By Eric Wildstein ewildstein@gastongazette.com

Who knew tilapia and lettuce have a symbiotic relationship?

Kids at Webb Street School do.

Theyre both integral parts of a new aquaponics system installed last week at one of two greenhouses at the school, which serves students with intellectual disabilities. Students there are using it as an ecosystem to grow several species of lettuce plants and to mature fish for human consumption.

We want to teach them where food comes from, said Webb Street School Principal Kelli Howe. Its really a farm-to-table atmosphere that were hoping to create.

The aquaponics system was installed last week in the schools renovated greenhouse.

It basically consists of a plastic tank filled with tilapiaa species of freshwater fishand a plant bed filled with freshwater. Overlaying the plant bed is a foam board that has holes with baskets that the plants sit in with water underneath. The baskets are filled with romaine, basil and salanova lettuce plants.

The whole system is connected with pipes.

The feces of the tilapia yields nutrients that are filtered into the plant beds, which help to grow the lettuce plants. A separate tank traps any remaining bacteria and then returns clean water to the fish tank.

In return, the fish grow up healthy and ready to harvest for human consumption. Every several months, a distributor will swap out the mature fish with younger fish to restart the cycle.

Young lettuce plants will be introduced into the plant beds and then harvested about every four weeks. The school plans to install up to 10 plant beds, which would yield about 250 heads of lettuce each cycle.

Its very efficient for growing, said Talia Wucherer, a therapeutic gardener and teacher assistant at the school, of the system. It uses significantly less water, you can grow a lot more plants in a much smaller footprint.

Students like Jarell Carothers, who worked with the system Friday afternoon, say they want to eventually create an economy with the system by selling the lettuce at a local farmers market. Wucherer says thats the plan, and its another piece of this one-of-a-kind learning experience.

We can go ahead and sell the lettuce, they can see where its grown and how they can consume it right away, so the whole concept farm-to-table is being introduced to them and they see all the stages of growth from the beginning to end, said Wucherer. And how to care for the fish and the entire cycle that everything has to go through to be able to produce this.

The system was built by 100 Gardens, a Charlotte-based group that promotes urban agriculture by implementing aquaponics and urban farming programs in schools, institutions and in communities of need.

When completed, the full system will cost around $35,000, according to Howe. The school has already raised almost $4,000 through an online fundraising campaign.

NC Beautiful recently awarded Webb Street School a $1,500 grant to use toward its aquaponics system. The school applied for the competitive grant earlier in the year.

NC Beautiful is a nonprofit organization which is dedicated to raising awareness and appreciation of natural beauty and resources in the state. The organizations executive director Steve Vacendak presented the check to Howe and superintendent of schools Jeff Booker during a ceremony at the school last month.

The school also re-opened for the first time in eight years an adjacent greenhouse where kids are growing plants in soil. Students are also harvesting crops in soil beds in the schools sensory garden, which opened last year.

School garden makes perfect 'sense'

Howe hopes both greenhouses will become a lab of sorts for Webb Street School students to learn alongside their typically developing peers. She also says the greenhouses will help prepare students to possibly work in such an environment upon graduation.

You can reach Eric Wildstein at 704-869-1828 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteEric.

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Webb Street builds greenhouse ecosystem - Gaston Gazette