Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Great color on the Beets shows a well balanced system with nutrients available. Plus it's just plain beautiful!

Thanks for the kind words Boss, it really is such a pleasure to see what aquaponics can do, I wish I had got off my arse a long time ago and done this earlier.

Anyway, a busy weekend out in the garden this weekend, as they all are. My son and I planted out rockmelon, butternut and musquee de provence pumpkin seedlings out under the stonefuit trees. Hoping for a bumper crop of melons and pumpkins! Also planted out 3 x climbing japanese cucumbers went into a wicking bed and another 3 into the aquaponics system. I made up a trellis behind one of the GB's from reo-mesh arched over like a canopy to train the cucumbers up, also plan on using the same bed for Tomatoes to climb over, compare dirt and AP growth. Pulled out a couple of the flowering broccoli from the GBs for chook greens and to open up the beds to allow spinach and chard to get some more sunlight.

I've been having to add approximately 30-40L of water a week to top up the system. I'll need to keep an eye on that, I might have the siphon standpipes a tad long and getting surface evaporation. The surface is dry, dampness starts ~20-25mm down, might need to shorten them by a further 25mm or so.

Using a good mulch will help with evaporation.

Yea I have the wicking beds mulched well. The top-up is in the AP system, I think that I may have the water coming up too high during flood cycle with the expanded clay wicking up and increasing evaporation. Might take an inch off each siphon standpipe and see if that makes a difference.

I always get freaked out when I see the sump water level down around the pump, thinking damn I have a leak somewhere. On the other hand I'm in a way glad I never got around to setting up the automatic top-off system, because then if there were a leak I might not catch it in time.

Now that's impressive, you're able to produce a lot on such a small space! If more people did this in their backyards, I'm pretty sure the world would be a much, much better place, in terms of ecology as well as human traits : who can be aggressive, frustrated or petty when your hobby is growing you own vegetables?

First harvest of beetroot yesterday, along with last cauli, chard thats growing madly as the weather warms a little, sugar snap peas and eggs from the chooks.

The beets were variable in size but will do very nicely roasted. Will be interesting to see if these is any flavor difference cf. soil grown ones.


Potted out seedlings into bigger pots ready to go into AP system once a little more advanced and also transplanted some into the wicking beds.


the AP is starting to look a little bare as I am finishing harvesting the cauli & broccoli and starting to take some beets. have already replaced with a few climbing cucumbers, when the tomatoes are a bit more advanced they'll go in as will some capsicums, eggplant, celery and more broccoli.


Elsewhere in the garden one of the young espaliered cherries is flowering, he other on the other espalier closer to the AP is just starting to bud swell.

The Coriander is sending up massive flowers spikes, they'd have to be 4-5' long!

There is something special about spring time.

I will spent today to button things up. The remnants of Hurricane Rosa will come across the 4 Corners, heavy tropical rain and probably big hail. Need to cover my outside plants, so my fall harvest survives.

Yes, Spring would have to be my favourite time of the year, the change in weather, crisp mornings with warm days, everything starts to get moving.

Good luck with the weather coming your way Gnoib, hope it's not too bad!

Agreed, Spring is best, although I tend to stress over all the season changes. Fall makes my adrenaline pump as I start to realize all the leaks and vents need to be closed up, some like the greenhouse vents need closing at night and opened in the morning often distracting me from the big issues which developed over Summer that need dealt with before it gets really cold. This year we left our wood heater in place and we already had a couple fires in it, so that is a relief.

End of Winter I worry I don't have enough seeds started for Spring. Hehe, yes us gardeners need to stay on top of a few things. I think that's why it is so rewarding when things we grow make it to a bountiful harvest. Shear joy.
Brian

RE seed starting, absolutely worry about not enough seedlings to plant out. I'm glad I started more than I needed, I've lost a few planted out in soil beds so something that has taken a liking to them. All snowpeas have been topped, all growing tips taken off to about 4 leaf pairs from ground level, very annoying as I'll have to replant again. Have also lost 2 capsicum seedlings, completely disappeared overnight I'll need to put cloches back over till they get a bit bigger!

Today is our first hot day, 30C, after a warm overnight temp of 17C. the water temp in the FT was 17C this morning, I covered the bare sections of the GBs with EPS sheets and left the insulated lid down on the FT, unfortunately it'll be in full afternoon sun so I'm hoping that I have trout still swimming around when I get home this arvo! Luckily the next couple weeks are again back to low teens overnight with high teems/low 20C daytime, so if they get through today hopefully I'll get a couple weeks of growth.

Cherries have started to set fruit, hopefully we'll get a few this year off 2yo trees. These were an experiment as cherries don't do so well on the coastal plains of Adelaide due to it being borderline for cold hours.

How time flies! not much in the past 4 weeks to report, the GB's are looking a bit sparse as the seedlings planted are still small, the up and down temperatures we've had has not been the best for them to really get going. I've been taking out Beetroot and chard most weeks, so 2 of the 3 beds are now about 75% empty.

Have replaced with Tomatoes, both Determinate and Indeterminate varieties, lots of small basil seedlings, a few capsicum, celery and eggplant seedlings also.

As a consequence the nitrate levels have come up again, reading around 80ppm or slightly higher so hopefully as the weather warms these warm weather loving plants will take off.

I've taken the plunge and put out some home made bait stations for the rodents that were having a go at my fruit trees as traps just weren't working. The baits have been munched on and fruit loss has stopped so hopefully I've got on top of that issue and will have a nice harvest of peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines and Cherries.

Speaking of cherries
I'm pleasantly surprised with fruit set considering I'm on the coastal plains of Adelaide, these were an experiment as I wasn't sure we'd get the chill hours. looks like some nice cherries for Christmas, not bad from a 3yo espalier tree!

Cherries look great

Looks like we are going to get a few this yr

Did you see the segment on ABC gardening on cherry pruning and general tips , link below

https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsh ... p/10395594

Cheers Terra, i'll have a squizz.

Has been a while since I've updated on progress, has now been pretty much 6 months exactly since adding fish to the AP system, harvested 1 early last week, average size at 11", weighed in at 420g. Flesh was white as I haven't got feed that will color them up. Tasted very nice. Still have a Doz left as I'm pretty sure I started with a bakers Dozen. The weather at the moment is all over the place with occasional days 30-35 followed by a number of days low single digit overnight temps and high teen, low 20 days. The water temp has been fluctuating between 16C and 25C, trout are eating sporadically so I think its time to harvest the lot.


The growbeds are looking sparse with the change in seasons, pulled out some of the last beetroot, this one is a medium sized one, a few others were 20-30% bigger.


Have planted out some tomatoes, more brassicas (Kale, Cabbages and Broccolini), basil, climbing cucumbers, the Oregano is loving the warmer temperatures and going gangbusters



Soil garden is also going great, Zucchini are growing nicely, and the espaliered fruit trees have some nice fruit set for young trees. Cherries are ripening in time for Christmas!