Français

L'aquaponie pour les Nuls

By Philippe Collignon & Pierre Harlaut

Product rating: 4.4 Our review
Pages242
LanguageFrançais
FormatPaperback

The mainstream introduction to aquaponics, published in late 2024 in the Pour les Nuls series. It explains how to set up a system at home, how to choose your fish and plants, and how to keep the whole thing running without the jargon.

Publisher's price 39.00 €
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Overview Contents Our review The author Specifications

Overview

Published in late 2024, this is the most recent aquaponics book in French, and the only one written jointly by a gardening broadcaster and a working aquaponics grower. Philippe Collignon has been presenting gardening on France 2 for thirty years, and Pierre Harlaut has installed several hundred kits for private customers and helped set up the first French aquaponic farms. That double signature comes through: the tone stays accessible, but the technical chapters are not skimmed over.

The book moves through five parts. It opens with the technique and its principles, then turns to design: growing methods, the parts that make up a system, water flow, the golden rules, and a full chapter on designing a system of your own. Next come the protagonists, with fish, bacteria and plants each treated separately, then start-up and day-to-day running. The last two chapters cover pests and diseases, which few beginner guides bother to spell out.

Table of contents

  1. 1Chapter 1 - Aquaponics, a growing technique thousands of years old
  2. 2Chapter 2 - The principles of aquaponics
  3. 3Chapter 3 - Modern aquaponics in all its forms
  4. 4Chapter 4 - Growing techniques in aquaponics
  5. 5Chapter 5 - The parts that make up an aquaponic system
  6. 6Chapter 6 - Organising water flow through the system
  7. 7Chapter 7 - The golden rules of aquaponics
  8. 8Chapter 8 - Designing an aquaponic system of your own
  9. 9Chapter 9 - Fish
  10. 10Chapter 10 - Bacteria and other living organisms
  11. 11Chapter 11 - Plants
  12. 12Chapter 12 - Starting up your aquaponic system
  13. 13Chapter 13 - Aquaponics day to day
  14. 14Chapter 14 - Dealing with pests
  15. 15Chapter 15 - Dealing with diseases

Key takeaways

  • Aquaponics is nothing new: the technique is thousands of years old, only its modern form is recent.
  • Water flow has to be worked out before you buy any equipment, because it governs everything else.
  • Fish, bacteria and plants are three separate subjects, each with its own requirements.
  • Starting a system up and running it day to day are two different stages that call for different actions.
  • Pests and diseases affect aquaponics too, and the book gives them its last two chapters.

The editorial verdict

Product rating: 4.4 4.4/5

This is currently the best entry point in French, and by far the most recent. The Pour les Nuls format makes the subject approachable without making it shallow: the contents give a full chapter to designing a system, another to water flow, and two to pests and diseases, which beginner guides usually dodge. If you then want advanced water chemistry or a farm business model, the reference guide by Petitet-Gosgnach and The Aquaponic Farmer take over from there.

The Univers-Aquaponie team

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Pros

  • +The most recent aquaponics book in French
  • +Written with a working aquaponics grower, not just a populariser
  • +A full chapter on designing a system of your own
  • +Two chapters on pests and diseases, rare at this level

Cons

  • −Introductory format: few worked sizing calculations
  • −Nothing on setting up a commercial project
  • −The box-and-sidebar layout is no substitute for a technical manual

About the author

Philippe Collignon has been informing gardeners for thirty-five years, in print, on radio and on television. A former teacher of botany and plant biology, he knows landscaping and horticulture as well as market gardening. He started out at Télé Lyon Métropole, then on Coucou c'est nous with Christophe Dechavanne and at France 3. For the past thirty years he has been at France 2, as the specialist columnist on Télématin.

He has written several books, among them Le Potager perpétuel with Ulmer in 2016, then Je jardine zéro déchet pour les Nuls, Un potager pour les Nuls and Le Petit Guide des salades et des tomates, all with First Éditions.

Pierre Harlaut, a graduate of Reims Management School with an MBA from Léonard de Vinci, began as an entrepreneur and e-marketing specialist. In 2014 he left that path for aquaponics and permaculture and returned to his home village in the Marne. He has since installed several hundred kits for households and businesses, taken part in the creation of the first French aquaponic farms, and popularised the field through his websites, ebooks and video channel. Holder of the French farming certificate since January 2020, he works 11.5 hectares organically, where his ZFarm nursery grows native hedgerow and meadow plants.

Did you know?

The book came out on 21 November 2024. It is the most recent title in our library on the subject, the other French-language references dating mostly from 2017.

Co-author Pierre Harlaut left e-marketing in 2014 to devote himself to aquaponics and permaculture. He now works 11.5 hectares organically in the Marne, where his ZFarm nursery grows a few hundred thousand native hedgerow and meadow plants a year.

Specifications

AuthorPhilippe Collignon & Pierre Harlaut
PublisherFirst Éditions, collection Pour les Nuls
Publication dateNovember 2024
Pages242
Reading time≈ 4 h
FormatPaperback
LanguageFrançais
Dimensions19,3 x 23,3 cm
ISBN-139782412088746
ISBN-102412088748

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