Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Guys,

I have plant Ipomoea reptana in my grow bed. In Indonesia we named the plant Kangkung Darat.
And now they are looks very sick to me. I have some pictures attached to this message.
Please take a look and tell me what is the cause.

I love water spinach. Stir fried with garlic and dipped with fishsauce. Anyways, I think your ph is off. If it's the lower bottom leaves that are turning yellow then your plants are just dumping nitrogen while it's flowering. However, I do not see any flower yet on your plants. Very likely your ph is off.

Water spinach are expensive here in the states; it's around $5 per lb.
Stir fried with garlic and dipped in fish sauce nom nom nom.

Check your ph on your grow bed for the brown spots on your leaves. About the yellow leaf you posted a picture of, leaves turn yellow when your plant is dumping nitrogen in preparation to flower. Normally, this is normal. Otherwise a lot of these problems can be corrected by adjusting ph.

If you're using well water, there are a lot of disolved minerals in it. If your ph is off, your plants will take in too much of a nutrient and burn. Watch out especially for calcium and magnesium nutrient burn when using well water.

Hi thinkingste,
Thanks for posting the scientific name as that helped me to identify the plant. It appears to be this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipomoea_aquatica

What do you add for supplementation? What are your water quality numbers?

Hi Eddie,

My water measurement results are:
pH 6.5
Ammonia 0 mg/l
Nitrite 5 mg/l
Nitrate 50 mg/l

I sprayed the plants leaves with Fe EDTA three days ago and put some spent coffee ground two days ago.

I think the Fe EDTA is the cause. I have sprayed it to my other plants just to prove it.

Regards
Ste

It's possible it was the iron. When applying foliar sprays, make sure to do it either in early morning or late evening to prevent scorching the leafs from the sunlight due to the water on the leafs. Your nitrites are a bit high for fish-not sure if you have any in your system or not. What do you use to keep your pH up (which looks good at this point)?

Hi Eddie,

Thanks for the tips. I'll try that for sure.
I use potassium hydroxide and egg shell to keep the pH level.
The nitrite is a bit high for sure. I have some gold fishes and I have reduced the fish feed portion since yesterday to reduce the nitrite level.

Do you think that I should scrap the plants or is it still salvageable?

Regards
Ste

Unfortunately, I don't know much about this particular plant species but based on the wikipedia article, it might recover. I would give it a week and if you don't see improvement then I would scrap half of it and replant. I wouldn't suggest any more foliar treatments until it fully recovers. Is this the only plant species in your setup?

It could be because of the iron but this looks more like a bacterial rot to me with sunken zones . When you first noticed them were the bad areas dry and brittle or soft and watery?