GaryD

VKN, I hope that you and your family are safe. Have you been impacted by the flooding?

Thank you for drawing my attention to the Microponics mention...and congratulations on the article about your own operation. I can empathise with your frustration about the accuracy of the numbers in the articles. Journalists frequently make such errors.

Hi VKN...can you tell us more about the black liner that you use in your various installations?

What strikes me as strange is that, after all that Mark has done for you, you still fail to communicate anything worthwhile about your work with iAVS...unless someone pays you. If you truly "wish and hope people, the new aquaponics adapters, get what is right and it is sustainable" you might try ensuring that they get accurate information in the Indian context...instead of just vegetable pictures. Nor do I. It appears to be another self-serving attempt on VKN's part to insert himself into the conversation.

Hi VKN, I assume (without knowing) that these are the flowers of various fruits and vegetables...right? Have you trialled any purely ornamental flowers in your iAVs systems. Gary

Congratulations on another installation.

I hope so, too. We would definitely appreciate more publicly-available information on iAVs in different places and circumstances.

Excellent work, VKN. You continue to demonstrate the versatility of iAVs. How long do you anticipate that it will be before the sugar cane matures to the point where your kids can chew on it...or is it crushed for use in drinks? By the way, how do "aquaponics sand culture systems' differ from iAVs?

I found that whole discussion interesting...not the least for the reaction of the AP cultists. Some people even accused David the Good of being controversial simply to generate traffic for his YouTube channel. Typically, the focus was on the 'poster' rather than what he had to say. I didn't agree with everything that David the Good had to say (nor with everything that Rob Gray had to say in rebuttal)...but I thought that it was entirely reasonable for him to canvass the perceived shortcomings of aquaponics...because aquaponics does indeed have some shortcomings. It's only by taking 'an ongoing approach to continuous improvement' that integrated aquaculture will achieve its true potential. Interestingly, the biggest issue of all...the absence of sustainability...wasn't addressed until I raised it. Of course, all of this took place on Facebook groups...at least three of them...so the discussion lacks the cohesion (and regulation) that might have happened on discussion forums.

I think you'd need a positive displacement pump (rather than the simple centrifugal submersibles that are generally used in aquaponics)...small dosing pump comes to mind. Using one of these...in conjunction with the well-filtered water out of an iAVs fish tank...would probably offer a useful chance of success.

That will be something to look forward to. Good luck with it.

Hi Ande, It's great to see the scope of the integrations that you're embracing. I've always wanted to try hugelkultur. So many things to do...and so little time. How long is your plant growing season? Gary

SuperStewie, If you want my recommendation for a small demonstration system, I'd suggest that you consider the Integrated Aqua-Vegetable System (iAVs)...for the following reasons: The design embodies the most cost-effective mechanical and biological filtration to be found in any of the aquaponics variants...very useful for a system that is going to be of compact size. iAVs will grow the widest variety of crops of all aquaponics variants. iAVs is the most productive, resilient and sustainable of all of the aquaponics variants. You can read more about the iAVs method on www.iavs.info.http://www.iavs.info Gary

Good move, VKN. I've long advocated a broader approach to integrated food production through Microponics...and, more recently, waste transformation farming. It's a logical extension in a place like India. Are you obliged, as part of the conditions of the government grants that you received, to produce reports that will become publicly available?

Like most of the rest of the world, I was persuaded that Facebook was the place to be...and, in terms of being where almost everyone else is, that's a demonstrable truth. Once you get there, however, you find yourself confronted by the age-old battle between quality and quantity. Almost every deadbeat, troll and skidmark has a place on Facebook...where the right to have one's say clearly comes before truth, fact and human decency. I'm moving most of my interaction with the broader world back to my discussion forum and my blog. Obscurity is a fatal condition for any social media platform so what time I have available for talking about my integrated food production interests will be spent in places where it does the most good.