Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Most really large operations are doing solids removal and water changes.

In cool weather you can also grow loads of watercress which grows happily in more alkali conditions that sometimes really slow other plants down. Nice thing about watercress is you can grow it without or only minimal media by making a net and pvc float to put over a tank of water so it doesn't require a full blown media bed. It is also supposed to be really good for ya but I can't eat that much of it, just too strong for my taste raw. Cooked it looses some of the strong flavor though so works well in scrambles along with beat greens.

If you want a more mild flavor kale, look for the dinosaur kale (Lactano or Tuscano) it is more of a flat leaf and is a bit more mild than lots of the crinkly leaf kales. I think the Red Russian Kale is a bit more mild too but seems to get attacked by aphids a bit more so regular spraying/attention might be needed to grow it. Also, Collard Greens are more mild and easy to grow though they will take up lots of space. the dinosaur kale and collards being a bit more flat leaf are also easier to make kale/collard chips with if you are using a dehydrator to make the chips (easier to stack or slide in the trays with the flat layers of leaves.)

Thanks TC - I'll check out the dinokale - found some here:

http://greenharvest.com.au/SeedOrganic/ ... lrabi.html

says its heat tolerant as well!

My Toscano kale made it through most of summer here before it totally gave up. During July and August I was loosing a plant or two a week but I was still harvesting it heavily through June here.

My Kale is still going great. The Russian red kale is flowering and seems much more susceptible to diamond back moths than the curly kale (which has almost no damage). Only one of all my curly kale plants has flowered.

Curly kale in the front and Russian red in the back


Russian red on the left and curly on the right with green oakleaf on the left in the front and deer tongue lettuce on the right.


and some more Kale. Curly, then red then curly then red. Note to self, don't plant so much kale next year!!

What do you do with kale?

Looks like the kind of plant i would put in to look impressive to everyone but feed to the worms.

Oh Ryan I'm deeply hurt - feed my kale to the worms, chooks maybe but the worm farm is way tooo small.
Seriously, I thought kale was stock food until SWMBO got into healthy eating in a big way a few years ago and we drank kale smoothies, and ate kale with most things. It is not bad and where you would use leafy greens, especially one of the cruciferous vegetables, you can substitute kale. The young leaves are great in salads as well. A truly underutilised and poorly appreciated vegetable ain't that so TCLynx. Add the fact that it is really healthy for you, grows real well and very productive, what more could you ask for?

Kale chips took me to a whole new level of love for the plant.


Marc that is a dam impressive collection of kale, very impressed.

Ill go get some when i get off work then

Awesome Kale Marc, it put my two plants too shame

and some oakleaf lettuces.

and one of my many motorbike frogs that has camped out in one of the olive barrels looking after his brood of tadpoles

I've noticed the Red Russian Kale is a bit more prone to pest attack than most of the other Kale I've grown.

Now making Kale or Collard chips is great but time consuming. I've found that a really easy way to eat lots of your good healthy greens is to harvest and wash your leafy greens. Then simply chuck it in a ziplock bag in the freezer, then when it's time to make a smoothy, ya just bash the bag a bit and scoop out the already nicely busted up bits of kale to put in the smoothy.

We have taken to drinking most of our greens lately instead of eating them like salad. A bit of Orange Juice (or whatever juice is most appropriate to you,) various veggies and greens that you have on hand and a bit of fruit and away you go.

With the very hot weather forecast I decided to take the plunge and pulled the last of the trout out. Even though it is cooler up here in the hills the forecast long string of hot days followed by warm nights was almost certainly going to lead to dead or very stressed trout. Nothing would be gained from leaving them in any longer, besides I have run out of 7mm pellets. Also pulling trout out around Christmas and New Year has nobs on it so I was more than happy to oblige.
Sad to see them go after spending 8 months keeping them alive and seeing them every day. The Silvers a such an anti climax.

There should be 17 fish left and I managed to get 15 before the temp got up to 23 in the tank and I decided to call it a day. There is one cacker in there that can't be any more than 300gms. He kept getting caught and I kept throwing him back. The other one that is left is another biggie.

Anyhow the largest was 1.44kg and 450mm long, smaller than last year's but then I started out with smaller fish, harvested 3 weeks earlier and was a lot lighter on the food.
The average weight over the 15 was 1.1kg and average length was 415mm.


Some nice lean fish


And some that were clearly pigs



Interestingly none of the fish had started to produce eggs, unlike last year when I was seeing that from October.
All in all another great trout season.

Only 4 months 'til trout season 2014!! This time with the "new" 3000l tank for the trout.

The second last trout pulled out of the tank, just a tad over 1.2kg and 450mm long. Only one small one left. The heat has not slowed it down and it is a bugger trying to catch on its own. His days are numbered as I have to take the trout tank out and replace it with another towards the end of January.


The lettuces are doing well


The Kale, particularly the Russian red could not handle the heat a couple of weeks ago and have gone backwards rapidly. Chooks are happy with the kale though and I now have room in the beds for other things.
the Toms have gone mad but either the king skinks or the possums (or both) are eating all the tomatoes as they ripen. The king skinks I can tolerate as they keep the mice down and do their bit around the house. The possums on the other hand...

each year has been better than the last and this year was beyond all my expectations. Even the whitefly have been down this year but I have seen a heap of parasitised Whitefly so that may be the reason. Now if only I could deal with the cabbage aphids.

Trout arrived yesterday, many thanks to Troutman . Another great bunch that started feeding within the hour.
But before we start the 2014 trout season I thought I would add a couple of photos from last season I found on the camera when i downloaded the photos from our trip away over Easter.

Nice one Marc