Organic Hydroponics?
April 9th, 2009
Filed in Fruits, Veggies and Herbs
Tags: Hydroponics, vegetables
Is there such a thing as organic hydroponics? Actually, yes! During a recent visit to ECHO farms in North Fort Meyers, Florida, I saw something that truly captured my attention: peas, onions and other plants growing on nothing but a piece of old carpet on top of a chicken coop. How on earth? Where to begin. . .
Growing Food in “Challenging Environments”
ECHO is a research facility in North Fort Meyers, Florida that develops innovative solutions for gardeners and farmers in challenging environments with few resources. All of their gardening solutions are geared toward using recycled materials, things that are likely to be found lying around for the taking, and closing the cycle of nutrients as much as possible. One of the challenging environments for which they develop solutions is the urban environment where there is little space and no soil. Hence, chicken coop rooftop hydroponics system.
Chicken Manure Slurry
There is a lot of interest in backyard chicken keeping. If you have chickens, you could potentially try this at home. Now, if you know anything about hydroponics, you know that plants can grow in things other than soil, as long as they have the right nutrients to grow, water and oxygen to the root system. Conventional hydroponics involves synthetic nutrient solutions. Organic hydroponics would use chicken manure tea, goat manure tea, vermiculture tea, etc. Here’s what is going on in these pictures:
- Manure from the chickens falls underneath the elevated coop, where it can be collected.
- The manure is then composted in a slurry.
- The bucket is filled with strained liquid from the slurry.
- The bucket lid has a tiny hole in it. The bucket is turned upside-down on the piece of carpet where the plants are growing.
- The carpet works as a wicking system to transport water and nutrients to the plants.
- Once a week, the bucket is switched out.
Pretty ingenious, huh?
April 15th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
This IS ingenious. Any tips on how to compost the chicken poo slurry? I know you can’t put “raw” chicken poop on a vegetable garden. Do you just add the water and wait a week, say, or do you have to monitor it to make sure it reaches a certain temperature? Also, what do you recommend straining it with? I’d like to try this…
February 5th, 2011 at 2:57 pm
The conditions in which these chickens are being kept is disgusting. They should be free-ranged during daylight hours and only locked in a coop during hours of darkness.
April 7th, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Rosey, how do you know from these pictures that the chickens’ conditions are disgusting? I have a coop that is very similar. The chickens can come and go as they please during daylight. Do you know where they hang out? Inside the coop. I know that because that’s where they lay their eggs, and I have to constantly clean out their poop from underneath! Lighten up!
April 7th, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Question for Katie: How long do you let the tea brew before feeding it to the plants? Shouldn’t the manure be composted first?
May 12th, 2011 at 6:19 am
David,
Mostly the tea doesn’t require any extra “brewing”, and the manure won’t need composting.
Bird guano is amazing as it’s pretty much good to use as soon as the birds pass it.
-Chris
July 25th, 2011 at 2:12 am
David, it says in the article that the chicken poo “falls underneath the elevated coop”. If the chickens were free-ranging, their droppings would be all over the yard, wherever they choose to roam. I must point out that just because your chickens lay their eggs in the coop does not mean that they spend their whole time in there (assuming they do have freedom to roam, as you state). Chickens pass stools while they sleep (in the coop) and these are probably what you are cleaning up. I also have to clean out my chicken coop which I do daily after collecting the eggs. I also clean up any droppings I can find in the outdoor space where they like to wander during the day, including under bushes and on top of the coop.