Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Tonzz

"The Madness Of Max"




Andy I finally got a chance to try it, so far I'm very impressed it killed all the bugs instantly, it didn't kill the ants but fixed up the other bugs alright.

It's smells very potent and I think you'd have to be careful with it.

I diluted it 5mls to a litre of water and used it as a foliar spray.

I'll look on Amazon here for it. Thanks

Good news,its great when you recommend something and it works,i wouldnt be without it now,i add it to every foliar spray as it is claimed it helps the leaves take up nutrients easier as well,i use a 200 to 1 mix,but you can use it as diluted as 1000 to 1.

Thanks Andy,

Does the stuff keep after it's mixed?, I threw out what was left because I didn't want it clogging up my new spray bottle.

It's pretty thin when it's mixed so it might not clog the nozzle and I could clear the nozzle to make sure it doesn't block but if it doesn't have any shelf life when it's mixed there's no point in keeping it I'll just mix less in the future.

It definitely was an instant success I was very impressed with it, gee if you diluted further than 1:200 it would be a very cheap product to use, gee at 1:1000 I'd never need to buy any more.

I think I paid about $14.00 for it delivered to the door, I'd need to check that but whatever I paid I didn't flinch at so it was not expensive and it will go a long way, and I'm sure it was well under $20.00 delivered.

So you're adding it in with what whatever foliar spray you are using at 1:200 that is a great idea and I'll try using it that way from now on. Using it with other goodies I'll definitely not store any excess.

Thanks again Andy

They've all got it, Amazon, iTunes and the Microsoft Store all have it and it will also be bundled up with the Mad Max Anthology and released on DVD so they're pushing it. Brian it runs for 2-1/2 hours and gives a pretty good look into what went on.

http://www.woodvinegar.com.au/

This is a good paper on the benefits,health benefits,mixing ratios and general info of Wood Vinegar.
Its $4 here if the postage costs wouldnt kill that price i would send it out.

Thanks Andy,

That is the company I purchased my Wood Vinegar from, great people to deal with.

I must read up on it and make sure how safe it is to use with the fish, I've used it very carefully as a foliar spay only spraying the plant leaves but I often get Whitefly in the growbeds that I'd like to be able spray with it but until I know how safe it is I wont use it on the clay pebbles.

Flooding the growbed doesn't get rid of them, hosing them is the only way I can move them on, if the Wood Vinegar is safe to use it would do a better job.

Andy after reading this I'll use it sparingly


Wood Vinegar Concerns?
Thailand’s Department of Agriculture stresses that wood vinegar is safe for organisms in the food chain, including pollinating insects.
However, they also point out that the substance is slightly toxic to fish and very toxic to plants if applied excessively. Research at Mae Jo
University also shows that wood vinegar with excessive amounts of tar can be harmful to plants.


"slightly toxic to fish" what does that mean Only 1 in every 10 die, their tails fall off

Reference:
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/members.echoco ... inegar.pdf

I've put some shade cloth up for the summer, it runs on 2 wires so that I can pull it over when the temperature gets extreme and hose it every so often and keep things a bit cooler.

I might even run another strand or even 2 of wire and cable tie 13mm black poly tube with spray nozzles and run a timer on the water for those 40c plus days.

Good plan Joe, shading GBs makes quite a difference, helping to minimise temperature gain on sunny days.

I've also up graded the wicking bed to allow a bit more water plus a bit of height to increase the oxygen, I left the excising water reservoirs either side of the crates for extra water.

The bricks aren't included they were to hold the crates in place while I shovelled the soil back in and I mixed in a couple bags of sheep manure.

You might wonder why I used sheep manure, well that what I got when I asked my young bloke to bring me home a couple of bags of cow manure, he's born and bred in the city and probably doesn't know between the two animals.

I didn't complain or even mention it, I just used what I received and was happy with that

Thanks Gordon, it works well, it makes a big difference when all the GB's and fish tank are covered with shade cloth and then hosed down I was quite surprised as too just how much it dropped the temperature down on the that 35c day we had.

So I think I should be able to keep my fish tank temperature down to a reasonable level now on the hottest days and if I use a timer I don't have too be down there all the time hosing.

One thing I might use to cool things down in the GH soon is a misting spray, which we use in the chook yard when its ~35C max or more. Works a treat at cooling things down, and only uses 15litres per hour at about 320kPa pressure.

They use them to keep the chooks cool in those huge poultry farms with 10000+ chooks in a shed.

dang already 35C? Is that normal for this time of year, down there?

Brian it can be and one of the problems is you get a 35c one day and 18c the next, and then be around 14c for the rest of the week.

I remember 20 odd years ago working with a few American guys and they told me they had been watching the tennis live from Melbourne and it was 42c and the a thunderstorm hit and it dropped to 19c, they asked me does that really happen?

That 42c was the air temperature not on court temperature that would have been a lot hotter.

This week on Monday we had an overnight low of 11c and 34c during the day, Tuesday 35c and Wednesday 16c so it's all over the place, the poor old fish don't know what hell is going on.

The fish tank doesn't fluctuate that much but you'll have fish eating one day and not the next because the water is too cold.