Cold Season Aquaponics in Underutilized Greenhouses– How to Improve the Livelihood of the Family Far

Hello All,

It is a pleasure to be joining Permies. I've always found the answers to my questions by searching, but now I think I may be able to contribute something of interest.

As a little background, I'm from Stow, MA, but have been living overseas most of my life. I'm currently involved in sustainable farming and aquaponics in Laos. My mother passed away recently so my Lao family and I will be visiting Stow for a month or so from sometime next week. Coming from a manufacturing background (I'm also a sales rep for a Japanese manufacturer), I've always been annoyed by how my brother's greenhouse in Stow is left barren for 6 to 8 months of the year. At first I thought maybe I'd stay longer as it's an expensive trip and I thought, "But what will I do?" That's when I got the idea and it's just kind of escalated. The main contact in MA for aquaculture extension likes the idea and is encouraging me to apply for a SARE farmer grant. It's a work in progress, but some information about the idea can be found on my website at the link below. Permies is such a massive forum, I didn't really know where to start. The main question is: "Will it work?"

Cold Season Aquaponics in Underutilized Greenhouses– How to Improve the Livelihood of the Family Farmer

Howdy Richard, welcome to permies!
Here are some folks in Colorado who are using an old greenhouse for community aquaponics.

http://www.coloradoaquaponics.com/

Richard Mong :You have a fantastic source of information and help close to you in Eastern Connecticut, look for him here at Permies in the Aquaponics section- Rob Torcelini

I usually tell people to watch out for the crap in U-Tube Land but Rob is a fantastic source of information, go to You Tube and enter web4deb and you tube will ask if you want
to click on the channel of web4deb, after you click on web4deb channel you can loose lots of time but I highly recommend it ! For the Good of the Craft ! Hope you find this useful
and timely !

Think like Fire, Flow like a Gas, Don't be the Marshmallow ! As always, your comments and Questions are solicited and are welcome ! PYRO - Logically BIG AL !

Hey Richard,

There are a lot of ideas about growing in a cold climate out there that a lot of the major suppliers don't promote since they're in warm climates. Rob Torcellini at Bigelow Brook has some good ideas, but there are drawbacks to his systems as well. The Aquaponics Source Forum is a great place to ask questions, and there is a group there called Cold Weather Aquaponics where you can post questions.

I've addressed some of the issues on my blog and in articles for Aquaponics Survival Communities. If you have more specific questions I'd be happy to help.