Entry to Aquaponics
My fascination with taro lends very easily to a predisposition to aquaponics. I think the combination of land and water has no parallel and think the old lo’i dug by the ancient Hawaiians and now being restored by dedicated enthusiasts are absolutely lovely to behold, especially once the taro is in full growth. On a practical side, with the uncertainty that is involved in our food system here stateside, especially when it comes to fish, much of which comes from overseas where we simply have no control over environmental practices, and even those stateside that use bulk feed with low nutritional value – homegrown fish are of a very significant value.
Kai Kea and Pi'iali'i keiki freshly planted in bucket-lo'i.
In this blog, I will focus on catfish as my food-fish of choice. Texas has laws regarding tilapia sadly, but I love catfish anyway so it’s no big loss. Also, and currently, I’ll use Gambusia as well, and maybe even Koi. But, for food, catfish will be my fish of choice. They get big fast, eat anything, and readily take to an aquaculture system. They’re also tolerant of cold water too, even tho mine will be in a tank in the greenhouse. They’re also easy to dress and fillet too. And as importantly, the fish fella drives thru here every Spring selling catfish fingerlings and they’re not all that expensive.
Same bucket lo’i this late winter - Kai Kea slowly waking up, Pi’iali’i quite happy.
I have been wanting to install a lo’i of sorts for my taro for a long time. Up topside this won’t work, unfortunately – in the heat of summer it would dry out extraordinarily rapidly. Plus, any exposed water is fair game for the critters. My solution is to contain the lo’i – in this case, within a bucket. This I can place in a location where the heat is not so extreme and is well protected from critters. For instance – I’ll keep them in my pit greenhouse where it is cooler and contained, as well as warmer in the winter. It’s not quite the acres of lo’i that Hawaii enjoys, but it’s my own humble piece of paradise.
I got my initial inspiration for bucket lo’i from a Hawaiian resident named Ray Grogan. One would think that the still water of a bucket would stagnate and cause the taro problems, but it was worth a try anyway. I took some Kai Kea and some Pi’iali’i and stuck them 3 gallon buckets of topsoil (I mixed in a few greens with the soil – works great for my lotus) and plunged that into a couple of 25 gallon containers. I tossed in some Gambusia fish to control the skeeters around here as well as provide some nitrogen for the plants and held my breath.
Keiki growing in small bucket-lo’i.
As I suspected, they did better than their upland counterparts. Much better. In fact, while the Kai Kea did go dormant over the winter – the Pi’iali’i kept on growing all winter long, while it’s upland partners declined and moped along with the rest of my upland taro. During the growing season, both varieties towered over their upland counterparts and produced way more lau and larger corms. The water indeed made for a happier environment for this taro – so I’d have to say that little test was a success. In fact, I went ahead and dug up my moping upland Pi’iali’i a week ago and stuffed it in the mud next to the very happy Pi’iali’i. It already is shooting up a new leaf! I put the other one inside in my aquarium pump as a backup – and it too, enjoying the constant flow of water, is also putting out new growth. Incidentally, I use topsoil rather than potting mix because the taro or anything planted in immersed potting mix – assuming you can get it to settle to the bottom and not float – will rot. The only thing I mixed in with the topsoil was a few fist-fulls of weed-greens – a good boost of nitrogen but not so much organic matter that it would rot whatever’s growing in it. I learned that the hard way, so hopefully this is a lesson ya’ll won’t have to suffer thru.
Aquarium Pump Lo’i.
I recently got some diminutive taro keiki and planted one in a bucket of topsoil plunged in water, and was going to prepare soil to plant the others upland. I put them in the aquarium pump to keep hydrate then promptly got distracted. It wasn’t a couple of days that I noticed new growth on one, the other was dormant but a few more days and the dormant corm also broke out a new keiki and now I have two keiki growing rapidly and taking over the aquarium pump. That would be my mini-lo’i. Since then, every ill taro that I found I put in there. A Kumu eleele corm was rotting out on me, for instance, so I dug it out, broke off the rotten part and stuck the thumb-tip sized nub in the aquarium pump so that it was just partially immersed. Currently, it has three distinct keiki shooting out of it and one little one fixing to emerge! Hardly rotting anymore. I went and found other corms that were cratering on me and stuffed them in there too – and each one is showing new growth now. That says a lot about fish water. Even the upland style corms are doing well – they’re not fully immersed so they’re not fully wetland – just enough to keep them wet. That’s enough. And… my fish are no doubt very happy to be getting rid of all that excess nitrates.
Close-up of Aquarium Lo’i.
So, now, inspired by Barrelponics, I’m combining Ray Grogan’s bucket lo’i into an actively circulated system that will take water from a fish tank and circulate it thru my containers where the taro will be in several inches of flowing water. The upland style taro will not be fully immersed as the wetland taro – tho their containers will be capable of it should I change my mind later – and they’ll be grown in a pea-gravel system based on Barrelponics with water flowing thru the pea-gravel, nourishing the taro. And that’s the plan.
I’ll follow up on this project as it develops thru this Spring. You’ve seen the very humblest beginnings of the idea, and will watch as it unfolds bit by bit until there’s a full lo’i system and happy and very large taro. I look forward to the journey, and as much, to the end result of this project.
MikeV
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