Anybody here into self-sufficent food growing/Sustainable growing?

[Cascadia]

WoW!!!! This thread grew since I was here last! My gardens did great this summer, all but the grain corn. We have eaten many, many brown eggs from the hens, and the future looks bright there!

 

[Mr Celsius]

small scale fish farming is somthing im experimenting with this season, any experience would be greatly appriciated.

Depends on your climate. I highly suggest looking into aquaponics (aquaculture + hydroponics). Its a highly productive, sustainable means to produce food, from both the veggy and meat side in a closed system. The only input is food for the fish.

 

[fart star]

Hey Mr. C, have you much experience with aquaponics? I've done a little bit of reading, but thats it. Raising Tilapia seems like a good way to go, but I've always wondered if you could adjust what you feed the fish in order to adjust what the nutrient concentrations are in the water. The real kicker for me would be to develop an aquaponics system that fed a soil medium, instead of hydroponics. There you would get the benefit of the fish and also the microherd to provide for your plants.

 

[Mr Celsius]

Hey Mr. C, have you much experience with aquaponics? I've done a little bit of reading, but thats it. Raising Tilapia seems like a good way to go, but I've always wondered if you could adjust what you feed the fish in order to adjust what the nutrient concentrations are in the water. The real kicker for me would be to develop an aquaponics system that fed a soil medium, instead of hydroponics. There you would get the benefit of the fish and also the microherd to provide for your plants.

Tilipia are the most ideal fish IMHO because of their stock density capabilities and the rapidity that they grow at. However, they are pretty much tropical and unless you live somewhere warm, you will need to house them in a greenhouse or use some sort of tank heater (which can be expensive).

Tilipia are vegetarian, so if you feed them something like duckweed, you're going to have a fairly balanced nutrient content. Honestly, I can't say that I know how it works, but it seems that it just seems to work with whatever fish poo you're using.

Aquaponics wouldn't work without the herd to begin with. You have bacteria that convert Ammoniacal nitrogen to Nitrite and then bacteria that convert Nitrite into Nitrate (plant available). The whole purpose of the mycroherd is to convert nutrients into a form that plants to use or to reduce stress; aquaponics does both in a nontraditional manor.

 

[guest1ab]

Ah, the simple life!

 

[guest1ab]

I don't know but I thought I heard somewhere Tilapia wasn't all that great, nutritionally.

 

[Aeroguerilla]

nice to see some like minded people out there. I plan to also be 100% self sufficient. thats the goal! I got 65acres bordering Canada in nowhere land first plan of attack is get the house built, then i need to be 100% off grid panels, inverter, battery bank, backup generator... next step will be gardens clear some acres... then some cows, goats.. whole 9 yards.. its going to be a lifetime experience but hey what else are we here for? If and when the shit hits the fan i want to be alllllset

 

[Space Toker]

hell yeah how did I miss this thread for so long? I have grown a veggie garden for over 20 years now that supplies a good chunk of our veggie use, all of it in good years. I would like to grow shell beans and berries and fruits also. great thread!

 

[Mr Celsius]

I don't know but I thought I heard somewhere Tilapia wasn't all that great, nutritionally.

I couldn't possibly see why that's the case. Yes its one the most farmed fish in the world, so some quality of the fish may be shotty, but it wouldn't be if you were doing it yourself.

 

[Trichgnomes]

I'm surprised I missed this thread, pretty cool stuff going on. Also kind of surprised that no one has really mentioned winter gardening. For any of you folks that don't live in California or the PNW in general, there is a lot of good information about four season gardening in temperate climates.
Eliot Coleman wrote a lot of good books on winter gardening. http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/
Here is a quick excerpt from one of them, called Four Season Harvest: (speaking of his home, in Harborside, Maine.)

In the first place, many people assume all vegetables will be killed by freezing temperatures in winter. Yet we habitually grow some thirty different crops that survive freezing temperatures with no problem when given a little protection from the wind, which is the real outdoor plant killer in winter. Secondly, many people assume there will not be enough sunshine during the winter months. Yet we get as much sunshine as regions of the world where winter gardening is traditional. That latter fact is probably the most surprising.
http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/fourseason_harvestaperback/excerpt

 

[guest1ab]

I couldn't possibly see why that's the case. Yes its one the most farmed fish in the world, so some quality of the fish may be shotty, but it wouldn't be if you were doing it yourself.

http://www.gaiadiscovery.com/marine-life-latest/is-eating-tilapia-nutritious-or-harmful-to-health.html

This is the same thing I heard before..lower levels of Omega-3's (granted it does say farm-raised...).
On the up-side, however, lower Mercury levels!

 

[Mr Celsius]

http://www.gaiadiscovery.com/marine-life-latest/is-eating-tilapia-nutritious-or-harmful-to-health.html

This is the same thing I heard before..lower levels of Omega-3's (granted it does say farm-raised...).
On the up-side, however, lower Mercury levels!

No mercury levels at all. You have to feed your fish food with mercury in it, for them to get mercury into the meat. Again, Omega-3's are partly due to the diet of the fish.

 

[hunt4genetics]

I am so happy that I grow my own squash. The price of store sold squash is off the chain!
I long for the day when i will grow all my on veges!


peace

 

[nephilthim]

I have over 30 chickens running around my half acre the concentrations of omega 6 bad fatty acids as opposed to omega 3 which when eating eggs pultry can only be achieved by
free ranging chickens and allowing them to eat grass and bugs.I have been eating eggs smoking cannabis i am 280 my blood pressure was 120/70 last med card renewal. I recommend everyone have 3 hens at least if they have a home if you have more and regs allow it go for it!besides chciken poop is a complet fertilizer when aged for 6 months and is
pretty safe to amend soil with.

 

[PetFlora]

talapia is a low grade bottom feeding fish.

I am in the process of perfecting TRUE aeroponic grow techniques with mj, then will transfer the knowlwdge to fruits, veggies and herbs. It is quite exciting to see how fast aero pushes plant growth/yield

 

[hippie_lettuce]

I can't wait to have chickens in the backyard again. I miss "farm-fresh" eggs.

 

[Cookie monster]

I can't wait to have chickens in the backyard again. I miss "farm-fresh" eggs.

Was toying with the idea of chickens myself for eggs and meat but i'm now going for 1 chicken a few ducks and a goose, gonna be a pain in the ass trying to train the dogs not to eat them tho.

Free eggs meat and fertilizer for my veggies and best of all i'll have a few little helpers to eat the pests in the garden.

 

[dubwise]

Was toying with the idea of chickens myself for eggs and meat but i'm now going for 1 chicken a few ducks and a goose, gonna be a pain in the ass trying to train the dogs not to eat them tho.

Free eggs meat and fertilizer for my veggies and best of all i'll have a few little helpers to eat the pests in the garden.

we had some great chickens and they produced plenty of eggs for my family to eat. we had 7 chickens and sadly, one month ago, my brothers dogs killed all 7.
we will be getting more in the next few weeks. I miss my fresh eggs!

 

[Dr. Buddington]

I didn't read the entire thread but did a quick search in this thread of 'aquaponics' to see if anyone had mentioned it. Since we are talking about sustainability, I am surprised no one has mentioned aquaponics.

Looks for a book called "Recirculating Aquaculture Systems" An incredible resource for fish farming with a good part dedicated to aquaponics.

The only major problem that I see is that in order to grow say tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and other heavy feeding plants you need to up the ppm of your nutes, which means that you need to add more fish to your system, to shit more nutes. Unfortunatelly, highers populations ratios result in sicknesses and overall affect fish negatively, which IMO is inhumane first of all, and second result in fish that I wouldnt want to eat so kinda pointless to even raise them lol.
IMO aquaponics is perfect for green leafy veggies and other low feeders. I've designed an aquaponics system for my family's needs and will begin construction in spring/summer as we are setting up a new larger greenhouse which will house the said system.

 

[Ribsauce]

Rib is being quiet, but if i can remember - been a long time. Wife said if I got pigs again she'd leave - I think a 220 pound market hog gives about half of that ? in meat of various cuts. I fed a lot of bakery salvage from the Wonder Bread outlet. After it got too old to sell to humans things like stale bread, cake, about any kind of bread product went for $10 for a full sized pickup truck worth. We didn't have chickens then but I know folks used bakery salvage for them too. Friend of mine fed old bread to his cows. It is grain. If you think about it, nothing fattens you up like a few donuts.

fishheadbob your exactly right... a hog as well as (this is a generality) cows, goats, sheep and most other large meat animals should cut out at about 50% of live weight... so a family of four could live off of only one or two market hogs really well (as long as you dont get tired of pork haha).... also fishheadbob is also very correct in trying to use old grain products like bread to feed out your little critters if ya can... this shouldnt be used as the entirety of the diet but is great as a filler... i live in big dairy country and also potato chip country haha... Herr's Potato Chips also owns alotta dairy farms and they subsitute about 25 to 30% of their filler grain with potato chips... think about that one for a while haha