Godney Aquaponics


Godney Aquaponics
In the village of Godney, with the beautiful back drop of the Glastonbury Tor, Melv and Sal are embarking on a new venture. Fed up with the poor quality of veg in the shops, they have the ambition to set up an aquaponics system to provide fresh vegetables and salad crops for the village, and with a little help from their hens a supply of fresh free range eggs too.


What is Aquaponics??


What is Aquaponics??
Aquaponics is a sustainable method of producing quality food with minimal external inputs. It is a system that combines conventional aquaculture (e.g. fish in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. Water from the aquaculture system is fed to the hydroponic system where the by-products are broken down and are utilised by the plants as nutrients, and the water is then re-circulated back to the aquaculture system.


Tuesday 19 November 2019

Expanding to cope with demand

It is brilliant to be able to say that due to the demand for our baby leaf salads we are now expanding our winter growing area to be able to ensure continuity of supply for our customers. To do this we are installing a second polytunnel, which will be designed to house our LED growing lights which have now been adjusted with new light modules.

The new tunnel is 4.3m wide and 14.7m long, the tubes arrived and we set to with the process of the installation.


Location decided Melv began to mark out, install the footings and lay the tubes in place, of course he had plenty of help from our feathered friends.


A fraction the size of our main tunnel, it soon started to take shape and the frame was soon assembled.


Sal followed on behind with the hotspot tape, which is placed round the metal frame to prevent the deterioration of the plastic caused by the tubes heating up in the sun.


The framework complete, a trench is needed to hold the polythene in place and provide important drainage, this was a job that was very popular with the girls - an excellent feeding opportunity!!


Humidity is a massive factor to consider when growing baby leaf salads through the winter, to cut this down we are sealing the ground with damp proof membrane, which will also tuck down into the trench to aid the flow of condensation off the polythene and out of the tunnel.


The first calm spell - which at one time seemed few and far between, we unrolled the polythene along side.


In no time at all and just as the sun was setting it was draped in position


To provide the assurance that it would not end up wrapped around the Glastonbury Tor on a windy day, we tucked the polythene into the trench and filled it with water.


The girls confirmed that this was a good move and approved of their new drinking trough!


Pleating the ends is always a little tricky, but my it was starting to look smart, both outside and inside


Outside the water in the trench was replaced with stone

All that was left to do was the installation of the doors - no problem for Melv and we soon had two functioning entrances - lovely.


Standing back to take a look, it fits in a treat with our existing infrastructure

Exciting times - bring on the revamped LEDs - just in time for the big Christmas switch on!








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