Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Lettuce harvest this morning got 43 orders worth of lettuce plus a couple of bins of chicken food (the caterpillars have been pretty bad this last week with the heat being back up.)
Celery harvest was 7 orders from just 2 of my 44" by 16" rafts, in cooler weather I think I could expect between 10-20 orders from those two rafts. I'm hoping I have only three more weeks before the celery can start ticking over regular big harvests.
I still have not sprayed ANYTHING. I really need to start spraying to keep the caterpillars at bay but it's been too hot to spray before dinner and after dinner really hasn't been an option with the little farmer and bath/bedtime routine normally starting right after dinner.
I'm proud of not having spayed anything in 2 years but it has meant that things like cucumbers are hard to keep worm free and therefore I haven't been able to market certain things so I really need to start the fish safe stuff again and start spraying the Dipel pro where I'm having caterpillar issues and It would probably help things if I started using the azamax again since we are seeing some grasshopper damage as well as the dang leaf footed bugs.

Wow, and wow, you have so much going on down there. Thanks for the in depth updates

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Well, yesterday evening before dinner it was cool enough to spray. Good thing because the caterpillars were getting ahead of my ability to squish them daily.

I went pretty light with the dipel pro but hopefully it will be enough to set the buggers back.
I think I also need to start with some AzaMax too to help against the grasshoppers and leaf footed bugs and stink bugs
(it won't kill them but it is an antifeedant and it will also mess up the re-production cycles.)

I'm happy to report that last week's spraying was effective against the caterpillars!

I'm trying to sus out a few deficiency problems.
In the media bed system I'm seeing some of this

it seems to really only be on the Red and White Russian Kale.
All my other kale (ten other varieties) looks good as do the Broccoli and veronica and swiss chard. Only other plant in that system I notice showing any of it is the random nasturtium volunteer. This is on the older leaves, not the brand new ones so NOT Iron. I've been dosing with chelated iron anyway. Is it Potassium or Magnesium? I've dosed with both of those (was it enough?) but should I be expecting to see the problem correct on the existing leaves or do I have to wait for the new growth?
If I manage to figure this out, I'll know I can kinda use the russian kales as indicator plants for that nutrient but I need to sort out how to correct and read them as a test.

Other issue I'm having is over in the Raft/tower system

Celery is having some spots/patching on older leaves. Has been an ongoing problem sometimes more sometimes less. Anyone have any ideas, recommendations on that one?

Same goes for lettuce

Spotting on older leaves

Helpful pictures? http://customers.hbci.com/~wenonah/min-def/kale.htm

Kale looks like it's probably a magnesium deficiency -

Epsom Salts - MgSO4 - A teaspoon of Epsom salts per 1000L or a smaller foliar dose 375g to 20 litres - from the product label Faulding Epsom Salts. 1 tsp per gallon for spray. Do not over apply and don't use on bright sunny days - this can cause leaf scorch.

Other issues look like bacterial or fungal leaf spot where water may have splashed and remained from rain.

Hum, well I had just dosed the system with the Kale in it with more than the tsp per 1000 L of system water the week before the pic.

Try it as a spray, you may have some nutrient lockout going on. I could be wrong but looks like magnesium more than potassium to me

I think the leaves should come back to normal from either of these deficiencies provided they haven't gone to far (dead tissue). Both are mobile nutrients.

Thanks Scotty, I just wish those two nutrients were easier to test for with home test kits.
Good to hear that they are mobile nutrients. If I can get things into balance It is good to know which plants make good living indicators.
I'll have to wait till this evening to spray since it is hot today and no knowing if the sun is going to come out or not.

I've had good luck with using Red Russian Kale as an indicator plant, it has always been one of the first to show deficiencies in potassium and iron. I haven't run into the magnesium issue with it yet . Usually you get more tip and edge die back with potassium.

If you do find that it's lockout you might want to do a series of 1/3 to 1/2 water changes (3 to 5 should catch it) to get the nutrient levels back down to where it's easier to balance the ones that are low (assuming that some nuts are too high).

Probably isn't lock out from anything being too high. I was really low on everything last round of lab tests.

After looking back through my notes, I probably need to add another 2.5-5 lb of epsom salts to that system to really bring the magnesium levels up to where they really need to be.

Glad you've been keeping track and it sounds like you've got it figured

So, if Red Russian makes a really good magnesium indicator.

What's a good indicator plant for Potassium?