Aquaponics at Aqua Gardens: The future of food?

Aquaponics at Aqua Gardens: The future of food?


Ukiah Daily Journal

What do you get when you cross basic hydroponics with aquaculture? It's called aquaponics and Aqua Gardens in Potter Valley has all but perfected their 100-percent organic growing process.

Owner Jed Davis and his family, along with friend Chris Thompson, spend their days working Jed's hilltop farm producing high-quality lettuce, herbs, micro greens, wheat grass, strawberries and "living" salad mix with virtually no soil involved.

"Aquaponics is the most sustainable growing technique there is," boasted Jed, who launched the company two years ago after visiting the Ukiahi aquaponics program, where he met Chris.

The basic concept of aquaponics, he says, is the symbiotic relationship between water, fish, microbes and the plants that love them. The fish and plants live separately in a connected system of recirculating water, where the fish provide organic fertilizer for the plants while the plants filter the water for the fish.

In a medium-sized room called the fish house, Jed and Chris raise Tilapia and Carp bred in their own fish hatchery. The fish spend the majority of their time swimming and pooping. Jed's daughter Adia helps out by feeding the fish regularly, between cat wrangling and being a tough farm girl.

The fish, at around 2 pounds are edible and according to Jed, pretty good to eat, although, he says, "We don't have to swap out the big fish because larger fish equal more poop and poop equals plant food."

The water from the fish tanks is pumped next door into the greenhouse where it is circulated through long raised water beds. Plants suspended within floating insulation platforms descend their roots into the fertilized water beds, drinking up the nutrients and microbes, all while aerating the water.

"The system produces both veggies and protein in one shot," Chris said proudly.

It's a self-contained system where the ammonia within the fish scat is converted into nitrates by naturally-occurring microbes, which is then used by the plants, which in turn help clean up the water to the benefit of the fish.

"Microbes are the unseen worker bees in the process," said Jed, adding "they break down the matter (fish dung) and turn it into nutrients for the plants.

The water in either the fish tanks or raised water beds are never changed or cleaned, just topped off.

Just outside the greenhouse lay solar water-heating mats that harness free sun energy to heat the farm's captured rain water, stored throughout the year in large tanks. The warmed water courses through a radiant heat system running in pipes throughout the raised water beds that regulate water temperature and ensure optimal root growth.

According to Chris the "super efficient" greenhouse also functions as a very large swamp cooler with a cooled water wall on one end and a fan wall on the opposing side. Air is pulled through the cooled water cells, drawn over the plant beds and exhausted out the other side, creating a cooler-than-usual greenhouse environment perfect for growing greens. During the cooler months, Jed and Chris keep the greenhouse air warm with a heater using solely vegetable oil supplied for free by Patrona's in Ukiah.

Jed and Chris - always experimenting - have added a couple blueberry bushes in an alternative growing media of recycled blown glass in an outdoor seasonal growing area.

"We're playing with different styles of aquaponics growing and dispelling knowledge on how plants grow," said Jed.

Chris adds, "Fruiting plants seem to do better in the growing media, where the leafy plants do better in the deep-water culture."

Aqua Gardens' most popular item is by far its "living gourmet salad mix," because of its superior flavor, says Jed. The mix contains five types of lettuce - Red Oak, Green Oak, Mizuna, Mustard and Arugula - growing out of one hole and sprouting as one mixed head of lettuce. Buyers will notice the 3-4 inches of roots still attached to the lettuce mix, which, according to Jed "tricks the plant into thinking it's still alive." It's this trickery that allows for nearly a month of refrigerated shelf life for each "living" head of lettuce.

"I've had four parents in the last month tell me our lettuce got their children eating salad because ours is so flavorful and sweet," gushed Jed. "We constantly hear how amazing our lettuce is."

Despite using water as the primary growing medium, aquaponics uses 90 percent less water than soil farming because there is no seepage or weeds, and very little evaporation," says Jed.

Root systems don't compete with each other in the aquaponics system, "because they get all they need nutrient-wise," according to Chris.

Aqua Gardens, certified organic by Oregon Tilth, can be found locally at the Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op, Westside Renaissance Market, Mariposa Market in Willits, Harvest Market and Down Home Foods in Fort Bragg, Point Arena Market, Corners of the Mouth, Ukiah Farmers' Market and Santa Rosa Farmers' Market.

In the future, Jed would like to take the farm completely off the grid and go solar. "Our goal is to be a farm with zero outside influence including electricity and fertilizer."

"I want to travel and surf and teach people in other countries how to farm with aquaponics to feed themselves. I can culture my kids and surf good waves," smiled Jed. "I think that food is a better hedge against societal chaos than gold and silver - you can't eat gold and silver. The future is food."

For more information about Aqua Gardens or to schedule a farm tour, contact

Kelly Hancock can be reached at, 468-3520 and on Twitter @udjkelly.