The Book

The Aquaponic Gardening Book

Aquaponic Gardening is the definitive do-it-yourself home manual, focused on giving you all the tools you need to create your own aquaponic system and enjoy healthy, safe, fresh, and delicious food all year round. Starting with an overview of the theory, benefits, and potential of aquaponics, the book goes on to explain:

• System location considerations and hardware components
• The living elements—fish, plants, bacteria, and worms
• Putting it all together—starting and maintaining a healthy system

This accessible book is also infused with humor and warmth; using quotes, stories and images from actual aquaponic gardeners though-out. Aquaponics systems are completely organic. They are four to six times more productive and use ninety percent less water than conventional gardens. Other advantages include no weeds, fewer pests, and no watering, fertilizing, bending, digging, or heavy lifting—in fact, there really is no downside! Anyone interested in taking the next step towards self-sufficiency will be fascinated by this practical, accessible, and well-illustrated guide.

Click here to read the Book Endorsements

Click here to read a sample chapter

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Foreward (by Tom Alexander, publisher, Growing Edge Magazine)
• Preface
  • The Aquaponics Epiphany
  • About This Book
• Introduction to Aquaponics
  • What is aquaponics?
  • The Global Perspective
  • Home Food Production
• The Plan
  • Before You Start
  • System Location and Environment
  • System Design
• The Hardware
  • Grow Beds and Fish Tanks
  • Plumbing
  • Grow Media
  • Water
• The Software
  • Fish
  • Plants
  • Bacteria and Worms
• The Integrated System
  • Cycling
  • System Maintenance
  • Troubleshooting
• Appendices
  • Aquaponic Gardening Rules of Thumb
  • The Top 10 Dumbest Mistakes I’ve Made in Aquaponics
  • What to Consider Before Plunging into Commercial Aquaponics
  • Aquaponics System Maintenance Checklist
  • Aquaponics System Data Tracking Sheet
  • Recommended Resources
• References
• Index
• About the Author

Book Corrections – 1st printing

1. At the very bottom of page 53  should say “The bulb is either metal halide (MH) which is a mostly blue spectrum bulb for vegetative growth or high pressure sodium (HPS) , which is a mostly red spectrum bulb for the mature, productive stage of a fruiting plant’s life.”
2. Page 54 should say “Pros of HID – They provide much more intense light that goes through almost any plant canopy. If you get a switchable ballast, you can easily move from a metal halide bulb (blue spectrum for vegetative growth) to a  high pressure sodium bulb (red spectrum for fruiting) for an even more precise plant spectrum.”

Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living Recommendation

Aquaponic Gardening is proud to be designated as a “Mother Earth News Book for Wiser Living.” Today, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously.  To help bring you the very best information and inspiration about greener, more sustainable lifestyles Mother Earth News recommends select books to its readers.  For more than 30 years Mother Earth News has been North America’s original “Guide to Living Wisely,”  creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature.

New Society Publishers

Aquaponic Gardening is proud to be published by New Society Publishers. New Society Publishers has been publishing books to build a new society for over 30 years. They are an activist, solutions-oriented publisher focused on bringing you tools for a world of change. They help you to know the talk, and walk the talk. New Society Publishers’ mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision.