• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Nancy Reading
  • Carla Burke
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • Jay Angler
  • Liv Smith
  • Leigh Tate
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Maieshe Ljin

Would you rather have an acre of mushroom cultivation or an acre of aquaponics?

 
gardener
Posts: 2191
Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)
897
homeschooling kids trees chicken food preservation building woodworking homestead
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Another one from Timothy

Would you rather have an acre of mushroom cultivation or an acre of aquaponics?
 
Matt McSpadden
gardener
Posts: 2191
Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)
897
homeschooling kids trees chicken food preservation building woodworking homestead
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
And since I only eat mushrooms that have been dried, ground into a powder, and put into a pill so I can take as a supplement... I'm going to pick the acre of aquaponics. Fish and plants I like.
 
Posts: 1510
110
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
what is your goal with your crops? if your going to provide local chefs with quality unique fungi then that sounds great.  If you have the ability I would do both 1/2 and 1/2.
1/2 acre will produce an awful lot of fungi. with aquapoics is this with above ground tanks or are you digging a pond. a good pond, even a half acre will provide lots of fish and endless fresh water. when my dad had a fish farm the ponds were 1 acre each. they were big and produced lots of fish but the fish we ate came out of a very small pond near the house that was stocked with bass and shiners and it might have been an 1/8 of an acre and there was a seemingly endless supply of fish in it
 
steward
Posts: 16058
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4272
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I would rather have an acre of mushrooms because mushrooms are so beneficial to human and soil.

Fish are nice though ...

 
Posts: 90
Location: Indiana
35
2
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Neither.  I'd prefer aquaponics, but an acre is a full-time business, not homestead scale.
 
master gardener
Posts: 4239
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
1718
monies home care dog fungi trees chicken food preservation cooking building composting homestead
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I'd go with the mushrooms, I think I could market them if I had the opportunity.

I'd be worried about mistakes in aquaponics and the effort that would needed to be put in to be successful.
 
Rusticator
Posts: 8567
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4542
6
personal care gear foraging hunting rabbit chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts medical herbs homestead
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Wow, this one is tough! With the aquaponics, though, I'm pretty sure I could turn it into a community project, so our whole neighborhood could benefit from both the fish and whatever else we plant. I love mushies, but a lot of people hate them. So, I'm going with the aquaponics, and I'll keep a small patch of mushies, for John & me.
 
gardener
Posts: 504
Location: Wabash, Indiana, Zone 6a
245
hugelkultur monies forest garden foraging trees books food preservation bike bee writing rocket stoves
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Depends on what type of mushrooms we're talking about...

j
 
pollinator
Posts: 968
Location: Greybull WY north central WY zone 4 bordering on 3
284
hugelkultur trees solar woodworking composting homestead
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Even my grandest dreams with either direction are not an acre in size.(and trust me they are grand)  I will answer aquaponics.  But I probably should answer mushrooms as that would mean I had a huge cave(or other building) to build other stuff in eventually.
 
pollinator
Posts: 163
Location: SE USA, southern Piedmont Uplands, zone 8b
109
home care tiny house cooking fiber arts seed writing composting
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I find the idea of chinampas utterly fascinating.

If chinampas qualify as aquaponics, I'd rather have aquaponics. If it's limited to using pumps and filters and electricity, I'd rather have an acre of mushroom cultivation.

Image source
WH07p03449.jpg
Chinampas example
Chinampas example
 
Carla Burke
Rusticator
Posts: 8567
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4542
6
personal care gear foraging hunting rabbit chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts medical herbs homestead
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Oh, that's a tough one! But, I think I'd prefer the aquaponics. I do love me some mushies, but with the aquaponics, I could have fish, fruit, and veggies.
 
pollinator
Posts: 3842
Location: Kent, UK - Zone 8
696
books composting toilet bee rocket stoves wood heat homestead
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Definitely the mushrooms. You can grow an awful lot of mushrooms in an acre - definitely enough to make a good income from. And you get a waste produce of used substrate blocks to grow your veggies with.
 
steward
Posts: 12420
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
6991
duck books chicken cooking food preservation ungarbage
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
My climate is just wrong for full time mushrooms, so I'll go for the aquaponics. Even if I grew a bunch of the greenery just to feed fresh to my birds, it would be the better option.

That said, I'd want to set it up the most permified way possible, as Sara's Chinampas picture demonstrates.
 
Posts: 3
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Here is my aquaponics system, a small backyard setup. I have 3 plant trays, each 8 meters long and 1 meter wide. The system works using a drum filter and a biofilter from raufilter. I started aquaponics 4 years ago. Now my children and wife help me, and the farm is constantly growing and modernizing.
0d07bc2d7ec2b49cedd3.jpg
My aquaponics.
My aquaponics.
1-(2).jpg
aquaponics
aquaponics
 
pollinator
Posts: 241
66
7
hugelkultur books chicken cooking food preservation greening the desert
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Matt McSpadden wrote:Another one from Timothy

Would you rather have an acre of mushroom cultivation or an acre of aquaponics?


Mushrooms, so many yummy things to do with them!

Sandy
 
Posts: 305
Location: Myrtle Creek, Oregon
19
4
cooking writing ungarbage
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
?mushrooms any day! They can get expensive, I've been microdosing for 6 months.
 
Paper jam tastes about as you would expect. Try some on this tiny ad:
Switching from electric heat to a rocket mass heater reduces your carbon footprint as much as parking 7 cars
http://woodheat.net
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic