Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep.... fine if they are declared and quarantined for a period as you say Troutman......

And if they have been properly prepared, dried, packaged etc....

Suspect though that with the eBay craze there is probably a lot of stuff coming in without being declared and inspected....

Take a look at the number of people prepared to send whole Goji Berries from China just as an example....

I was talking with my dad about vine plants and aquaponics, and hes a horticultral buff - And he said that vine plants would prbably grow really well in an AP system, but they would never flower.. in fact a lot of flowering plants might not do so well because flowing plants need - I think he said - potassium? to trigger flowering?

Just wondering on thoughts out there on grapes and flowering plants... if its possible to make them flower - more fruit = more produce on demand...

I suspect that he is correct. You can add mineral dust or Foliar feed you plants as needed; every day to every 3 months depending on what the plant needs.

There are also plants that will fruit much better if the nitrogen is cut down and potassium is added when they fruit. Infact its that very method that super hydroponic nuts use to make plants fruit a unnaturally large amount and produce extra large fruit. Controlling the nutrients can be a pain or an opportunity.

Potassium wont actually trigger the flowering as such but ....



will definitely aid in the production/set and amount of flower... hence fruit...

If you look at the "bloom" flower nutrient packs used in hydroponics you'll find exactly that.... the nutrient level of potassium is markedly increased during the flowering stage

Yep... as Dandee says above... re nitrogen etc

Maybe this topic should be larger then it really is then...

Obviosly the success of an AP system is evetually through its products...

Could a system be twice as effecient simply because we can get things to flower more...

Good to see everyone getting an early start to the morning... you dedicated AP'ers you...

I'm buffering the pH with potassium bicarb. That should help!

Absolutely Janet, and I'll be doing the same for both "buffering" and "blooming"

Just checked the bag of mineral rock dust I use, contains 1.3% of potassium...this is all the "pot" I add, getting lots of flowers and all setting okay on tomato vines

C'mon Mc , you've been here long enough to know that we do just fine with the fruiting plants just look at the tommies They Key IMHO is not chucking the solids, which WE don't

hehe steve, I was just wondering how the experiments are going with the people trying to run vines...

That and to put what my dad was saying... He felt certain plants, e.g. pumpkin might grow into large plants, but may not flower as they should...

But either way, is it possible to safely spike a system to encourage plants to produce more flowers/ fruit than it normally would....

I know tomatos do well... etc... but wouldnt it be a fair commment to say AP might lend itself better to leafy plants...?

Or have poeple our there on the forum collected enough evidence to refute that...

Refute away people

Hey there
My passion fruit vine which had, up until recently only been getting bigger and making a lot of mess with its leaves has finally flowered and set 18 fruit at last count - and there are more flowers ready to open... so my vine is doing great now
I tried pumpkin and butternut... they both flowered like crazy but never set any fruit (even after I tried pollinating by hand ), yet my cucumbers did well as did those of my students system... Beans too are a vine and they have been one of the best producers to date (next to the toms )... We grew lettuce and rocket which were VERY happy, as is our Swiss chard... so vines and leafy plants are doing well for us... I like the vine idea as a small grow bed in fact houses a large planr which should be able to pull out a lot of nutrients.

hehe.. trust me, all this will be passed back to my dad...

Its really good to here that.

Om that topic... is it possible AM to somehow spike (AP - safely)your flowering plants to produce more flowers?

i'd say run things like tommies pumpkin and all the heavy fruiters later in the AP's life rather than earlier, give the P and K a chance to build up

i'll try pumpkin this year for ya

seen a good suggestion... hang a bamboo frame (like a chess board) and let the vine creep over it. As the pumpkins grow above your head, place them in netting and suspend the pumpkins from the structure.... that way they down have to go along the ground...