From: Barbara Lamar (barbaralamar@sanmarcos.net)
Date: Sun Aug 24 2003 - 11:32:29 MDT
Mark Walker wrote:
>I've looked at commercial units that sell in
> the $500 range based on the same principles as you describe. While I won't
> dispute the efficiency of the breakdown, it seems to me to yield a less
> useable product. I use the duckweed to feed the carp and cichlids in my
> system. Duckweed is amazing--it can double its own weight under ideal
> conditions. I realize that you use the night soil to fertilize,
> but I think
> using soil is ultimately less efficient than using hydroponics (actually
> aquaponics)--soil is old school man. ; ) Thanks for the feedback.
Water hyacinths also double their weight in an incredibly short time
(they're considered a horrible nuisance when they get loose in a lake,
because they quickly cover the whole surface). I totally agree that
hydroponics is more efficient than soil in many cases, and hydroponic
gardens can be as beautiful as soil based gardens (the visual aesthetics are
almost as important to me as the efficiency; I find that generally the two
are positively correlated). I believe even fruit trees are being grown
hydroponically these days.
My experience has been that while a pond or tank is extremely valuable and
more effficient at producing calories per cubic foot than soil, it's more
expensive to grow food such as squash, tomatoes, and broccoli hydroponically
than on soil (and I'm not even sure you can grow root crops such as potatoes
and sweet potatoes hydroponically), and that it takes less space to deal
with human waste using thermophilic composting (to quantify it -- for one
adult and one teenager, the space required for the compost pile was four
feet cubed -- this handled not only our bodily wastes but also kitchen
waste, waste paper, etc.), and that water purification is not as good at
getting rid of pathogens as thermophilic composting; but it's likely that
the techniques I've used for water-based purification are not the most
efficient, and you've inspired me to do further research and
experimentation.
Barbara
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