Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I was wondering if anyone had done anything along the lines of taking a fabric air pruning grow bag using a constant flow tray.

The basic idea being to use coco coir and wick the grow bed constantly with nutrients to both cool the system and make a large low cost grow area.

I know air pruning has been used a number of times and what you're suggesting should work.

I wanted to take it to the extreme and do around 4 dwarf fruit trees at some point to see if it was possible to grow a tree in coco.

I'm letting my system ice over the winter since I have cold hardy fish (bluegill, koi, goldfish).

So like some people bury the tree in mulch over winter, I was going to wrap it in a blanket and use the low nutrient level in my dormant fish tank to overwinter the trees.

Any thoughts?

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to do. It sounds like the fish would wind up without enough oxygen because of the ice cover.

I have 15a of heating in my sump so the top won't be freezing over completely.

I tested the pump this January without any insulation, and, although it did freeze, it continued to pump and overflow into the sump as the water flowing cut through the ice.

I have a CHOP system with a venturi aeration system. It is a 250 gal IBC fish tank and a 55 gallon buried as the sump (probably about 40 gallons usable).


My point is that many types of trees go dormant in the winter, and the fish I have also go dormant in the winter.

I was just wondering if anyone had tried to grow trees that were fed exclusively aquaponically in these air pruning bags. I've seen trees like pawpaw and papaya done this way in large beds with expanded clay pellets, but I was more interested in apple and pear and fig trees grown in coco coir.

How they would fare in the winter in particular. I would be blanketing them and would also think water flowing would stabilize the temperature to some degree.

It's worth a try. I don't think anyone's tried growing them in AP quite like you're suggesting. Water does help stabilize the temps so it should reduce the freeze/thaw cycle problems you get there.