Chris Bribach of Plants On Walls created an aquaponic vertical vegetable garden concept for a showroom in San Francisco. Water is recirculated through the panels from the tank below. Goldfish create the fertilizer needed by the vegetable garden. The balanced system produces oxygen as well as organic herbs and vegetables.
The tower is made from 9 of the Florafelt 12-pocket Vertical Garden Planters that are threaded together with picture wire to form a triangle. The triangular panel units are then attached to 10 foot 3/4″ galvanized pipe and placed over a 36″ Stock Tank.
A fountain pump recirculates the water through the felt panels. The water wicks into the roots of the plants. Drip trays at the base of the panels direct water back into the storage tank. Note the storage tank should be lined with a fish safe non-reactive plastic pond liner or use a similar p.e.t. plastic storage tank at the base.
What a great way to help redefine vertical agriculture, especially in an urban environment. Many urban centers are using vertical farming and rooftop gardens as a way to bring “local” into the cities.
Great vertical garden install.
Lushe
http://www.lushe.com.au
Galvanized metal in constant contact with recirculating aquaponic water can often cause enough zinc to leach into the water to start killing fish, especially as the pH in aquaponics naturally drifts downward. Any galvanized stock tanks used for aquaponics are best coated or lined to prevent this problem. (It usually shows up as seemingly random fish deaths after several months of operation and the fish deaths tend to continue and no amount of disease treatments seem to solve the problem.) Some types of fish do better with zinc in their water than others. Zinc will also cause copper to become more toxic to fish.
By the way, I'm not worried about galvanized pipe as the support frame work, only the galvanized metal that is in constant contact with aquaponic water.
I'm missing where they specify that there are fish in the galvanized tanks.
I had a stock tank we used as a fish tank…. fish all died about 2 weeks ago suddenly, after 2 years and we couldn't figure it out… interesting TCLynx!
This would be beautiful with a nice clay pot – is that safe?
I would like to build one of these. Can you show pictures of the plumbing system.
Please see our Irrigation Guide page: http://PlantsOnWalls.com/ig
I keep saying vertical farming is the future
Very beautiful. I made a vertical garden myself. I would love to share my creation with you. I can send some pictures of you like.
That’s great to hear! Yes we’d love to see. Send pics to [email protected]
Great article thanks!