre the folks who need to inspect my setup prior to me getting a license and purchasing tilapia.

Im tentatively planning to go with 25 male fingerlings from TilapiaFingerlings.com. That way I shouldnt have to start off dealing with the issues of breeding females, fingers crossed! 25 male fingerings will run me $102, which includes shipping.

My approximate costs to date have been:

$150 for tank and grow bed
$141 for the grow lights
$12 for gravel
$30 for the air pump
$45 for the water pump
$20 for the plumbing
$80 for the shelving unit
$15 for incidentals (e.g., metal tape, 2x4 sheets of thin luaun plywood)
$30 for vermiculite, seeds, and plants
$22 for licenses
$30 for water testing kit

So my total outlay has been $575. Add fish ($102) and food ($20) and were just under $700. With care, you might be able to knock the price down even lower than that.

If you didnt have a drill, bits (1/4", 1/2", & 1"), a door knob hole saw, and a saw, youd have to purchase (or borrow) these. Ive got a timer and am decorating to hide the industrial black plastic, but those arent necessary expenses.

Color me happy!

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A plethora of AP Plans

A plethora of AP Plans are around and probably I would fill this blog for the next 12 months with sites and blogs showing and describing them. I guess that would be boring after a while so Garth and I will just try to list a mix of everything so that we dont get bogged down in one or more areas. So lets get on with it.....

 Here is part of a site where the question was asked
what is an easy way to creat a aquaponics system? | The Twiggers
and it deals with a couple of important issues.

Time lapse of the construction of Michael Shames’ new aquaponics system in his garage
http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://myefficientplanet.com/78571/the-aquaponics-challenge-with-michael-shames-in-less-than-3-minutes/&ct=ga&cad=7:2:0&cd=2fImf6AOUfc&usg=AFQjCNHyZG3ucrseO1d4cZAjVeZyA_V3Zg



Hydroponic Aquaponic Indoor Grow System | Strain Guide
  Patti Moreno, the Garden Girls and her indoor growing system. Very simple...

Would an Alligator wrestler be interested in AP? You better believe it....
A guy called Alligator Joe demonstrates ...

Thats about it for now. See you soon...
Ozzy

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Genetic Modification of Organisms

Today my son-in-law suggested I watch the film The Future of Food online with him.

The film clearly has the worldview that corporations have taken immoral measures to consolidate power and reap profit via biotechnology. The film makes no attempt to find any virtuous motive for the technological tinkering corporations have been conducting with biological organisms. For this post Ill ignore the legal and market implications, and focus on the biological implications of genetic modifications.

To create a genetic modification, they invade the original DNA with foreign genes. This part I actually dont mind.

Often the invasion is done by linking the gene with a viral delivery system. This I mind.

To mark the fact that the gene splice has worked, they include an anti-bacterial marker. This I mind.

And for an un-known motive, they are now including a termination function, rendering future seeds infertile. This I wouldnt mind *if* biology was controllable.

The result engineered plants that:

1. Aggressively crowd out natural plants,


2. Arguably reduce consumer resistance to antibiotics, and


3. Produce sterile seeds, so future seeds must be bought from the corporations.

Resistance to Anti-biotics. Beginning with Louis Pasteur, mankind was able to curb infection with antibiotics. Over time, however, bacteria evolve, so that some strains are no longer harmed by antibiotics that killed earlier generations of bacteria.

Future infections will eventually have full power to kill again, as the vast majority of bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. Broadcasting antibacteria-imbued matter like so much seed corn across millions of acres cant have a zero impact on creating that resistance.

Viral invasion of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). Biology is messy. The film shows multiple cases where GMO crops have shown up in fields where they were never intentionally sown. A discussion of genetically modified salmon projected the modified salmon could crowd out all the native salmon in a matter of 40 generations.

The very modification was inserted by linking it to a viral component. The viral component in something good at invading cells, like E. Coli. GMOs are intended to thrive, to be stronger, better, more aggresive than the native parent organism.

Over time one could imagine the GMO variant replacing the native parent crop, as well as the native variants of the crop, leaving a monoculture. This biological Ponzi scheme eventually defrauds humanity of the biological diversity that protects us the way a diversified financial portfolio protects and investor from failure of any one monetary asset.

The Irish potato famine happened because blight killed the near-monoculture potato crop. A million lives were lost.

But its OK if we design GMOs to self destruct, right? Recently an additional bit of genetic stuff gets added when organisms are modified. After the GMO seed has grown, produced, and died, the seeds of the GMO are sterile.

This works just fine for the corporations selling GMO. That way customers always have to come back to buy, year after year.

If this self-terminating gene remains in the GMO and doesnt contaminate other organisms, were good. In fact, this could be a great way to eliminate all GMO from world food production. Stop allowing sale of GMO, and the seeds from existing GMO will fail to reproduce.

But what if the self-terminating gene cross-pollinates into native stock. What if, after years and decades and centurys, weve created a world where the plants and animals we eat cannot reproduce without the technological interference of man?

Evils and Designs of Conspiring Men. I now understand why members of the European Union and other nations adamantly oppose allowing GMOs into their food supplies.

I understand afresh the concern about buying non-organic food.

And I read with new eyes a warning we Mormons believe God gave over 150 years ago [D&C 89: 4, 10-11]:

In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you...

God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof...

Those who first heard this could hardly have imagined a world where produce travels on average 1500 miles from farm to plate, where less than 3% of the population is involved in farming, where people consume food without thought for what season or continent is actually appropriate for that food.

Every time we purchase food, were voting with our wallets. Those planes and trains and combines are forcing world food supplies to do un-natural things because of how we choose.

Let us choose wisely. Else a just God will lay blame for the consequences at our feet.

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Yum Basil Chicken Salad

How to Chiffonade, from Dreamy Dish

The point of growing food in a garden is to eat it.

Tonight we had a wonderful chicken salad, with fresh basil and beet leaves from the garden. Im lucky enough to have a former chef for a son-in-law, so he was able to just throw everything together. But heres an approximation of the recipe (so I can replicate this myself sometime in the future, if for no other reason!):

1-2 boneless chicken breast(s)
chicken broth
1-2 Granny Smith apple(s)
2 stalks of celery
1/2 cup basil leaves
2-4 beet leaves with red stalks
1 cup mayonnaise
1-2 cloves crushed/diced garlic
1 tsp mustard
salt & pepper to taste
handful of raisins and pine nuts (optional)

Cook the chicken in the broth.
While the chicken is cooking, dice the apple and celery.
Chiffonade the basil and beet leaves.
Remove the cooked chicken from the broth and set the broth aside to use in some future meal.
Cube the chicken.
Mix the apples, celery, chicken, basil, beets, and garlic. Add the raisins and pine nuts if youre using them.
Add the mayonnaise and mustard, and mix well.
Salt and pepper to taste.

I liked it between soft slices of whole grain bread.

And on a slice of mozzarella.

And on toast...

Yum!

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The Clock She is a Ticking

And in many quarters the debate is warming up. Is Christmas on the ropes and struggling to stay on its feet. I guess another way of putting it could be, has commercialism squeezed the life out of the concept. I think we might be reaching a period in history where we really could see Christmas slide toward a black hole unless the meaning is reinstated to where it was 30 to 40 years ago.

Weve only a few days to go and I have never felt so un-Christmassy. Maybe its just me, maybe its old father time letting me know Im not a kid any more.

Maybe.....

Maybe I should get to work because there are so many things happening that need reporting.......

Like Murray Hallum, Bless him, he has sent another email. This time about:

DIY Strawberry Tower

One of the fun plants to grow in Aquaponics is strawberries. We all know how great they taste especially if picked fresh and juicy from your own system. They grow very well in conventional gravel grow beds provided your system is reasonably free of....

                                                    ...oooOooo...

Affnans Aquaponics The Beginning
CBC A research team at Vancouver Island Universitys School of Fisheries and Aquaculture has developed an innovative aquaponic system where fish are  ...


                                                    ...oooOooo...
 Friendly Aquaponics, Free Farm Tour every Saturday (Hamakua)Every Saturday at 10am we give a free, in-depth tour of our farm. Tours last between one and two hours, and there is some slightly steep terrain, so come with good walking shoes. Also, make sure  

                                                    ...oooOooo...

From "Slywoman" a timely article on what to expect when buying Tilapia (anywhere where they are allowed to be kept or sold) MORE....

                                                    ...oooOooo...

 Here is where we all get answers...The Forums...The best learning tool on the Net...
Hello my name is Nick and I live in Dayton Ohio I currently have a small aquaponic set up.....

                                                    ...oooOooo...

 Just a word about Sylvias Blog, If you havent subscribed to it. You could get yourself a Christmas present and doing yourself a big favour. Heres her latest Blog entry...

                                                    ...oooOooo...

 The Urban Farming Mindset
“By growing fresh food within just a few miles of where it will be eaten, we will have healthier, better tasting produce and make our cities cleaner and more self-sufficient,” says Yohay.

                                                    ...oooOooo...

 Moraine Park Focusses on...
Plans for spring include growing mushrooms and adding fish, like tilapia, in an aquaponics system that involves the simultaneous cultivation of plants. ...

                                                    ...oooOooo...

 Next up, we have a guy asking a forum (where you go to get help and we/the other people dont know you or your knowledge) for HELP and then he, Well you can read it for yourself...

                                                    ...oooOooo... 

In November, 2009 Sylvia Bernstein started The Aquaponic Source with her husband Alan and set out on a mission to become the trusted resource for everything the home aquaponics gardener needs. Part of this vision included...

                                                    ...oooOooo...

On Sunday October 10, 2010 in the city of Milwaukee, two giants met in an historic occasion that just may change the world. The two were the 6 foot 7 inch Will Allen, the founder and CEO of Growing Power, Inc. and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. They met at the headquarters of Growing Power, a three acre urban farm within the city limits of Milwaukee.

                                                    ...oooOooo... 

O.K. Two more issues to go, Wednesday and Friday, and Im off for a week. Ill be back on the Monday after New Years. But for now, Keep up with your chores.Watch your pH and Amonia levels and Ill see you real soon....

Be Good To Each Other  - and To Yourself
All the best
OZZIE

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