Water Garden Green Onions 2/24/18 TERMINATED

[serri588]

Vareity: Burpee Parade Bunching Onion

Type
Bunching

Days To Maturity
60 days

Fruit Size
2-3 inches

Sun
Full Sun

Spread
8 inches

Height
24-30 inches

Machine: Water Garden 2.0
backtotheroots.com/products/watergarden?gclid=CjwKCAiAt8TUBRAKEiwAOI9pAI4Da0q-UcxwtAaRzBlsmQ9xyXumuG3GnG0_90ZsB7qVyqk47nvMIBoCSvgQAvD_BwE

Yay for compulsive shopping?!? Branching out from hydroponics to aquaponics. The green onions were at the right spot to transplant, but the roots were still too short for the AGs, so I decided to pop them in here. This is a DWC system to the AGs, but instead of a water bowl, they sit on a fish tank. Bacteria convert the ammonia and waste from the fish into food for the plants. Since it's closer to a natural system like a lake, its supposed to be great for both the plants and the fish.

I bought two Aquaponics systems. This is the smaller (and cheaper) of the two. My biggest problem so far is that there is nothing set up to add a light for the plants. Since I'm not too concerned with the onions growing quickly, I put the tank next to a Bounty, so it can leach light from that. The kit came with "growstones" for the plant and pebbles for the fish. That and the pump was all it came with. I added the rest of the tank furniture myself when I picked up the betta. The fish gets fed through a small hole in the top, which seems like it's going to be a pain for anything other than flakes.

George, my new betta friend, is being a bit camera shy.  I have a tank light on order, and I should be able to get a better picture of the fish tank part once that comes in.

[MaryL]

Fun!  I love that you bought the “tank furniture”.  And, I’m glad you are doing this project so I can learn - I bought seeds for green onions but had no idea how to grow them or whether they’d grow in an AG and so didn’t try.  

[Shawn]

I have Burpee Bunching onions (and plenty of seeds if anyone needs them).  Never used them yet.  Will watch this.

[serri588]

This garden acts more like a grow bowl than a traditional AG, but I do have a couple of the onions in with my lettuce as well.

[drbanks]

That is just so cool!

[serri588]

The lights came in so I was able to take a better picture today. Of course, I stuck the light bar where the feeding hole is, so I have to lift the lid to feed George. I had been doing that anyway since the food was getting stuck to the sides of the tube. Annoying but doable since the top is pretty light.

[MaryL]

Cute little baby onions.  Great setup.

[serri588]

This tank is not doing as well as the other one. I think the light is too far away on this one as well, but I'm also having trouble keeping the tank clean. The system simply isn't pulling enough waste out of the tank. To make matters worse, the very soft tubing for the pump is not sealing properly, so I had to hack something together this week to get the water to the plants. This may be contributing to why the system isn't cleaning enough. If I could shut this one down I would, but the betta isn't going to work out in a community tank with guppies and dwarf gouramies.

[MaryL]

I’m not sure how this works so this might be a silly or irrelevant question, but do different plants do a “better” job of using the waste than other plants?

[serri588]

I honestly don't know, and that may be part of it. The big thing is that you have to get bacteria in the water growing. They are what takes the fish waste and transforms it into nitrogen that the plants can eat. Once you get it going, the plants will supposedly do better than traditional hydroponics. Considering how well the AG plants do, I find that a little hard to believe.

[MaryL]

Oh I see. I hadn’t realized about that necessary step/conversion.  Thank you.

[serri588]

I shut down the Water Garden. It was annoying trying to find somewhere to put the light and the pump was barely working. George is now safely in a traditional tank. I still have a couple green onions in a bounty, and that should be good enough for now.

[MaryL]

How are the green onions in the Bounty doing?  I still haven’t tried again after my first failed attempt to germinate them.

[Shawn]

Mary i have plenty of bunching onion seeds if you or anyone need any