posted 7 years ago
I'm kicking around a ton of ideas to try next season.
That's what half of the fun is, right?
Because I am on land that is non optimal for farming,
I have been looking into some genius planting techniques.
One that grabbed my attention was a partial hydroponic
solution for gardening in 5 gallon buckets outdoors.
For her long term grow, she places a milk jug into the bucket.
A PVC pipe extends almost all the way to the bottom of the jug.
Soil is packed around the sides of the jug.
Holes are then drilled in the top of the jug, for root penetration.
The jug is buried in soil, and planted directly above it.
After time, the plant's roots will descend into the soil.
Okay, this technique likely has a name that is unknown to me.
My thought this morning was adding a fish species in the jug.
BUT, Is this animal abuse???
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I am split on this, and let me explain why.
We are not talking about a long term planted solution, just one season.
The jug will always overflow extra water into the soil in the bucket.
Extra water in the bucket will always drain out through holes drilled.
So you could have a trickle of water flowing into the pvc pipe,
and it would act as an aeration tool.
Feed would be simply dropped down the tube,
but without a way to check on the health of the fish.
The water in the jug will get dirty and that could hurt the fish.
Dirty water partially mitigated by change in soil medium above the jug.
Can normal fish live without sunlight? Cave fish species would be expensive.
Would a solo fish species be torture, or preferred like a beta?
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Is there a way that this can be accomplished, without it being abusive?
Would one small fish make a difference for one plant in one 5 gallon bucket?
If the fish died, would that even be bad for the plant, or extra nutrients?
With the only manual water given to the plant is poured through the pvc pipe,
would the holes at the top of the jug be sufficient to spread the fish's waste nutrients?
It's probably abusive, and a waste of time thinking about it.
Maybe it wouldn't be too bad on a short harvest time crop.
Then, filter that list for roots that will reach the water inside the jug.
Would 2 months underground add stress to the fish, or keep it cool?
Would the pvc pipe provide any light for the fish? Maybe ambient?
Anyways, such an odd thought of a system ....
I'm probably a horrible person for considering it