The time has come to double the growing area of my homemade, desktop aquaponic system!  This time the bed will be devoted to lettuce production.  The main reason for this is instead of a flood and drain set up, which is suitable for most vegetables, I do not want the second bed also flooding and draining as my concern is if both beds are full at the same time, the water remaining for Oscar the fish might be insufficient.  Therefore this expansion will be a DWC (Deep Water Culture) grow bed.

What’s the difference?  Well, the flood and drain set up is good for most vegetables because the roots cannot sit in water all of the time or the roots will simply rot out.  This isn’t the case for lettuce.  They are fine growing in constant water.  So the plan is whatever water doesn’t spill into the flood and drain bed already established, will flow into this new DWC bed and then drain out the back side and into the fish tank again.  This flow of water will continue to deliver the fish produced nutrients to the grow bed for absorption by the lettuce and then the cleaned water returns to the fish.

The foam board you see in the picture will float on top of the water in the new grow bed.  Holes will be cut so the lettuce plants can be inserted into the hole designed to hold the net cups I will use.  I believe I have all the parts I will need to press forward with the expansion, so any good thoughts or prayers are appreciated as I take another step forward with our indoor gardening aquaponic project!

1 Corinthians 3:7

So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.