Trouble reading today's article? Click
here: Issue #312 - Sunday, April 8, 2018
Dear Fellow Grower,
In today's issue... - Are you a grower looking to insert cannabis cultivation into the art of aquaculture? There are three major hurdles you should know about before you invest your time and money in
aquaponics!
- Did you know we have an awesome article on making your own cannabutter? Make sure you have time cleared being trying this recipe; it's not to be trifled with!
- Check out some before and after picture of some plants under an LED being defoliated. Now we're
in suspense wondering how it turned out!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside (founders of GrowWeedEasy.com) "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." ~Helen Keller
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 adapts 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 bluegill 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 waste 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
biofilter is being colonized by bacteria.
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 waste 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 beaten!
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. Tactics for Growing Marijuana with Aquaponics
How to Produce the Nutrients Needed by Cannabis Even after your biofilter is established, you may still need to supplement with extra calcium, iron, potassium and possibly phosphorus to keep up with the needs of your cannabis, especially during the flowering
stage.
Luckily there are natural sources to get extra nutrient supplementation without seriously affecting your fish. For example, Maxicrop is a common nutrient additive made out of seaweed that works well in an aquaponics system to add potassium and trace minerals without hurting your fish.
Other common additives include cycling calcium hydroxide (hydrated lime or builder's lime) and potassium carbonate (bicarbonate), which add calcium and potassium to the system while also raising the pH (since low pH is common in an
aquaponics system that's not well-established).
No matter what, when dialing in your aquaponic system it's important to test your water throughout the process to see what nutrients are currently available. This lets you know where you're running into nutrient problems, and also will help you know what to do to fix it. Not only will this help you take better care of your plants, it will also help you take better care of your
fish!
Want to create a complete ecosystem with basically no input from you?
Some growers will introduce a worm farm (vermicompost) to the system to supplement nutrients naturally while breaking down the solid waste from fish which can't be processed by bacteria. This is one way to actually "complete" the cycle inside the
system.
Normally in aquaponics, these extra solids are filtered out and thrown away, but worms can liquefy it while providing an extra source of nutrients that can help bridge the nutrient gap and
make sure cannabis is getting everything it needs without any extra supplementation.
At this point, your main input into the system would just be fish feed. If you want to get even more sustainable, you could grow duckweed or another plant that fish eat and you wouldn't even have to buy fish feed anymore! As the system gets more and more balanced, nearly all the energy
input to the system can come from the sun or grow lights, producing a food/plant generating machine!
Ready to start growing cannabis with aquaponics? The following incredibly high-rated book will teach you everything you need to know so you can get started today!
Learn how to grow cannabis with
aquaponics with Aquaponics Gardening: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together available on Amazon! By following the tutorials and setting up your system to grow high-nutrient, flowering plants like tomatoes or corn, you will be giving your cannabis plants everything they
need to succeed!
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Many of you out there might not know that we have a page on how to make homemade cannabutter. You can make it as tame or as strong as you like, the flavor is mild, and you get to use the type of butter you prefer.
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Just like to say thank you to you as your site is of a great help with both good instructions and fine suggestions. Thanks :)
~Hans |
Trophy Picture of the Week! |
"This website has valuable information which has put me on the next level of growing. I appreciate this website and everyone who has contributed. Thank you" ~Max Stax |
Above: Before Below: After
That's some nice defoliation. Make sure to let us know how it turns out! -Sirius
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Who Runs This
Newsletter? |
Nebula Haze:
I'll be honest with you, when I first started growing, I struggled. Now, it is my mission to
make it easier for new growers to get started as well as help advanced growers get bigger, better yields with less time and money. We are updating and adding articles every single week and our goal is to eventually build a comprehensive growing resource so anyone and everyone can grow if they want to! If we all share the knowledge there's more buds in the world for everyone :) |
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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 can be 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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