Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Turnips are one of the fastest crops! Over plant and start harvesting the baby green as soon as 30 days! Once you start harvesting they just keep going.

What I have to perfect now is the timed and sequenced replanting so that my grow bed can be continuously productive. Thats KEY!

I am putting together a list of highly productive plants that harvest in no more than 6 weeks. I still have to compile specific information on food qualities and growing requirements ect. This is what I have on my list so far:


Sweet potato might could be added because the leaves could be eaten as soon as its gets going. I'm also open to suggestions.

Turnips make really good fodder crops and they are very high in calcium. The greens being even better for you than the roots. Spring turnips are often smaller and stronger in flavor than the fall/winter ones which will be more mild to eat.

I learned a new favorite way to eat turnips this past fall. You can slice the roots and roast them drizzled with a little olive oil until they start to brown. I found them very yummy that way. You can also eat them mashed kinda like mashed potatoes or even mix mashed potatoes and mashed turnips. Heck, you can even slice them up and eat them raw with dip like you would with carrot and celery sticks.

I am going to try roasting some with oil tonight!

Well, looks like I may loose most of my corn to bugs

Man I really really dislike bugs!

Any suggestions on how to treat these bugs? They are down in th ends of the cobs.


What bug is this?

With any bug you deem 'unworthy'; catch as many as you can, place in a blender with clean warm water (30degrees C and not chlorinated), blend (some people enjoy this bit), place soup in a warm place for 24/48 hours, dilute and mix contents 1:100 with clean warm water (again no chlorine, rain water is best) , spray on plants affected. Pure soap is often added to the mix in dirt gardens as a wetting agent, but not suggested for AP.

What this does (in theory) is breed up the pathogens that affect this bug. It also makes the plant repellent to the bug. So a) the bugs avoid the plant 'cause to them it reeks of death, and b) if they do stay or land on the plant, the bacteria and viruses you've bred up get 'em. Whatever, it works, safe for plant and fish too.

There is another method called insect 'peppering' used by biodynamic farmers, but it requires you dance naked around a bonfire at full moon or such like

I've given up on corn for the time being in my garden. Seems to need just way to much pampering and spraying to really do well here at the moment. I guess I need to build up more beneficials and better soil before I try corn again.

I had lots of trouble with corn ear worms and though BT works on them, I would have to be spraying like twice a week to really keep up here so I gave it up and we just buy Zellwood sweet corn when it's in season.

Well, I am managing to get about half my corn. Its very tasty too!

The tomato fruit worm and the corn ear worm are the same worm, but that is the only pest I've ever had in corn. No pest bothered my corn this year. I made some small ears but corn doesn't seem to perform to my liking in ap.

The corn its self has preformed well, even in a first year system. Early on I added seaweed extract. I have plenty of potassium from wood ash ect and I add sea 90 salt to the water which has 92 trace minerals/elements. I think it could do better with some folier sprays early on. Planting time also seems to play a big role. I planted more corn a month later and it just is not growing. But then I have not added sea weed extract again. OR more likely the pH is 8+ and there is a nutrient lockout.

Quick update.

The Nutrients are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate. I dont have many plants in, yet there is still 0 nitrates. Clearly I don't have enough fish which explains the slow growth.

Here you can see how many fish I have and how clear the water is right now.

Can also see it in HD on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13NHFXPC7Dw

My Dissolved Oxygen is currently at 8+ with the gast 1/16 HP air pump and a 8 inch plastic diffuser.

Forgot to post a still pic...

Nice shot of the fish. I find that aglae comes and goes. Cycle planting does take some getting use to. If you plant 10 radish seeds every couple of days(or weekly) it will give you an idea once you get to the harvest time. I'm thinking of setting up a small raft gb, and float a weeks worth of lettuce every 7 days. Then as long as I keep planting there should always be fresh greens. If I don't use that weeks lettuce it can be given to the fish or thrown into the worm farm.

Better than TV!

And if you act now.... That's not all!!!!

Today only, A pump and venturi test:


With only 2.5 feet(0.762 meters) of pipe at 20 PSI the DO in the water is raised from 3 to 5. You gota love tilapia, any other fish would be troubled by a DO of 3!!

See the bubbles..