Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Water temps over the 2nd half of Feb have been fairly consistent due to continuing warm weather, so the Murray Cod have been eating well, I've been giving them about 150g of ox heart each day. They aren't interested in pellets, even if soaked in meat juice. The tomato plant leaves are getting a bit pale, so no doubt the all-meat diet is causing some deficieny, so I'll get back to adding B&B and Seasol, which I have not been doing regularly in recent months. The tomatoes are producing lots of fruit, I've picked 8kg in the past 5 days, and been making sauce and soup with the ones we dont eat fresh.
The White Fly seem as thick as ever, but now the Peruvian Ground Apple has started flowering, I'll be able to harvest that in a few weeks, and remove the main White Fly high rise apartment block from the GH!

gnoib, have you tried Azadirachtin(neem) on the whitefly? It knocks them out if you can get good coverage and apply 3 times over a 7-8 day period. It doesn't seem to bother the wasps. I always sprayed early or late. The regular Neem didn't work. It was pricey, but goes a long way, and was the only thing that worked in my GH. The wasps seem to do a great job, but like Gunagulla said, they sometimes can't keep up.

Fantastic system and thread Gordon. Very inspiring. I am 3 weeks in from bringing home my IBCs and my system is part way through cycling - can't wait to see even a part of the growth you have achieved. Love what you do with your produce.

Thanks joc

I'll be interested to see how your granite media goes, whether or not it breaks down at all over time.
How much did it cost per cubic metre? I've just started filling my new system GBs and am looking for a lower cost than the $125/m^3 I'm paying for 20mm river gravel locally, as I'll need about 11m^3 in total.

Hi Gordon, the granite looks very solid and unlikely to breakdown (unlike the decomposed granitic gravel I have for paths). It was $90/m3 and I paid $10 delivery fee for half a cubic metre as it came from the local landscape supply. Its a lovely pink colour and has more texture and was cheaper than blue metal. The scoria was too small with too many fines for my liking, so I went with the granite. I have put in a close up of my first baby watercress which shows the granite media.



Excited today, my water test is showing 1ppm NH3, 2ppm NO2 & 10ppm NO3 - so cycling is well underway

Cheers

Jo

O.U.C.H..

That is such a sobering thought.... likely 1400 bucks... OUCH.. You just don't think the silly media will be an issue.. but we can bodgie up all soughts of grow beds, and possibly for soooo little...

Clearly the granite will be rough but the most stable of media choices..
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Have you thought about using a different growing system such as DWC with dedicated filtration (solid and bio?)

No chance of that Matt, it's got to look approximatley like a normal garden according to the boss, and I want it to be thermally stable and tied as closely as possible to ground temperature. Plus I dont want to be using polystyrene out in the sun in a basically closed system, I've seen how it decomposes, and I definitely do not want any of that in my system.

[quote="Gunagulf.. I dont want to be using polystyrene out in the sun in a basically closed system, I've seen how it decomposes, and I definitely do not want any of that in my system.[/quote]

That was one reason that I felt more comfortable with foil clad board, that will protect the PS and increase the insolation to the plants.. even the exposed faces are all dark green with algae...

I am curious about how you plan to make eleven meters of rock AP , LOOK like a normal garden.....
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You'll just have to wait for pics, in that thread More shovelling dirt on the weekend, early and late in day, it's too bloody hot the rest of the time, and maybe some plumbing if I can get the pipe out here by then.

Dam expensive gravel mate, is it pre washed or something? hopefully you can find something more affordable.

I`m phoning another supplier tomorrow, I think they will be less expensive, although they didn't have what I was looking for when I did my first system. No, it's not washed, just graded to 20mm, and although I don't need it all now, it's still a huge expense that I can't afford in the short term.

Not happy with the wallaby or roo that ate almost my entire sweet potato vine last night.

and that causes a question.. do potatoes grow at each place the vine gets rooted..

or just at the primary planting site..
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I don't think so, but the vine in the dirt garden a couple of years ago was such a massive thing, with stacks of large tubers that kept us going for quite a while, that it is a bit hard to tell.