Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Wow neet peaches.

YOur soil sounds just like mine. Hi PH and no neuts. What do you do there to fix the soil or do you fix it?

yes our "soil" or rather more "sand and lime stone" is a challenge for sure.

However we have a avocado in the front yard that gets very little attention and is going gang busters.

Got loads of massive avo's and had to cut 3m of the top last year it's still about 6m tall i think its a FUERTE.

thats positive slow boat. I have a avocado in a pot atm..i have overcared for it like i do all my new plants and most liekly overwatered and over fertilised a new plant...


All the leaf tips have gone crispy brow so i have stopped watering it to let it dry out. Also i put a capfull of vinegar in watering can before watering to bring the ph down to something more acceptable (for a short time).

Like all new plants i mistook yellow leaves as a sign of nitrogen/iron deficiency so i watered it too much with suppliments...Really it was overwatering..

Its interesting that the plants we neglect grow the best...My scorpion butch T chilli that i ignored since last year is over 1m tall and a huge bush now growing massively...

Hello all. I am new to aquaponics and have been doing major research. I am highly interested in doing trees in a greenhouse method such as avocado(i do know that they get big even the dwarf strains). I had an idea for a setup and would like input on this. I hope i am not overstepping bounds but i think it fits with this thread. I would incorporate a wicking barrel into the aquaponics plumbing where there is constant flow through the water resevoir on the bed so it is always full and therefore always supplying water and nutrients to the grow media of the tree. I understand that the traditional wicking bed has you fill the barrel or bed manually when needed but i was thinking this would be a bit easier to have it constantly filled with the other plumbing. Can anyone see this being a problem or nonsensical in any way. I am designing my system at the moment and will be having a green house built due to my cold climate so i can year round crops. Thanks for any input.

The best advice I can give is to get rid of all the soil. It will just create anoxic zones where the roots die. Perhaps in a wicking method, that won't be an issue, but gravel works great if you get your trees bare root. I recommend buying them that way. The good news is that avocados respond quite well to heavy pruning.

I want to try "integrated wicking barrel trees" myself, but avocados are a particularly bad choice - they really like dry conditions, and do not respond well to overwatering.

My design for the aquaponic wicking tree pot would be a half-barrel with the bottom 6-8" filled with gravel media and a stand pipe drain in the center. Plumb to a "T" to split the flow in two directions on opposite sides at the bottom of the barrel to give the water a "spin" motion, and use a media guard to keep gravel out of the drain - ensure 1-2" of gravel above the stand pipe (or use hydroton for this top layer of gravel for increased capillary action). Use 70% shade cloth (or something) to keep the soil from infiltrating the media layer, and pile a nice thick layer of cardboard and/or wood chipping on top of that before adding the top layer of soil.

Ideally, place the unit next to something that can be used as support for espaliering the tree (assuming it's a variety that can be espaliered). Add worms!

I will make a suggestion for you to consider. The best thing I think you can do is to do a flood and drain for the trees. Set the cycle to match the trees desires. Set a long time between cycles for the ones that don't like too much water, and set shorter cycles for the ones that like lots of water. My Pecans have stood in water for almost two years and they love it. I have lost all but three of my 15 trees because I transplanted them at the wrong time. Trees really do not like being moved or transplanted. Once you get them started leave them alone. Watch closely for signs of stress and adjust as necessary.

Thanks all for the input.

Thanks Ron I read that about the bare root trees being the way to go. I also was not thinking of going the way of dirt either I was thinking mostly stone to keep them stable. Maybe a few wood chips around the roots for initial planting for a bit of padding from the stone but I expect the plant to adapt as it grows to the stone.

Thanks for the info duck. As far as the roots being too wet there are certain media that would draw only so much water to stay a constant dampness. If I were to find the media that would only draw and retain the amount of moisture that the tree likes do you think I can make this work? of course stone does not absorb much moisture but if I incorporate something else that hold a bit more water than the stone then hopefully it wont be too wet for the roots. That barrel design does sound like a good idea. I was thinking of adding a few citrus trees also so that might be the perfect build.

Thanks Don for the insight. Sorry to hear you lost so many trees . but if I were to use the wicking bed and adjust the type of absorbtion media to the trees likes do think it could work? Like I said I would like to try and incorporate it in a continuous system so that it would be as maintenance free (like that's truly possible ) as can be. Like I said I am doing research so any and all ideas welcome thanks.

So many great ideas on this forum. Thanks for sharing both what worked and what didn't!

After doing more research , I'm of the opinion that trees are best kept out of AP as they prefer fungally dominated soil with Ammonia based feed generally, rather than bacterially dominated nitrate based food as occurs in AP.

Its not that they won't grow, though IMO they are much better off in well prepared soil, be that in the ground or a pot.

AP excels at leafy greens, can do fruiting veg if nutrients are managed well, and for this reason I think its best to plant what works well in AP, eg leafy greens and some fruiting plants.

+ for the long term aspect of an AP system.

Fruit trees can take 5-10 years to get going to full potential, in the ground, they can be left alone and let to grow, in AP, there is a chance you'll need to clean out the grow beds, that can be problematic if there is a huge tree in there.

That said, gum trees seems to grow well in my DWC system, it's almost 1m high.

good point

LOL, my neighbours native tree seems to germinate pretty well in my growbeds too.

I've got blackwood in my beds.

Pruned appropriately, a fruit tree takes up reletively little grow bed space, and gives you vertical grow space. There is no reason you cannot clean the growbeds with a tree in it. It gives you a chance to inspect the roots.

^Knew I couldn't be the only one having to "weed" sycamore trees out of the grow bed!