US (CT): Growing with aquaponics at UConn
The year-round means of growing vegetables is a source of pride for graduating senior Kelly Pfeiffer ’18 (CLAS), a psychological sciences major who has helped shape an idea into reality.
Starting out as a hope, then transitioning into a grant proposal, the aquaculture plan for Spring Valley Student Farm is now finally coming to fruition, through the tenacity of the students who work at the farm.
Former undergraduates Carl Underwood ’16 (CAHNR, CLAS) and Gabriel DeRosa ’17 (CAHNR) originally hatched the concept and were awarded an IDEA Grant to get it started. When they graduated, Pfeiffer took on the project and has carried it to completion as the current aquaponics plant care specialist.
“My goal was to have the aquaponics system up and running with fish by the time I graduated, and this is now happening, all in time for the summer growing season,” says Pfeiffer, one of 11 students who live on the farm.
“We each have our niche project,” she adds. “The aquaponics system has been mine.”
How the system works
Hydroponics is the cultivation of plants in water, however aquaponics combines the rearing of aquatic animals in a hydroponic environment. Nitrogen is a nutrient plants rely on for growth and nitrogenous wastes are a fact of life for any organisms, such as fish, that metabolize proteins. The resulting waste is excreted as nitrogen-based compounds, such as ammonia or urea.
In an aquaculture system, there must be a way to manage and remove excess nutrients from the aquatic environment, otherwise the water becomes toxic to the fish. These wastes, highly rich in nitrogen, are broken down by a community of bacteria, into forms of nitrogen that are easily used by plants. No longer simply a nuisance, the fish waste is now fertilizer.
Pfeiffer explains that aquaponics systems and traditional agriculture are similar, in that they both rely on monitoring of macro and micro nutrients to effectively grow healthy plants. So why grow in an aquaponics system?
“There’s a surprising statistic for this technology, that you can grow four heads of lettuce in an aquaponics setting for every one grown through traditional soil growing methods,” says Pfeiffer.
In other words, grow more in less space, using the closed loop and symbioses between plants, animals, and bacteria.
Read the complete article at UConn Today.