FISH FUELLING FARM’S FUTURE
Koi help make the garden grow
Mary Erickson is a vibrant, animated woman, especially when she talks to her fish.
Tanks full of large koi help fuel her farm of the future.
Mary and her husband, Neil, run Campbell Greenhouses, an aquaponic growing operation, at Anaheim. Their custom-built floating gardens combine aquaculture and hydroponic growing techniques in just the second commercial aquaponic facility in Canada.
The couple sells their microgreens to grocery chains across Western Canada. In the beginning, they tried selling leafy greens, but it wasn’t profitable.
“Even in the middle of winter, the prices out of California are just so cheap that it’s hard to compete,” Mary says.
However, they got a deal with Sobeys and Safeway to purchase their pea and sunflower shoots, along with microgreens such as radish, broccoli, carrot and kale — all of which are loaded with nutrients and didn’t travel thousands of miles.
She jokingly calls their aquaponic closed-loop system “the hanging gardens of Babylon.”
Up on the second floor, plants line the fish aquarium’s ledges, their leaves trailing into the water. The fish produce ammonia, which a filtration system converts into a usable nitrogen form for the plants.
“That’s where the magic happens,” she says.
The water system is gravity-fed and mimics a waterfall, using pipes with right angles, as it comes into the greenhouse.
“We want the water to be as turbulent as possible to keep a lot of air and oxygenation in the water because the plants sit in it,” Mary says.
The plants take up the nitrogen and other micronutrients in the water, while filtering the water for the fish. That clean water returns to the three aquariums.
The Ericksons store and treat their own water on site with a reverse osmosis system. A wood burning boiler supplies in-floor heat. A truss manufacturer sends them waste wood to burn. They also burn dead trees from around the farm or from townspeople.
The couple started in the greenhouse industry, running a bedding plant operation, in 2007. After a few years, vegetable production made more economic sense as they saw a need for fresh vegetables in the winter.
The organic element was important to the couple — hence the koi. Fish help them to mimic nature a little better. Soil’s microorganisms are extremely important, but are eliminated in a standard hydroponic facility.
“We introduced the fish to get those healthy bacteria,” Mary explains.
Campbell Greenhouses has about 80 koi, half of which go to a neighbour’s pond in the summer:
“They get to hang out and go to camp!”
Summer fish camp happens because there’s less production in the warmer months. Sales drop when fresh produce is available — and too many fish in the tanks creates too many nutrients.
“You need to make sure there’s always a balance: Enough fish to grow the plants and enough plants to filter the water cleanly for the fish,” she says.
Campbell Greenhouses is an anomaly of sorts: an indoor growing environment in the middle of central Saskatchewan’s grain farming country.
The plants grow under lights. Everything happens in a custom, controllable ecosystem — one reason Mary thinks aquaponics will change farming in the future.
“You don’t get the benefit of the natural sun … but we’re still growing food,” she says.
Jenn Sharp is a freelance writer in Saskatoon. Her first book, Flat Out Delicious: Your Guide to Saskatchewan’s Food Artisans, will be published by Touchwood Editions in April. Follow her on Twitter @Jennksharp, Instagram @flatoutfoodsk, and Facebook.