Trouble reading today's article? Click
here: Issue #193 - Sunday, January 3, 2016 Dear Fellow
Grower, In today's issue... - Learn how you can grow cannabis and fish together in aquaponics, but
there are 3 major obstacles you will need to overcome!
- Read our updated and renewed list of seed banks for 2016!
- Take a look at this week's amazing trophy pics showing how a few baby plants turned into adults!!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside (founders of GrowWeedEasy.com) "You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water."
~Rabindranath Tagore
Aquaponics & Cannabis: 3 Major Obstacles by Nebula Haze |
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Introduction: What is Aquaponics?
In order to get
high yields with aquaponics, a cannabis grower needs to familiarize themselves with the basics of how an aquaponic system works.
To grow cannabis successfully in aquaponics, the system must be configured to produce the high levels of nutrients needed by a plant like marijuana, and that takes a little extra
know-how! Aquaponics is the art of combining aquaculture (growing fish in tanks) with hydroponics (growing plants in water). It's sort of like organic hydroponics!
In an aquaponic growing system, fish are raised in a tank and the nutrients they produce (contained in their poop and produced by their gills) gets converted by bacteria into nutrients for the plants. The plant roots help clean the water before it is re-circulated back to the fish tank, completing the cycle.
Aquaponics creates a tiny ecosystem
- fish make nutrients for cannabis while cannabis cleans the water for the fish!
Although fish are the most common species used for aquaponics, other aquatic creatures like shrimp, crayfish or prawns can also be used. Both edible fish and ornamental fish can be used successfully in an aquaponic system. Generally you want to pick a species that is hardy and can tolerate crowding. Tilapia is an
edible fish that adapt very well to aquaponics, and koi or goldfish are great choices for ornamental fish since they are nice to look at and can thrive in sub-optimal environments.
Aquaponics may be the most efficient way there is to cultivate both fish and plants at the same time because combining them together reduces the cost of farming each one individually! In big commercial operations, aquaponics is
used to produce profitable combinations like tilapia fish and lettuce. In smaller setups, aquaponics is a sustainable, low-technology and efficient way to create food even with infertile land and low resources - aquaponics dramatically reduces the amount of water needed for raising fish, while producing high-nutrient plants at the same time!
You feed the fish, they feed the cannabis!
When it comes to growing cannabis in aquaponics, one of the big goals is to set up a system that produces high levels of available nutrients. Growing cannabis plants gobble up nutrients, especially in the flowering stage, so you need to ramp up an aquaponics system to optimize it for high nutrient output! That means that you need to make sure you have a high density of fish,
as well as a really great bacterial colony to convert all that fish poop into nutrients for your plants!
Life Cycle Inside a Cannabis Aquaponics System Fish
The Rearing Tank / Aquarium is where the fish or
other aquatic creatures live. These creatures produce waste containing nutrients that are vital for plant growth. Common fish used in aquaponics include tilapia, koi and goldfish, but there are many other hardy species that can adapt to an aquaponic environment including blue gill and catfish.
Plants
Your system will have a Hydroponic Sub-System, which is basically the tank or reservoir where cannabis plants grow with their roots in the water. In many ways, you grow your cannabis plants in aquaponics just like you would with a traditional DWC/hydro
setup. The main difference is the fish produce nutrients instead of you having to add them! Bacteria
Bacteria make up your Biofilter, the "heart" of your aquaponics system. The bacteria biofilter is the missing piece that allows you to run a
symbiotic relationship between the fish and the plants like in nature. When you create a nice home for the bacteria, they work hard to convert fish poop into usable nutrients for the plants. The biofilter can be its own separate component in the system, or you can cultivate a biofilm of bacteria inside the actual fish tanks and hydroponic reservoirs. Without a colony of bacteria, your plants will be unable to use the nutrients in the water from the fish (and fish will die from too-high levels of
ammonia)!
The Secret to Success with Marijuana & Aquaponics is Patience The secret to any successful aquaponics system is patience! You need to create a balance between the fish, bacteria and plants, and this takes time. Unfortunately, there's not necessarily a lot of
ways to speed things up while your bacteria is being colonized.
It's like growing a cannabis plant in a way, you can do things to get the plant to grow faster, but no matter what you're still going to have to wait for the plant to grow until you get to harvest. You can help your bacteria grow, but they need time to build up their numbers and form a robust colony.
That means in a young/new aquaponics tank you have to spend time cultivating your bacteria, and in the meantime you may have a lot of adjusting to do to maintain a balance that will keep both plants and fish alive: adding nutrients, changing the water, testing nutrient levels, managing pH and possibly adding/removing fish.
But as you create
more of a balance, and your tank becomes more mature, you will have a lot less to do. In fact, over time you can set the system to do most of the maintenance by itself!
3 Major Obstacles to Growing Cannabis in Aquaponics
1.) Cannabis Has High Nutrient Needs
Growing cannabis in aquaponics is similar to hydroponics,
except fish and bacteria make the food! Your plants can't use nutrients directly from the fish. Fish poop actually has to be converted to a usable form by the bacteria in your biofilter. Building a robust colony of bacteria for your biofilter can take 6 months or more, which means that additional nutrient supplementation by natural sources will likely be needed to grow a cannabis plant in aquaponics for the first few months.
The appetite of a cannabis plant for nutrients is especially voracious during the budding/flowering stage. When your plant is making buds, it's sucking up nutrients like there's no tomorrow! Fruiting plants with similarly high nutrient needs to cannabis (like tomatoes) have been successfully grown in aquaponics, but it's much less common than growing something with simple and low nutrient needs like lettuce or herbs.
While "getting your feet wet" with aquaponics, don't beat yourself up if you run into nutrient problems!
2.) May Need Separate Vegetative & Flowering Chambers
Vegetative and flowering cannabis have different nutrient needs for the best growth. So in order to completely optimize an aquaponic system for cannabis
it may be necessary to maintain different tanks.
It may be possible to simply supplement your tank with extra nutrients during the flowering stage, but it can be harmful to fish to add an excessive amount of extra nutrients unless the plants use most of it up before the water is re-circulated back to the rearing tank! Extra planning and water testing may be needed to manage which nutrients are currently
available.
3.) What to Do with Extra Fish
Aquaponics is spectacular at producing fish and plants at the same time. If a cannabis grower would like a constant supply of fish to eat or sell, an aquaponic system simply can't be beat!
But if a cannabis grower does not want to actually
harvest their fish, they need to plan on what to do with the extra fish as they die and need to be replaced. In order to maintain the equilibrium of your aquaponics system, it's a good idea to regularly be adding new young fish as old ones mature and die.
Cannabis Seed Bank List For 2016 |
It's scary ordering cannabis seeds online for the first time, and it's really important to make sure you get your seeds from a trusted source! Not only will that help ensure your safety and security, it also keeps you from getting scammed
or ripped off with bad seeds or even no seeds!
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Thanks so much both of you for your work, it's absolutely impressive the love and dedication you put in teaching and transmitting knowledge for free. Bravo!! Greetings from Spain.
Guillermo
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These are the only words to accompany these awesome pics!
Thnx for all
the info
Puff puff pass
Budzzz
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We encourage you to forward this email to a friend in need!
Who Runs This
Newsletter? |
Nebula Haze:
Medical cannabis is important to me personally, and I'm dedicated to showing others how easy it is to grow their own supply of
cannabis at home.
It is my mission to educate and build growing resources to help both new and advanced growers get bigger, better yields with less time and money. |
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Learn which seed sources are personally recommended by Nebula Haze |
Sirius Fourside:
Sirius Fourside is a hobbyist grower who has gained the bulk of his experience growing in water as a medium(deep water culture,
bubbleponics).
"Growing cannabis is a relaxing hobby in and of itself, but it also saves you money and keeps you from having to deal with shady characters. Cannabis is much
easier to grow than people give it credit for, and growing in water doesn't increase the difficulty much, if any. But whether you want to grow in water, coco, or a different medium, we'll show you how easy it can be!"
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GrowWeedEasy.com has put together a hand-picked list of all the available SEED BANKS including what type of payment they
accept and where they ship in the world!
View complete list of trusted seed sources:
http://www.growweedeasy.com/seeds
Why not start your grow with quality genetics from an award-winning
strain? Or choose a strain that suits your growing style and personal needs. Still not sure? We recommend Nirvana. They've been breeding award-winning strains for decades
and offer some of the most reliable stealth shipping in the industry. In our complete seed sources list you'll discover... - Which Seed Sources are Fast, Safe and Reliable (list is updated regularly)
- Credit Cards, Debit Cards, Check Money Order, Paypal & even more secure payment options!
- Connoisseur, High-CBD & Medical Grade Strains Available
- Find Out Which Seed Sources Deliver to YOU!
Get Seeds!
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