Bioponics

[JeffW]

This is awesome to see!

Those pictures above of the "Eisenia Fetida" worms tell me they are tiger worms and also surface dwellers which is why they can deal with shall beds. Many worms can not survive that type of condition although I claim to be no expert I know the tigers would, it makes sense. They thrive in nasty toxic conditions and the nastier the better. Case in point we found millions of them last summer in a huge pile of decomposing animal mortality (farm animal mortality) along with mix of horse/cow crap mixed into one 30x30 foot pile. It was stinking but omg the worms were all over, even 2-3 feet up on the hay poop piles. We had boots and a pitch fork so we harvested as many as we could haul to the totes in the S-10. Ok so it sounds bad but now I have thousands of worms all tucked into my bins on 2 locations in the county, and in my shop sits a 50 gallon drum full of compost and corn meal.

Those worms sell average $25 for 1 pound (1.000 K). This is a great thread because it shows the food cycle is sustainable. Worms are amazing anyway as we just found thousands of babies hatching from the cocoons in sub-freezing weather last week in the middle of winter. They were 2 inches below surface of last years old fall leaves. Fact is my hands were so cold it hurt to not have a glove on yet..babies were just as happy as could be. Took photos and quit as I was so cold.

Worms in Aquaponics makes sense now more than ever. Yep this is awesome not many post out there showing nor discussing this depth of the 2 subjects (worms and aquapoincs) No I have not seen anything quite like this.

This particular thread is should be discussed more your ahead of the pack peeps.!

[dufflight]

Some people use regular earth worms in there GB's. I've never tried this, the compost ones work well. A friend of mine had a worm farm to get rid of the horse manure. He ended up with over a million worms that would eat a 150kg+ per week. He had to keep a light on them over night or he ended up with a red worm blanket. He hasen't lived in town for more than 10 years but you can still find red worms in there yard.

[JeffW]

wow...see there ya go...the chemical companies do not want us to know. The planet has all we need to sustain growth and grow food. And by the way Australia has been one place that has been leading the way. I hope people in other countries are paying attention.

They say 1,500 to 5,000 types of worms, I use 2 types but there are more around. It is so fascinating either way. Your post had me so fired up last night I pulled out one of my old NFT systems someone gave me. I wonder if you can put worms in cups like that?

I will post a picture, I would like to try and put worms in a hydroponic system and before I was trying "worm tea" made from castings. Well why not just put fish in the tank that normally had the nutrients then put the worms in the cups. Ok I know the cups need to be fairly large or big enough for a colony of 50 or so per cup. But it is worth the effort I am going to try it. Thanks for your feedback too!

[jackalope]

Welcome back JeffW ..... haven't seen you around for a while .... glad you're back .... You've got great ideas and good vids to show us what you're up to

[JeffW]

Hey there thank you and good to see ya. My wife says "Jeff your all over the map" and I say yea so what's new

Starting a web site of my own now it is work in progress, based on worm castings,worm bins and compost. Then other pages for education and forward thinking ideas. HA HA I am already building a "bioponic" since the other night when ya'll started talking about worms in the beds with aquaponcs. This has my mind going, I called and shared this with farmer friend and Market Maneger .We are all open for ideas but "farmers" need facts and proof or they will walk away.

One farmer near by wrote a check to the drug pushing GMO company for a total of $145,000 and that was just the fertilizer!!!!!!! The corn made by Monsanto was a separate cost. Anyone still thinks burning corn (ethanol) is a good idea needs to read that line again. Burning corn in cars and trucks that get LESS than 30 MPG, well now wonder how many gallons of diesel fuel the massive tractors used to plant and harvest and haul all that field corn? OMG I do not want to know

oh well I got worm power!

[badflash]

Farmers have been suckered by big agra for a long time with big machinery, fertilizers and pesticides. This is all in the name of reducing the number of people employed to produce food.

That being said, making ethanol from corn or any fermetable grain is not such a bad idea. Nearly 80% of the corn produced is used for animal feed, mostly cattle. Cattle are supposed to eat grass and shrubs, not corn. As a result corn fed cattle are in a constant state of indigestion and get sick easily. They need cellulose, not starch.

If you take a buschel of corn, produce ethanol from it, and then feed the left over grain and yeast to the cows, they gain weight faster and are healthier than if they were fed the raw bushel of corn. Not to produce ethanol from cattle feed is just silly. You don't have to give up one for the other.

[dufflight]

I wonder how duckweed would go in producing fuel. It doubles every day. There was something I read that you get 600 kgs of protien from an acre of soya beans in a year and 6000kgs from an acre of duckweed. It also takes a lot of the sewage that goverments like to put in the water ways.

[badflash]

I wonder if that is dry or wet. Duckweed does grow faster than anything I know,, but it has so much water the tilapia fail to gain weight. For water purification it is great, but I think it would need to be dried before it could be processed. I would think it would be better as a feed than a fuel. Not much starch or fat.

[JeffW]

IMHO
Thousands of gallons of diesel burned so we can burn corn for heating and fuel is not
sustainable. Miles of plastic drain tile laid on the corn fields each year to fix the drainage problem that once never existed. 2 things wrong, one is they stopped reintroducing organic matter back to fields because (no more farms with live stock) no more manure spreaders. Next tractors and combines so heavy and big they take up 3 lanes just moving from one field to next. these compact soil like cement hence the water flows on the surface of the fields instead of being absorbed (compost is missingl). This water sits on field and a lake forms when it rains so they pour MORE money into field by using tile and guess who pays for this later? Everything has corn syrup in it now and all of the corn is GMO corn. GPS guided combines so big an operator can nap & watch movies on DVD is all based on money and and more money. We have a debt and it started with miss managing AG.
I still hear those words wise farmer said "There is a problem when start burning your food". Ethanol is losing ground here and Governor needs to quit promoting it.

Prediction says 1 of 100 kids in future will develop some form of autism. It is the food we are eating and GMO needs to be shut down. Live here in this state long enough it get's to you because we are really struggling here and it is no fun. We worry what is next that must go and pray we do not get sick. Many people lost homes due to no insurance and no job so eating healthy is a MUST!


David Pimental, a leading Cornell University agricultural expert, has calculated that powering the average U.S. automobile for one year on ethanol (blended with gasoline) derived from corn would require 11 acres of farmland, the same space needed to grow a year's supply of food for seven people


http://healthandenergy.com/ethanol

[jackalope]

Wow JeffW, I haven't kept up with the way things are farmed nowadays .... thanks for the eye-opener ....... I grew up on a small farm, and we used the manure from the milk and beef cattle, sheep, chickens, and pigs to fertilize the garden ..... we farmed with a walk-along tiller and a small tracked grader to level it out after harvest ..... I hadn't had any idea how things worked with composting, it just worked!

Big AG (Monsanto, ConAgra and others) is taking over all facets of food production, including fish farming. In Tilapia, Salmon and Trout and others, they use things like 'Ocean Pout Anti-Freeze', 'Human Cytomegalovirus', 'E-Coli baths for fry and 'Simian Virus 40' (Green Monkey Virus) to "enhance" our fish and make it more 'resistant to disease' and more 'tolerant to colder climes'. What are the long-term effects of these injections, baths, hormones, steroids, etc? Who knows, because the FDA refuses to do any research to protect the public, instead, they allow the Big AG companies to do the research, 'report' their own findings, and the FDA uses that data to decide whether or not it is fit for human consumption. Not only do we have to contend with the genetically engineered fish, but the fish food is contaminated as well. Cattle that have been 'disposed of' because of Brucellosis, Mad Cow Disease, pigs with Trichinosis, chickens with Avian Flu, are, with FDA approval, ground up into 'bone meal, blood meal, animal by-products' to be fed to the fish because the feed companies (owned by Big Agra) have determined by their research, that there is no effect on the humans who eat the fish. Many laws have been passed to prevent the small farmer from making a profit by growing 'clean' veggies, cattle sheep, pigs, and fish, all sponsored by ...... you guessed it! ....... Big Agra lobbyists

All of this is nothing but Corporate Greed that will never stop unless the FDA goes back to doing the job it was intended to do (protecting the American Public), and lobbyists are prevented from having any contact with the politicians (i.e. junkets, vacations, fishing/hunting trips, campaign donations, etc.) - in other words, "it ain't happening in my lifetime nor yours."

End of Rant