The Aquaponic Source Grow Lab Update – Dual Root Zone
This was posted on July 30, 2014 by Sylvia with The Aquaponic Source
One of the experiments that we’ve been running lately was inspired by my friend, Vlad Jovanovic. I met Vlad through the Aquaponic Gardening Community site a few years ago, when he was still living in his home country of Serbia. He is a super smart guy with a love of aquaponics whose sense of curiosity is only surpassed by his warmth and his wickedly dry humor. We met in person for the first time at the 2013 Aquaponics Association conference in Tucson, and the following December he stayed at our house for a few days in Colorado. That is when he taught us about dual root zoning.
The idea behind the DRZ technique for use with an Aquaponic (AP) growing method is a way to overcome some of the nutrient short comings common to AP growing systems. By creating separate zones of control boost growth by adding fertilizer (fish friendly of course!) to the top roots of the plant in a way that doesn’t contaminate the aquaponic system water and affect the fish.
1) First, find a round plastic pot that is about 12” deep, and make sure that it has plenty of holes in the bottom for drainage.
2) Then fill that pot 1/2 way with the media from your aquaponic grow bed (LECA, Aquarocks, volcanic cinder etc)…
3) Top with a layer of fabric, such as burlap, that will allow the plant’s roots to grow through, but will prevent the soil-less mix that you are about to add to the top of the pot from working its way down into the grow media layer. This fabric barrier is not necessary, but makes reclaiming your media after harvest and tear down much easier.
4) Now, fill the rest of the pot with your favorite potting mix. We use a soil-less mixture of, coco coir, peat moss, perlite, vermiculite compost and worm castings.event the soil-less mix that you are about to add to the top of the pot from working its way down into the grow media layer. This fabric barrier is not necessary, but makes reclaiming your media after harvest and tear down much easier.
5) Figure out how much liquid the soil layer can absorb before draining into the grow media below. Take 1/3rd of that amount and write it down. This is the amount of fertilizer solution you can safely add without having it leak down into and mix with your system water.
6) Plant your plant in the soil mixture.
7) Sink the planted pot into your grow bed so that the grow beds high water line is about 2 inches below the burlap in your pot.
8) Top feed the plant every few days (or as needed) with the amount of liquid you recorded in step 5 above, so that the soil layer stays moist. Plants respond better to a few light feedings per week, rather than one heavy feeding.
Left – Dual Root Zone
Right – standard aquaponics
This is an especially fantastic technique for your heavy feeding and fruiting plants. We grew two tomato plants side-by-side in the same grow bed: one in a Dual Root Zone (DRZ) pot and one directly in the media. The plant in the media did fine; BUT the plant in the DRZ grew significantly larger, faster, and put on much more fruit.
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Really cool stuff. Thanks for posting.
Vlad, have you tried this with other types of tomatoes? Perhaps of a Jamaican variety?
Are you still in Serbia?
Hiya Daryl,
Thanks for taking an interest. Yes, I have done this with different tomatoes in an aquaponic greenhouse. I’ll try to post a grow-log of those tomatoes and that entire greenhouse system build, here on Dude grows. I’ve done a lot of peppers and cucumbers in various DRZ set-ups as well (some of that will be in the blog).
I and others have also successfully grown cannabis in such DRZ systems (albeit slightly more care and a degree of automation to the top dosing set up is given, due to the high value of the crop).
No, I am no longer in Serbia (although the 2,100 sq.ft AP/GH still produces there, day in/day out). I have been stateside for a minute and am living and working in Northern California.