jestep Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Just got back from a trip to Florida and did a tour of the epcot hydro and aquaponic facilities. Wanted to share a few pictures. This is one of the most interesting setups I've ever seen. They have just about every type of hydroponic setup possible. Everything is non-GMO and no pesticides are used at all. Not technically organic because the nutrient mixtures. One of their single tomato plants produced over 30,000 tomatoes in a year. I didn't get many good pictures of their aquaponics because the lighting was poor and I only had my phone, but they are growing tilapia, American freshwater eel, sturgeon, American alligator, and freshwater shrimp with their aquaponics setups. We've been looking into setting up a back yard aquaponics setup since we bought our house last year. This was really amazing to see all this up close and get a good idea on what sort of system would be most appropriate for what space and budget we have to work with. Hydro: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 Nutrients: Desktop: Hanging: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 Vertical: Aero: Aqua: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 NFT: Sand hydro: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 Backyard aquaponics: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 That is awesome! There are some other cash crops I could see doing very well in that setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Very cool, but surprised to see they don't have Tilapia or something living in the water. Guess they didn't want to get into the harvesting animals debate, but awesome nonetheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Just got back from a trip to Florida and did a tour of the epcot hydro and aquaponic facilities. Wanted to share a few pictures. This is one of the most interesting setups I've ever seen. They have just about every type of hydroponic setup possible. Everything is non-GMO and no pesticides are used at all. Not technically organic because the nutrient mixtures. One of their single tomato plants produced over 30,000 tomatoes in a year. I didn't get many good pictures of their aquaponics because the lighting was poor and I only had my phone, but they are growing tilapia, American freshwater eel, sturgeon, American alligator, and freshwater shrimp with their aquaponics setups. We've been looking into setting up a back yard aquaponics setup since we bought our house last year. This was really amazing to see all this up close and get a good idea on what sort of system would be most appropriate for what space and budget we have to work with. Mike is undercaffeinated today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 What? I thought there was tilapia? Is the alligator a typo, for instance alligator gar? Or are there real alligators in it? Is the 30,000 tomatoes a typo too? That seems like an ubsurd number of tomatoes for one plant in a year, but I'm not gardener so who knows! Really cool stuff! Thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Unless you meant plant as in factory, then nevermind. [emoji16] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 Real alligators. They were part of the project to grow them for farms and to reintroduce them back into the wild when they were endangered, which they no longer are. Apparently they still make some decent money growing them for a few years and selling them to alligator farms when they're 4 or 5 feet long. Probably used for food after that. Fish farms also use them to clean up fish waste after processing the fish. These ones were only about 18 inches or so. I didn't get pictures of all the plants, but they probably are growing 30 or so types of fruit, and another 50 - 100 types of veggies and edible flowers. They also have a culturing lab where they're propagating several different plants by leaf and stem cuttings. They're also directly working on a project to try and find a natural way to protect stone fruit from a pathogen that wiped out most stone fruit in Europe that showed up in Pennsylvania a few years ago. These would include cherries, peach and plum families, and avocados. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Wow, that's really cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Just got back from a trip to Florida and did a tour of the epcot hydro and aquaponic facilities. Wanted to share a few pictures. This is one of the most interesting setups I've ever seen. They have just about every type of hydroponic setup possible. Everything is non-GMO and no pesticides are used at all. Not technically organic because the nutrient mixtures. One of their single tomato plants produced over 30,000 tomatoes in a year. I didn't get many good pictures of their aquaponics because the lighting was poor and I only had my phone, but they are growing tilapia, American freshwater eel, sturgeon, American alligator, and freshwater shrimp with their aquaponics setups. We've been looking into setting up a back yard aquaponics setup since we bought our house last year. This was really amazing to see all this up close and get a good idea on what sort of system would be most appropriate for what space and budget we have to work with. Mike is undercaffeinated today. Guilty, I was picture browsing and missed the red one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard L Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Listen to the land...listen to the land....listen to the land... Do the still play that song in the background, lol? Thanks for sharing all the pics. Been a while since I've seen that pavilion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+olaggie01 Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 I used to assist with a research project back at A&M on the effects of Vit E on Aligator growth. Grew 50 gators from 6" to 5' in 12 months. Could definitely tell a difference from our control group to our test subjects. Would have made a nice pair of boots to but we returned them to the gator farm in LA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+olaggie01 Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 And that is awesome that Disney is undertaking this and that is a lot of marinara sauce. I hope they are growing garlic next to it. I'd be in heaven. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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