VERTICAL AQUAPONICS
Stacked horizontal beds
In this type of system, horizontal grow beds are stacked vertically in tiers. This arrangement means that in a greenhouse, only the upper bed will be facing direct natural light, and supplementary lighting needs to be provided for the lower beds, usually from lights attached to the base of the bed above. While in principle this means that the grow beds could be stacked as high as the greenhouse or production unit allows, in practice growing at height means that the system is more difficult to manage, requiring the use of scissor lifts for planting, maintenance and harvesting, and additional energy to pump the water to all levels.
· Aqu@teachLiving walls
Living walls are often used in architecture to provide aesthetic, ecological and environmental benefits in urban areas. The modular panels, comprised of polypropylene plastic containers or geotextile mats, support plants which provide benefits not only in visual terms, but also with regards to amenity, biodiversity, thermal efficiency and amelioration of air pollutants, all for a very small ground level footprint (Manso & Castro-Gomes 2015; Perini et al. 2013). Two universities have been investigating the potential for living walls for growing edible crops using aquaponics.
· Aqu@teachGrowing towers
Growing towers are vertical tubes through which nutrient-rich water is diffused from the top, usually through a drip emitter, thereby creating ‘rain’ inside the tower as it drips over the plant roots that are suspended in the air. The towers, or columns, may either be hollow or filled with a substrate that provides support for the roots and aids in water dispersal. In its simplest form, a growing tower may be a section of PVC pipe with holes cut into the sides.
· Aqu@teachA-frame systems
A-frame systems consist of a stepped arrangement of hydroponic channels (Sánchez-Del-Castillo et al. 2014), or angled panels of geotextile for aeroponic cultivation (Hayden 2006). Fruit bearing crops growing in the lower sections of an A-frame system may experience partial shading, and consequently produce a high number of small and malformed fruit, experience increased fruit rot, and exhibit problems with fruit colouration. This can be avoided by using systems with grow beds that slowly rotate around the A-frame to ensure that the plants obtain uniform sunlight, irrigation and nutrients as they pass through different points in the structure.
· Aqu@teach