Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together

Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together

Author: Visit Amazon's Sylvia Bernstein Page | Language: English | ISBN: 086571701X | Format: PDF

Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together Description

Review

This isn't just another book for dummies; this is a comprehensive handbook on how to grow real food...so meticulously documented, that failure is not an option. --Jeff Edwards – President, Progressive Gardening Trade Association (PGTA)

I have always wanted to put my money where my mouth is and figure out how to do sustainable aquaculture in the context of my home garden. Finally I’ve got the book to help me do it. --Paul Greenberg - Best Selling Author, Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food

This is a delightful book to read! ... I’ve been involved with hydroponics and aquaculture for 30 years and still learned from reading this very thorough how-to book. --Henry A. Robitaille, PhD - Former General Manager, The Land Exhibit, Epcot Center

Learning how to garden through the creation of a completely balanced ecosystem is now clearly understandable, even to inexperienced gardeners. -- Michael C. Metallo, President and CEO, National Gardening Association

Sylvia Bernstein has provided the "aquapons of the world" with a clear, impassioned, and elegant "Bible" to spread the good news about aquaponics. --James J. Godsil, co-founder Sweet Water Organics Sweet Water Foundation

Aquaponic Gardening is an excellent primer for anyone considering home-scale aquaculture. Whatever your location or methods, the information should prove invaluable. Fish are within reach! --Peter Bane, Publisher of Permaculture Activist magazine

Now the thousands of people who are discovering aquaponics every day have a resource for moving from the dream to the step-by-step reality of raising fish and food in their homes, yards, and even businesses. --John Thompson Sr. VP Sales and Marketing (and Basement and Backyard Aquaponist) AeroGrow International, Inc.

This book is a vital resource for urban homesteaders. --Sundari Kraft, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Urban Homesteading"

The science is so well explained, it is easily understood. I am ready to start. I love this book! --Jeff Lowenfels, Author, "Teaming With Microbes"

About the Author

Sylvia Bernstein: is the president and founder of The Aquaponic Source and the co-Founder and former Vice Chairman of the Aquaponics Association. She also manages AquaponicsCommunity.com, the largest US-based online forum site dedicated to aquaponic gardening. An experienced speaker and internationally recognized expert on aquaponic gardening, Sylvia writes and blogs on the subject for the Aquaponic Gardening Blog, Maxiumum Yield and more. Her inspiration is a large, thriving aquaponic setup in her backyard greenhouse in Boulder, CO powered by tilapia, catfish, bluegill and other creatures-that-swim.

Product Details
Table of Contents
Reviews

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: New Society Publishers; Original edition (October 11, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 086571701X
ISBN-13: 978-0865717015
Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

I just finished this amazing book. I already knew a good deal about aquaponics - at least I thought I did - when I decided I had to read this book to see what the buzz was all about. What a great decision and what a great read. Here's why.

My first impression when I opened up the box I received from Amazon was this is a beautiful cover. I also noticed from the logo on the cover, that the book is a Mother Earth News book selection. Then I flipped it over and immediately spotted that two experts with whom I am personally aware, loved and endorsed the book. This caused me to immediately flip to the Table of Contents.

I found that the list of topics with lots of promised detail was all that I was hoping for. Because the Table of Contents is not visible from within Amazon (publisher and author, I suggest you fix this), I provide some detail here. The book is organized into five main Sections each with two or more chapters (there are 15 chapters in all) plus seven appendices intended as reference resources and a full index.

Section One introduces Aquaponics and puts it into perspective not only relative to other growing methods, but also with regard to the ever increasing issues and challenges that our global population is encountering with food supplies, food safety, food cost, and the impact of agriculture on the planet. This section closes with several pages on the idea of producing food right at your home. Some may think they want to skip the introduction. I think doing so would be a lost opportunity to see just how important aquaponics may prove to be to all of us in the years to come.

Section Two is called The Plan. Ultimately, this book is about how you can become an aquaponics gardener at home.

There is nothing here that an hour with Google can't replace. Her "science" is lacking at best, and completely false everywhere else. Core issues of the process are given a very biased and cursory treatment. There is however a good bit of time spent trying to lay not so subtle support for her $1,300 packaged "system" (two tubs and a pump on a T.V. stand).

"The covers of this book are too far apart."
- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

A quick example of the author's depth of wisdom:
Her comparisons of artificial lighting choices refer to lumens, which are a unit of measure that is relative to what the human eye can register. Were aquaponics a system for growing or impairing human eyes I suppose this might be useful. Plants "see" light differently. They use different parts of the spectrum for different things, and this is pretty much completely ignored.
She continually refers to the process of water draining and being replaced by new solution provided by a pump, as a process that sucks oxygen into the media. Physics and fluid dynamics be damned.
Her contention that magnetic drive pond-type pumps are the obviously superior choice just adds to her credentials as a bloviator of the first order. The multitude of reliable circulating pumps available that are more efficient, longer lasting, more reliable, etc. is but one more example of just how limited her knowledge and/or research on the subject is.
On one hand she champions "earth friendly" practices, while forgiving her own system's and suggested practices that don't even begin to fill the bill. Me thinks her an opportunistic fraud.
Her suggestion that her methods will result in a system that never needs cleaning is complete idiocy.

Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together Preview

Link

Please Wait...