Barrel-Ponics

If you’re going to feed the fish, shouldn't they feed you in return? It’s time to ditch your goldfish tank and dive into barrel-ponics! With as little space as a baby’s crib would occupy, you could be farming nutritious fish and vegetables together in a mostly closed system affectionately dubbed barrel-ponics.

The basic principle is this- fish waste nourishes plants allowing them to grow higher and more densely without the use of soil, fertilizer or pesticides. The plants in turn, cleanse the water of toxins thereby maintaining a healthy environment for fish to thrive. The system requires only basic, low cost materials to build and with a little practice becomes self-sustaining, requiring very little maintenance.

The man responsible for this ingenious invention is Travis W. Hughey. He seems to have stumbled into the world of aquaponics- the integration of aquaculture, or fish keeping, and hydroponic, or soilless, plant growth techniques- when he bought an unneeded greenhouse from a high school in his area. With aquaponics, water consumption is lower and plant density is usually at least twice that of soil based methods. As Hughey immersed himself in the world of aquaponics, he, like many others, began to see the potential this type of system has to bring food to developing countries where soil quality and precipitation may be inadequate for traditional farming techniques.

The problem with bringing aquaponics to developing countries lies in its reliance on a robust electrical infrastructure to power the pumps, float switches, and timers used in the complex systems you see operating here in the states. Inspired by other experts in the field and determined to find a way, Hughey set out to build a small system that operates entirely without the use of electricity. And with that, barrel-ponics was born. Using large plastic barrels and common plumbing supplies, Hughey built a system designed to teach others the principles of aquaponics on a small, simple scale. Hughey’s ultimate goal is to use barrel-ponics to bring the technology of aquaponics to developing countries, places like Africa where they have an abundance of maize and cassava but very little in the area of greens and protein. By educating the people on the basic principles of aquaponics he hopes, in time, to see the technology adapted in such a way that it can be implemented on a much larger scale and used to fill crucial nutritional gaps throughout the world.

For ambitious preppers this design is ideal! We may not be out to feed an entire village but anything that adds to our ability to provide a sustainable food source in times of plenty as well as in times of want is worth learning about.

Hughey has published a manual for building his barrel-ponics system and has made it available to all as a free download. You can find it here. We also came across this tutorial for building a similar system at instructables.com. No mention was made of Travis Hughey but we suspect the information presented here can be traced back to Mr. Hughey’s innovative work.

Both sets of instructions are for a system of a scale sufficient to compliment the family kitchen with tomatoes, herbs, leafy greens, and the occasional fish. It is not meant to fully sustain a family, or even one person for that matter but it’s a unique twist on the family garden that’s sure to bring you one step closer to self-reliance!

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Wendy