Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just looking back at all your pics simmo, are you concerned about the distortion of your growbeds? As I recall that plastic (forget which one it is) can be quite brittle. Have you had any experience with these breaking?

Yeah, I know... They do distort a bit KP, but these have been exposed to the elements for at least 12 months now and they haven't started to go brittle (yet anyways ). There is a lot of flex in the plastic still, I can push the sides back and there is no cracking at all, but its definitely something I'm keeping an eye on.

I only intend on using these in the short to medium term anyway, ideally I'd like to have a set of 3 fibreglass beds like Muzzas or the ones that EB sells. I think I'll put them on the Xmas wish list this year

Great system simmo. Could you use something to reflect sunlight onto the veggies that don't get any sun after 2? I'm going to use mylar in my system (it's coming, one day I will create a thread & post pics).

Cheers Gemmel, I could I guess, but space is already an issue for my system, we tend to get a bit of wind here also (no, not the kind you get from eating baked beans) so the small gain in direct sunlight would probably be outweighed by the problems it would cause...

I've started to get a few problems with mildew on my squash and zucchini plants of late, so I was out this evening spraying milk around to try to combat it. http://www.backyardgardener.com/tv/mildew.html

While I was having a good look at all the plants to make sure I sprayed all the affected foliage I noticed a couple of things, first was that I have a serious caterpillar problem. I've been picking off the odd caterpillar every day for the past few weeks and feeding them to the goldies and they've been pretty easy to spot because you can see their poo on the leaves and they have tended to have a preference for a particular type of plant. The green ones like broccoli and the smaller brown and grey ones tended to eat the lettuce and tomatoes. I've been busy the past week or two though and they have gotten out of control, almost all of my tomatoes have holes in them and they've even started munching on the zucchini, squash and cucumber flowers. Anyone have a good organic method of controlling them (don't really want to use dipel)? They're not lactose intolerant by any chance are they?

I also found these freshly hatched insects, I'm not sure if they're ladybugs or something similar, I'm just hoping they're predatory insects of some sort... Any clues people?

dunno about the bugs, could be ladybirds.
Mildew on squash and zuchs is normal at this time of year. Getting towards the end of the season. We had a bit of rain/humidity one day early Jan, the zuchs had the mildew next day. It hasn't affected yields, just looks a bit unsightly.

OK cool thanks TT, we have had a very humid week here in Perth, and a full day of rain last Thurs... I'll keep spraying with milk anyway and see if it clears it up.

They look like ladybirds. If they are that is good as ladybirds are predatory (I think they mainly eat aphid), they won't eat your plants.

Good to see the system still ticking along Simmo.

Nova

I found another clump of them yesterday on my basil plant so hopefully they are.

Sprayed with Dipel on Monday night and have yet to find any dead caterpillars, but no more noticeable plant damage either. Need to spray again with dilute milk for the mildew, but this has improved with the dryer weather.

I really think that I made a mistake planting out my beds in the fashion that I did... I planted my seedlings in a pretty random fashion, spreading the varieties over all the beds.
Next time I'm going to stick to one or two veggie species per bed. At the moment the cucumbers are climbing all over everything and smothering them and my mildew affected veggies (squash, zucchini) are mixed in with caterpillar eaten stuff (tomatoes, broccoli) so it makes treating them a little difficult.

Very strangle looking ladybugs in my book. Too small, and I've never seen ladybugs/ladybirds cluster like that. Keep an eye on them.

Simmo,
That cluster of red bugs look like they are beside their eggs. If so, they are not ladybugs. Also, ladybugs larvae look nothing like the adults and the adults pupate out at full size, so if those beasties are as small as they appear, I think you may have a pest.

OK, thanks Janet and hydro, they would only just be 1mm in size at this stage so probably not ladybugs... Will keep an eye on them as suggested.

Wish I had a better macro lens... and I wish we had an entomologist on the forum to eliminate some of the guess work.

Cue Sesame St. music...

One of these bugs is not like the others



As you can see above the biggest one is a pinky red colour, and theres another next to him which seems to be going the same way... Weird... At least they have stayed in the same spot (for now) so it will be easy to squish them if i decide that's the bets option.

On another note, I've just caught the 4 largest yabbies in my system, salt bathed them to get rid of the temno, and they're sitting in an ice slurry in my laundry sink now waiting for the missus to get home.

They're tough buggers, they've been in there for at least 30 mins and there is still signs of life... Every time I poke my head over the sink they raise their claws up at me in a threatening manner, albeit VERY slowly. Pics to follow shortly.

Do you think the yellow stings on the leaves are caused by them?
If it is throw them in the fish tank.

Bon appetit!
How are you going to eat them?