Donzaffi, i don't have any other systems at the moment. but i have been looking at semi-automatic systems that use nature as the driving force. my current favorite thing is this mobile chicken coop, but it's intended to be on a size of at least a hobby farm. i have tons of relatives who are farmers, at least on a small scale, and most of them raise cattle in fields. the awesome thing about cows and chickens is how you can get them to interact. cow dung is full of nutrients, but sits there in a big lump. after a week, bugs will pretty much have obliterated that lump, and you can end up with fly problems on your farm. but chickens eat fly larvae. so as you rotate cows out of a field, if you rotate chickens into it, they will pick apart the cow dung to eat the maggots, and this will also help to spread the dung around the field. chickens get fed, ground gets fertilized, a month later the grass has grown back (instead of it taking 3 months) and you can start the rotation again. plus, you get free range chickens XD and between the chicken and cow dung, you can actually re-use that field for crops within a few years, without having to use industrial fertilizers. this is actually the basis of one of the techniques that died out with the industrial revolution, and only remains in practice amongst a few organic farmers, and small traditional farmers (who have mostly been economically destroyed by the cheapness of oil). but i figure with the right mobile chicken coop design, it could increase the economic potential of many small farmers, and they can build it for the most part themselves. the tricky part of this design will be making it lightweight and maneuverable, but still durable and cheap. i've seen other people do it, but on a much larger scale (i saw one with the capacity for 300 chickens!)
Ethinolicbob, at the moment I am only using a liquid fertilzer made from seaweed extract, called Maxicrop. i thought it was organic but now that i'm reading the lable i think i was wrong. it cost me about $5 for a bottle that will last an entire season on my small vegie garden (about 10 cabbage plants, 15 lettuce varieties, 10 broccoli, 4 snow pea plants, a pumpkin plant and some herbs (basic, oregano, chives, rosemary, thyme)). It contains added nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and you simply dilute it in water and use it once a week. i'm using 5ml's to feed my two plants in the drip feed planters once a week, and by the end of the week the water has gone from dark brown to light brown. then i switch the water out with fresh rainwater and use the leftovers on my in-ground garden.
the big problem with making fertilizers is getting the right nutrients into it. my understanding with compost tea is that you almost need to have a plant dedicated to producing those nutrients and nothing else, which you add to the compost mix. using the waste products from you garden, or store brought food, will rarely provide all the required nutrients. i guess it's one thing all life seems to have in common. cannibalism doesn't help growth. the other problem with compost tea is getting too much of one nutrient, which can quickly throw off the pH balance. if fact, most aquaponic systems i have seen don't use their garden waste to re-feed their system at all, but instead just make a worm farm, and use the compost for other area's of their garden. but then most of them feed their fish with store brought pellets. so i guess using a liquid fertilizer isn't really cheating, it's just making life easier. from what i've seen, this seaweed extract is giving my broccoli all the nutrients it needs, but time will tell.
you are right that the easiest way to get things balanced and therefore running on their own is to use fish. but this does still have some issues, and does require some maintenance. pH levels can spike from the stupidest of things. i'm pretty sure my first prototype was ruined because i was using clear plastic, which allowed algae to grow in the base of the planter. rookie mistake :( another issue i saw someone encounter on youtube was that during summer, their fish were eating mosquito larvae that were being laid in the tank. free food is good, but you have to pay attention to notice it. they kept feeding their fish the standard amount, which led to a buildup of un-eaten food on the bottom of the tank, which again messed with pH levels.
so no matter how automated you get it, and how similar to a natural self-sustaining enviroment it is, you always have to pay attention to the little things. the gardeners that have these systems down and post youtube video's all seem to agree that they spend at least 2 hours each week during the slow season, and from 5 - 10 hours a week during harvesting and replanting seasons. but of course, some of those systems produce enough food that these people are able to eat all they need, and sell a small amount off at local markets. not bad for a one hour a day job ;)
oh and finally, FC... smoking may not have been practiced extensively until the 1900's, but eating came long before that, and so did oil-extractions. it wasn't a recreational thing, it was medicinal, but it was recognized long before america was even discovered. the discovery was likely made when someone harvested the flowers for whatever purpose, and then accidentally licked their fingers. or more accurately,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashish :)
i can be tedious to read, for i am tedium! XD
FlowerChild makes heroes of us all, and gives us battle axes where we had swords weak as zombie paws.
