Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Some of my fruiting vegis like tomato, cucumber and peppers have been struggling. I've been getting lots of flowers but only an occasional fuit to bear and they don't get very big. I live in an isolated area where it it difficult and expensive to get maxicrop or potash or any of the other supplement mentioned on here.
I do have an abundance of homegrown organic pestacide free banana growing in my frontyard. I've read about putting banana in your system for K, but what part? Or is it the whole banana? Should I bury it in my GB? I do have composting worm in there but they are small in numbers just getting started. I also have some half barrel DWC that I can just drop them in the water if that is better.

Peace,
Cory

Howdy Cory, I put in the skin as the boys love eating the fruit. My understanding is that the fruit will have more K but the skin has plenty as well. The skin breaks down very quickly and the worms help it on its way. I will say that I have not been as vigilant with the skins of late due to getting home from work a bit later than i would like and having to do dad duties, but have started again. Strawberries are now flowering again - but maybe too late in the season here in Vic Aust. for good fruit development. We'll see I guess.

Bury the bananas I say and let the worms do their thing. It won't take long for the worm population to increase!

Quachy

Eat the bananas.. and give the skins to the worms..

Got it, ate 3 bananas for breakfast and deep sixed the skins in each GB...........thnaks, Cory

As to tomatoes not setting much fruit. I've heard that sometimes if the temperature difference between day and night isn't great enough or if the daytime temps are just way too hot and nights not cooling off enough, tomatoes might have trouble setting fruit.

I've found that my tomatoes don't usually get really big. This could be cause I don't supplement enough with potassium or the temperatures or perhaps my system pH being kinda high. We still get a fair amount of good tasting tomatoes anyway.

Good luck with the bananas. Let us know how it goes.

Ya - night temp effects tomatoes a lot. To fruit most tomatoes want night temps between 55 and 75. Any colder or warmer then most varieties will not fruit. Thinking about it though, in AP we might actually see those numbers shift up a bit. My theory here is that elevated growbeds can cool much quicker then the dirt garden. And the constant flood and drain has got to have some cooling effect. Anyone?

Mark

I'm more likely to put the expanded temperature range that plants are happy with in AP down to improved comfort of the plants. They are not stressed for water and therefore able to deal better with a wider temperature range. Keeping in mind that the gravel beds probably act as a thermal mass for a while in the evening and the greater humidity around plants that have ample water to transpire might act to keep the temp around the plants a bit warmer later into the evening but being up and perhaps with better air flow through the plants, it might just even all those things out.

I've had cherry and grape tomatoes manage to continue producing all the way through summer here but they are known for their better ability to deal with extreme heat anyway. Heck, while I had the greenhouse plastic up, I probably could have kept the cherry and grape tomatoes producing year round if I really worked at it.

I did notice through our ever so brief "spring" weather here when the night temps were dipping below 70 and the day temps were in the 80's the tomatoes were putting on lots and lots of new fruit. How I just gotta hope the heat doesn't do them in before they can get ripe! Having a terrible time with leaf footed bugs and stink bugs that suck juice out of fruit leaving them looking a bit ugly. Doesn't seem to be much that can be done about them that I know of and even if chemicals were ok, apparently most chemicals don't work against those critters anyway!!!! About the only way I found to deal with them was a vacuum cleaner and only if you could get close enough to suck them up before they fly away!!!!! Leaf footed bugs are really good fliers. Sigh.

Hope the bananas help

I think it was BBill that suggested a dust buster to get the stink bugs. Sounds like it would work a treat. The method I have use in the past is to watch for the leaf feet when they are still jouvinal. When they are that little, they just drop into the dirt when threatened. I take a pan of water out and hold under the leaves with the critters. Then as you reach for them and spook them, they drop off into the water. Once they are big - they are hard to catch. I have not had any trouble this year yet. My toms are still flowering, but setting very little fruit now. I put them in a little to late also so I do not expect much out of them this year. The tomato horn worm is the one that plagued me last year. Plucked one or two a day off. Can they be fed to fish?

I usually cut the horn worms in half before throwing to the fish unless my fish are really big.

When I have overripe bananas I feed them to the fish. It's gotta increase the potassium of the whole system that way, I figure. Koi love bananas.

For those with roses in soil, banana skins make an excellent long-lasting mulch.
This goes for other plants in the same family, my blackberries seem happier the more skin-ny mulch I pile around them.

"A large family of plants, the Rosaceae, characterized by showy flowers with five separated petals and numerous stamens borne on the margin of a cuplike structure, including important fruit plants such as the apple, cherry, peach, pear, plum, raspberry, and strawberry, as well as ornamentals such as the rose and spirea."

Another option for adding minerals is to start a worm bin and collect the tea... I drizzle some of that into the system from time to time in addition to banana skins. No problem with fruiting or strange leave colorations that i am currently aware of.

CB