An innovative aquaponic garden and fish farm for your home

27 February 2009, by Isabella

This is definitely one of the coolest, green innovations that I didn’t see coming. Its a great idea, albeit impractical for small homes and yards, or very cold climates for that matter (however, they have installed some in Canada). Its from Portable Farms™. You can order a kit as small as 6′x8′, which will grow about 400 vegetables and 100 pounds of fish in a year.

There are larger kits available. According to Portable Farms, once a system is up an running, it takes about five minutes of maintenance per day, plus a monthly draining of the system.

During this sour economy you can grow your own food and feed your family and friends organic vegetables and high-quality protein every single day of the year from a Portable Farm™ at your location with minimum water, no soil and very little electricity or maintenance. They can also be Solar Powered.

Growing the fish is probably the most intriguing part of this concept. The fish will naturally provide nutrients to the plant matter. The plant matter absorbs the excess, essentially cleaning the water for the fish. The kit provide most of what you need to run the system. In order to setup you’ll have to pickup parts, such as the gravel and tanks locally. Also, cold climates would want a greenhouse and heating in winter. Solar powered assistance could keep this a truly eco-friendly solution for northern climates.

Davis has been refining his invention for 37 years to reduce the chronic problems of waste sediment in the fish tanks and grow trays. He recently created a new water-circulating system that solved all the clogging problems in the fish tanks and gravel-filled trays making it possible for the system to automatically remove the sediments to grow healthier fish and vegetables. The new system made it possible to fully automate the farm by circulating warm, nutrient-rich water throughout the system, using all his own unique engineering and technology, so that anyone, anywhere, could raise their own food and become self-sustaining. The farm does not use any fertilizers or pesticides, and requires only 3 minutes per day for maintenance.

Portable Farms LLC
http://www.portablefarms.com