Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just jumping in on the banana question, I think it was Ronmaggi who said you need LOTS of banana skins to make a difference, like a 100 per tomato plant per season. That's going off memory though, which is fuzzy at best! I put about 200 banana skins in a week and my tomatoes are going well so who knows?


Would you like some basil and Jade Perch with that latte sir?

Build thread- viewtopic.php?f=18&t=21974&start=75

....seems an aweful lot of banana skins considering the banana is considered to be the Potassium Monster amongst fruits!

I wonder if blending the peels into a liquid or dicing them into small pieces would help the release/absorption process...?

Tom already answered the IRON/rusty nail question - ...follow on:
HOW do plants get their iron in the wild? Must be in the water and/or dirt. HOW does it get there in the required form (ions?)



Cheers,

thjakits

I know the groundwater/bore water around my area is naturally high in iron thanks to the rock and soil make up in the area.

I reckon the best way is as you have already said,but put them in a container and soak them in water for three weeks a month,then sieve this and use the water as a foliar spray,i might even add a little brown sugar or molasses to the water to really get it fermenting.In use especially the molasse route i would dilute it down before spraying it,never tried it but i reckon its worth a try....

....well, as you said worth a try!

Another one on a wild tangent: IF I feed the peels to BSF-larvae - will they be/get "high" on Potassium or will it be left in the rest of the stuff at the bottom of the box?

IF one can manage to feed the fish with good percentage from the BSF bin, fish should be Potassium saturated - eventually and discard the rest into the water - eventually....

Am I off on the wild side - or is there some merit to this??

As Tom mentioned before (with the iron) - probably not worth the hassle, but if it works - perfect recycling of bio-waste!



cheers,

thjakits

I think it's a great idea to get nutrients from waste products and recycle, for myself at the moment it is a bit hard to do as I leave my parents to take care of the system most of the time so all up not much except harvesting/planting and feeding the fish happens.

I think it is a great it's a great idea to diversify the inputs to the system because it probably helps to reduce the chance of deficiencies. That's why I constantly have some worm tea going in my biodigestor.

When are you due home Tom?

I just got back this Wednesday (4th Feb).. nice to be home... the fish have grown

So it has been a while but not much to write except that the system powers along with almost zero maintenance.. in the cooler months now all the greenery has grown really well and quickly, even the rhubarb which struggled during the hot old summer has taken of and we have been able to harvest a bit of it. The lettuces are growing real quick and large.
We did lose 2 fish, the other week but they were the smaller of the lot so I figured it is the cold snap we have had which I don't think they could handle.
We smoked another 4 over the weekend.. and they sure are easier to catch when its cold

Awesome growth there Tom the folks have done very well looking after the system

Yep, we decided to stick mostly to greens as it less maintenance for my folks.. working out well. When I had strawberries in there, we always had to check for aphids and the inevitable ant population that moved in to farm them.

Hows it going Tom?

Hi Charlie,

All is well.. started a new job in July which has been good.
The aquaponics system just keeps ticking along and it produced a lot of really great greens over winter/spring.. now that it is heating up Im seeing a few more pests as usual but I am avoiding all the high maintenance plants like strawberries this year as my parents who look after the system don't really look at it very often except to harvest/plant and feed the fish.