GardenCuizine: Rowan Aquaponics Tour

Friday, March 13, 2026

Rowan Aquaponics Tour

Happy National Nutrition Month®! Today my nutrition class celebrated NNM by learning more about sustainable agriculture for growing herbs, edible flowers and vegetables, namely hydroponic and aquaponic farming.

Special thanks to our guest speaker, Stephen Ordog, for speaking to Rowan's Contemporary Issues in Nutrition class! We learned so much! I especially loved the greenhouse tour of Rowan's operation.

Aquaponics involves a self-contained system that includes fish. Rowan uses separate tanks for Large Mouth Bass and Koi fish. They have several tanks for various size fish in different stages of development. One tank has small young fish, another tank features medium size Koi, and two other big tanks hold larger sized fish. Steve said that they started with 40 fish in 2024 and now have 800 fish!

Automatic time-controlled feeding stations are attached to each fish tank. The fish were super excited when the food shot out from the pipe dispenser positioned over top of their tank. A few splashes of water could be felt from the splashes as the fish bolted towards their food!

This growing method is sustainable because of a scientific Nitrogen cycle. 1) Fish waste produces ammonia. 2) Ammonia gets converted to Nitrite by bacteria (Nitrosomonas) living in the water. Another bacteria turns the Nitrite to a safer Nitrate that fertilizes the plants. 3) The nitrate is absorbed and filtered by the plants before going back into the fish tank resulting in healthy fish and healthy plants.

Hydroponics, to quote Steve Ordog, "Is a soil-less cultivation of plants". Hydroponics requires less water than conventional growing methods and does not depend on weather since it is indoors. Steve's focus is to grow plants that can absorb nitrogen well, such as leafy greens and herbs like bok choy, chard, lettuce and basil. He is also growing some edible marigolds and is planning to grow nasturtiums.

Below is a video for more information about Rowan's sustainable agriculture program. The produce that grows is harvested, washed and donated to Rowan's food pantry called The Shop.