Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi,
I've noticed my plants are quite brittle in the growbed in comparison to the earth vege patch. Anyone know why this might be?

My system is fully cycled with ph 6.4 and nitrates up around 80. Ammonia and nitrites are low.

Cheers

Hi Greenhorn,
the plants are brittle because they are so turgid ie full of water. Plants in the dirt garden often get like that when it is raining. With the aquaponics there is no reason why the plants cant have as much water as they want and so they pump up with water and become brittle. in reverse if they are lacking water they can become flaccid.
Anyhow that's what I think causes them to become brittle.

any other thoughts?

Cant argue with that

sounds alright to me too

it's unanimous then

What plants are brittle Greenhorn? Never seen or heard of this before.

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Thanks Marc. Sounds logical. Faye it's mostly broccoli, tomatoes. Branches seem to fall off when brushing by them..

I have had the same problem with tomatos. The branches break easily when trying to tie them up.

Are you getting enough sunshine? Might be time to prune a few of those trees?

I get the same thing with my rainbow chard and broccoli leaves where they will snap when looking for caterpillars if I'm not careful. I'd also be inclined to blame the high water content

Water it is then. Heavy rains seems to wreak havoc so will look at setting up some sort of cover to protect.

Completely agree with Jackfrost that chard and the broccoli are the worst. I would not have put my beds so close together had I known that. Often there is a trail of broken leaves behind me as I move between the beds.

I have also noticed that the celery and capsicums are brittle as well. For the celery that is a good thing as there is nothing as good as a nice crisp stick of celery.