Complete Commercial Aquaponics Trainings
As you’ve probably noticed, there are LOTS of different aquaponic system designs out there, and they ALL work. However, there’s one important difference between the others and our technology: ours works AND makes a profit.
A profitable technology makes all the difference in the world to you when earning your living with aquaponics. And if you’re growing to feed your family, our profitable technology means lower cost and less work for you. And isn’t that important? That’s what you’ll find here:
(Below) A typical “Friendly” classroom.
Is our commercial aquaponics training for you?
- Yes, if you want safe, healthy food for your own family.
- Yes, if you want to give your kids a healthy, sustainable, and profitable career skill set.
- Yes, if you’re looking for a viable alternative to that 9-to-5 rat race you are locked into now.
- Yes, if you’re a student or professor looking to improve your knowledge and career opportunities.
- Yes, if you’re a community worker or missionary who is looking for a way to produce a constant flow of healthy food from a small space at a low cost for your community.
You can take this course in Cincinnati, Ohio, in February of 2019 (click on the blue text to find out more about this location).
3-day Commercial Aquaponics Technology Training
Our industry-standard 3-day Commercial Aquaponics Technology Training is only $995. You not only get better and more useful information; it’s also a LOT less expensive than the other courses out there! It covers building, operating, and troubleshooting large-scale (ie, commercial-size) aquaponics systems in affordable energy-efficient greenhouses, and includes unlimited lifetime technical support via email for your questions; something NO ONE ELSE in this field offers. We’ve got you covered!
Why do we have the best course available? Because working farmers on a working, profitable aquaponics farm developed it, rather than university professors or greenhouse and aquaponics kit sellers. Ask “the others”; we’ve taught most of them, whether they will admit it or not. You also get a 337-page printed manual, and all the slideshows and videos from the course; plus, we let you video record or voice record your course if you wish!
We demystify all of the following in your training so you understand everything clearly:
- Building your system the EASY Way, with low-cost components and simple construction methods.
- Simplified plumbing with PVC pipe and “ditch-digging 101”.
- How to easily measure and control water quality for your vegetables and fish.
- Our test results from 145 different plants in aquaponics, including tobacco, pineapple, and bananas!
- How to grow huge valuable tomatoes in aquaponics and in Dutch Bucket systems.
- The technology that sprouts 3 times as many plants in half the time that we invented in 2007.
- The most productive aquaponic planting technology available in the world; we show you how to get 4 times as many plants out of the SAME area of aquaponics as our competitors!
- As if that wasn’t enough, we show you how to build your own Vertical aquaponics systems, using parts from Home Depot, that hold up to 45 plants per square foot of floor space in your greenhouse.
- What kind of fish, where to get them, how to feed them, how to breed them, how to sell them.
- USDA Organically Certified bug and disease control methods that are ALL completely safe for your fish!
- (And let us take a deep breath first): water quality testing, nutrients in aquaponics systems, High and Low Density aquaponics systems, how to design your own system up to 100,000 square feet in size, crop variety research; statutory regulations affecting aquaponics, County Building Department regulations, permits required for operation, State Agriculture Department Plant Quarantine Branch regulations, State Health Department requirements for processing vegetables, how to find and use State Extension Agents as a resource, how to set up your own website for $20, plus much more!
We call the third day of our training “The Money Day”, because we cover everything we know about making a profit with commercial aquaponics, from selling at Farmer’s Markets to selling to Big Box stores. We’ve seen a lot of aquaponics businesses fail because of business-related factors, not because they couldn’t grow vegetables and fish. If you’re an experienced business person, you may feel you don’t need this. Still, I bet we can show you a thing or two you’ve never thought of before!
On our “Money Day”, we cover all the following subjects so you understand them clearly:
- How to get your system USDA Organically Certified for higher vegetable prices. We were the first in the world to get certified in 2008; since then, over 35 of our students obtained this valuable certification
- How to select a farm that CAN get organically certified, and how to AVOID buying a farm that can’t ever get certified. Doing this part of the course before you “buy the farm” avoids expensive mistakes!
- How to get your system Food Safety Certified, which includes Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s), Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), templates, forms, and all the standard paperwork we use on our farm.
- Two sample business plans, one of which landed us a $100,000 business loan.
- Something no one else offers: our “Single Crop With Outdoors growing” and “Multi-Crop With Outdoors Growing” crop projection spreadsheets (plus 4 more that are more sophisticated). Enter the numbers in from your location, and you can see if what you want to grow is likely to make you a profit or give you a headache!
- Processing requirements for fish and how to sell fish.
- The various methods of marketing: CSA’s, Farmigo, to retailers, to wholesalers, through your farm store.
- How to build awareness of you and your products through farm tours of your farm.
- National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) cost-sharing grants that pay for 75% to 100% of the cost of improvements to your farm.
- How to get your produce into a Big Box store (if you’re funded for it!). No one else has done this.
(Below) Ask the others to show you copies of their checks from a Big Box store. They can’t.
Please click here to see the long list of “What You Get” as part of this course.
Please click here to see the long list of “What You Learn” as part of this course (they’re similar but different).
Day 4: Solar Greenhouse Training
While others in this business do their best to sell you expensive, energy-sucking greenhouses during their aquaponics trainings, we’re the ONLY aquaponics trainers who devote an entire DAY to teaching you how to build your own energy-efficient, low-cost sustainable greenhouse from locally available materials. This is the fourth day of our training, right after the 3-days of the Commercial Aquaponics Technology course. You also get a 121-page printed manual, and all the slideshows and videos from the course; plus, we let you video record or voice record your course if you wish!
If you know all about greenhouses, you may not need this day; however, adding this Solar Greenhouse day to the training is only $500 additional. We bet you’ll experience many times this amount in savings on the cost of building and operating your greenhouse, from what you learn in this course. Signing up for the greenhouse day also includes unlimited lifetime technical support for your greenhouse questions.
We demystify all of the following in your training so you understand everything clearly:
- How to keep growing profitably all through your winter (even if it’s the far North!).
- How to use sustainable energy such as solar and geothermal for heating and cooling your greenhouse.
- The topics of insulation, heating, cooling, storing hot and cold with thermal mass, and proper ventilation.
- How to obtain nearly-new greenhouses for pennies on the dollar (by itself worth the price of the course!).
- How to sprout your baby plants even when it’s below freezing or above 90 in the shade.
- How to design your own greenhouse.
- Step-by-step how to build your greenhouse for beginners.
- How to get a free greenhouse (or nearly so!).
Day Five: INDOORS Aquaponics Training
While others in this business do their best to sell you expensive, energy-sucking lights and other fancy hardware during their indoors aquaponics trainings, we’re the ONLY aquaponics trainers who devote an entire DAY to teaching you how to build and operate your own indoors aquaponics systems from standard off-the-shelf equipment and materials, and HONESTLY address all the considerations you’ll face when doing so. You see, we don’t sell hardware; this leaves us free to be completely objective and honest about what works and what doesn’t for indoors growing.
We demystify all of the following in your training so you understand everything clearly:
- What is the efficiency of the various kinds of lights you can use in your indoors aquaponic farm, and how light efficiency affects the bottom line of your business, along with calculations that will help you figure this out yourself without hiring expensive “consultants”.
- How to select the most efficient lights.
- Why the most efficient lights are NOT just “one of the options”, but absolutely necessary!
- How ALL lights create “waste heat”, and how to get rid of it so your farm doesn’t overheat.
- How to understand the relationship between your lights and your air conditioning.
- How to figure out how much air conditioning you will need, and how much it will cost you.
- How to figure out how much electricity your installation will use.
- How to understand utility company billing practices, and select the best time of day to run your lights.
- And many, many more details about the ins and outs of indoors growing.
Please click here to see the long list of “What You Get” as part of this course.
Please click here to see the long list of “What You Learn” as part of this course (they’re similar but different).
You also receive a link for DropBox (the premier web “deposit box” service), where you can download the approximately 1 Gb of additional information that comes with the 5 days of this course. We will also be happy to put this on your thumb drive at the course itself, so you can go home with it. This information includes the following, plus much more:
A. In the DropBox “Main” folders: Complete CAD drawings for six different sizes of aquaponics systems: 64, 128, 256, 512, 1,024, and 4096 square feet; plus nine complete CAD drawings for greenhouses from 200 square feet up to 1,824 square feet in size. Also: published papers on trout aquaponics, Third World aquaponics, productive fish stocking and harvesting methods, and more.
B. In the DropBox “Certification” folder: Instructions, application forms, fee schedules, MSDS sheets for commonly used materials, and much more information on USDA Organic Certification; plus templates, Standard Operating Procedures, Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) plan, Hazard Analysis Cricital Control Points (HACCP), and checklist for FSMA Food Safety Certification, along with written explanations and contact information for the agencies.
C. In the DropBox “Financial” folder: The “Single Crop” and “Multiple Crop” income projection spreadsheets plus complete instructions for using them, even if you’ve never used a spreadsheet before; two business plans (one of which landed us a $100,000 loan); and instructions for web-based credit card processing.
D. In the DropBox “Slideshows” folder: The thirty-six PowerPoint slideshows and videos that we use during the five days of our live trainings.
E. In the DropBox “Manuals” folder: The complete Plywood Epoxy Fiberglass Tank Manual, the Micro System manual, the Tilapia Hatchery manual, and the Tabletop System manual.
F. In the DropBox “Whole Foods Application Information” folder; exactly what it says, courtesy of Susanne Friend, and Larry and Patty Yonashiro of Aquaponics No Ka Oi on Maui, who were the first aquaponics growers to get their organically certified produce into a Whole Foods store.
You can take this course in Cincinnati, Ohio, in February of 2019 (click on the blue text to find out more about this location).
FOR ANY AND ALL DAYS: You get a 50% discount for each additional person who signs up at the same time, so that it’s easy for you to bring a spouse or child who is interested; this discount is given in our shopping cart when you check out. We’re doing our best to make this course affordable, and at the same time pack everything we know about aquaponics and greenhouses into it.
These trainings are given at our affiliate’s mainland farms that have large commercial aquaponic systems in greenhouses. Choose from California or Texas as the best location for your course, depending on which is the most convenient and affordable for you to travel to.
(Above) Susanne giving the hands-on portion of one of our early trainings in Hawaii.
These trainings are for people who want to make money feeding other people. Just remember (as we say) “Don’t quit your day job just yet!
Although our commercial aquaponic systems grow a lot of food in a small space with high energy-efficiency, our trainings will not magically turn you into a successful businessperson. Please make sure you get training on running a business from local sources.
(Above) Rose and Dad with two of our Delicious Fishes (destined for garlic butter and salt in a frying pan, unfortunately for them)
Click here for training testimonials.
Your Personal Trainers for the Commercial Aquaponic and Solar Greenhouse Technology, and the Advanced Commercial Aquaponics Trainings:
Susanne Friend, the owner of the company (with degrees in biology and chemistry) is your personal trainer for questions and issues regarding organic certification, plant and fish diseases, sales and marketing, value-added processing, fish hatchery and nursery design and operation, water and aeration questions, and water quality questions.
Tim Mann (technical staff) has been doing architectural and civil engineering design and drafting since 1990, and was an authorized AutoCAD dealer for 7 years during that period. Tim handles comprehensive system design and site-specific aquaponics questions as well as technical issues having to do with tank, piping, aeration, pumping, and electrical design.
Aquaponics Consulting Services
If we’ve done our job with our offerings, you shouldn’t need consulting from anyone. However, IF you’re planning a large start-up operation where sophisticated aquaponic systems planning and site design needs to be done, we can help. We’ll ensure your success through intelligent project planning and custom aquaponic systems design. We’ll charge for it, but we’ll also guarantee the systems will grow vegetables and fish as well or better than anything else available, and at a much lower cost for construction and maintenance, if you follow our recommendations.