Wednesday, October 10, 2012

What to do about cold weather....

Although our weather is very mild around Austin, Texas, we do cool off in the winter. The severity can range from only a few light freezes throughout the winter to a few weeks of ice and below freezing temperatures. In either case, you can still grow some great veggies in an aquaponics system like the one describe if you take a few easy steps to protect the fish and plants.

Talapia don't like cold temperatures. So, unless you want to wake up one morning to a tank of fish-cicles you need to find a way to heat your water. The easiest I have found is to go to your local fish store and purchase a heater designed for tropical fish tanks. The largest size I have seen in the local pet mega-mart is a 300 watt unit designed for large fish tanks. While these probably won't do the trick if you live in Minnesota, around here they are enough to knock the cold off as long as you don't have multiple days of sub-freezing weather with no sun during the day.

For the plants, it's pretty darned easy to build a "hoop house" over the grow bed. Basically, this is just some PVC pipe bent into an arc and covered with clear plastic.

Here is a picture of the one I built last year:


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