Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together Author: Sylvia Bernstein | Language: English | ISBN:
B0065RIJ3W | Format: EPUB
Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together Description
Aquaponics is a revolutionary system for growing plants by fertilizing them with the waste water from fish in a sustainable closed system. A combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, aquaponic gardening is an amazingly productive way to grow organic vegetables, greens, herbs, and fruits, while providing the added benefits of fresh fish as a safe, healthy source of protein. On a larger scale, it is a key solution to mitigating food insecurity, climate change, groundwater pollution, and the impacts of overfishing on our oceans.Aquaponic Gardening is the definitive do-it-yourself home manual, focused on giving you all the tools you need to create your own aquaponic system and enjoy healthy, safe, fresh, and delicious food all year round. Starting with an overview of the theory, benefits, and potential of aquaponics, the book goes on to explain:System location considerations and hardware componentsThe living elementsfish, plants, bacteria, and wormsPutting it all togetherstarting and maintaining a healthy systemAquaponics systems are completely organic. They are four to six times more productive and use ninety percent less water than conventional gardens. Other advantages include no weeds, fewer pests, and no watering, fertilizing, bending, digging, or heavy liftingin fact, there really is no downside! Anyone interested in taking the next step towards self-sufficiency will be fascinated by this practical, accessible, and well-illustrated guide.Sylvia Bernstein is the president and founder of The Aquaponic Source. An internationally recognized expert on aquaponic gardening, Sylvia speaks, writes, and blogs extensively about this revolutionary technique.
- File Size: 2940 KB
- Print Length: 288 pages
- Publisher: New Society Publishers; Original edition (October 11, 2011)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B0065RIJ3W
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,368 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Agricultural Sciences > Aquaculture - #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Nature & Ecology > Natural Resources > Fisheries & Aquaculture - #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Biological Sciences > Biology > Marine Biology
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Agricultural Sciences > Aquaculture - #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Nature & Ecology > Natural Resources > Fisheries & Aquaculture - #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Biological Sciences > Biology > Marine Biology
I just finished this amazing book. I already knew a good deal about aquaponics - at least I thought I did - when I decided I had to read this book to see what the buzz was all about. What a great decision and what a great read. Here's why.
My first impression when I opened up the box I received from Amazon was this is a beautiful cover. I also noticed from the logo on the cover, that the book is a Mother Earth News book selection. Then I flipped it over and immediately spotted that two experts with whom I am personally aware, loved and endorsed the book. This caused me to immediately flip to the Table of Contents.
I found that the list of topics with lots of promised detail was all that I was hoping for. Because the Table of Contents is not visible from within Amazon (publisher and author, I suggest you fix this), I provide some detail here. The book is organized into five main Sections each with two or more chapters (there are 15 chapters in all) plus seven appendices intended as reference resources and a full index.
Section One introduces Aquaponics and puts it into perspective not only relative to other growing methods, but also with regard to the ever increasing issues and challenges that our global population is encountering with food supplies, food safety, food cost, and the impact of agriculture on the planet. This section closes with several pages on the idea of producing food right at your home. Some may think they want to skip the introduction. I think doing so would be a lost opportunity to see just how important aquaponics may prove to be to all of us in the years to come.
Section Two is called The Plan. Ultimately, this book is about how you can become an aquaponics gardener at home.
There is nothing here that an hour with Google can't replace. Her "science" is lacking at best, and completely false everywhere else. Core issues of the process are given a very biased and cursory treatment. There is however a good bit of time spent trying to lay not so subtle support for her $1,300 packaged "system" (two tubs and a pump on a T.V. stand).
"The covers of this book are too far apart."
- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
A quick example of the author's depth of wisdom:
Her comparisons of artificial lighting choices refer to lumens, which are a unit of measure that is relative to what the human eye can register. Were aquaponics a system for growing or impairing human eyes I suppose this might be useful. Plants "see" light differently. They use different parts of the spectrum for different things, and this is pretty much completely ignored.
She continually refers to the process of water draining and being replaced by new solution provided by a pump, as a process that sucks oxygen into the media. Physics and fluid dynamics be damned.
Her contention that magnetic drive pond-type pumps are the obviously superior choice just adds to her credentials as a bloviator of the first order. The multitude of reliable circulating pumps available that are more efficient, longer lasting, more reliable, etc. is but one more example of just how limited her knowledge and/or research on the subject is.
On one hand she champions "earth friendly" practices, while forgiving her own system's and suggested practices that don't even begin to fill the bill. Me thinks her an opportunistic fraud.
Her suggestion that her methods will result in a system that never needs cleaning is complete idiocy.
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