Aquaponics Duckweed direct composter

Having dried some duckweed by spreading it out on some concrete for a few days, the next stage in creating my direct composter is using my cheese press to bring it all together. My PVC cheese press has seen a few different purposes in its lifetime, but this one looks like it might be the one it retires to.

The duckweed shrunk down to a quarter of its former live self.

I found my PVC pipe with holes that was formerly a cheese press, and rinsed it thoroughly.

I filled it with the dry duckweed, and planted it into the growbed.











The day after tomorrow, Im off on an adventure to the other side of the continent, but tomorrow, which is really the day after tomorrow a far as this experiment goes, Ill check to see if the worms like their new feeder. But really Ill be somewhere else.




120 Things in 20 years is wondering if anyone is actually following this convoluted narrative.







120 Things in 20 years thinks that as far as it can tell, its made a worm motel.

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Aquaponics Direct composter duckweed drying

My system has only one fish, and Im getting a little worried about my growbeds worm population. Im not confident theres enough fish waste going into the system to feed them all.

What I thought I might try is creating a small compost bin directly in my growbed to make sure the worms have enough to eat.

I have a lot of duckweed growing in my system, and that one fish has to power the new bigger growbed, and the duckweed.

Duckweed uses quite a bit of useful nutrient so I thought I should remove some, and add it back into the system via the composter.

 I pulled out a quarter of a bucket or so of my duckweed from the system, and dumped it on some dry, sheltered concrete to dry.










I need to dry it first to kill it, because the direct composter will be a small container full of holes, sitting directly in my growbed. That means it will be damp, and the duckweed might just stay alive.

As I understand it, worms feed on the stuff that feeds on rotting vegetation so live duckweed wouldnt work so well.


120 Things in 20 years seems to be growing plants for feed to grow other plants. I think I finally developed a way to make growing vegetables as inefficient as growing beef.

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Aquaponics Silver perch eat Kale

I grew some kale that turned out to made of leather and task a bit like canvas.

But it turns out my single, enormous silver perch eats it.

Even in winter where the water tends to be too cold for silvers to be interested in anything except worms.

You learn something new every few months.

I have some health stuff to deal with, and then Ill start some kind of exciting new thing.

I promise.

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Aquaponics Direct composter success

I just got back from my trip to the East coast of Australia, and was happy to find the system ticking along nicely.

Some of the dried duckweed in my direct composter looks like it might be trying to live again, but I cant tell if its greening due to life or mould.

There must have been some heavy rain while I was away, as it was soaked through.

I think Id better put a lid on it.

When I lifted it up I saw a stack of worms going to ground into the growbed, and some more hanging from the little composter.

The worms seem to like it.

It was also very easy to grab a handful of worms for the fish, so the fish seems to like it as well.

It should also be adding some nutrient back into the system, and also saving some because of the duckweed I removed, so the plant will like it as well.


All in all, I count this a complete success, and it seems like quite a good solution to my problem of only having one fish.



120 Things in 20 years thinks flying around in helicopters is a pretty good way to spend some time.

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