Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Does anybody grow potatoes in aquaponics? Im getting my seeds ready for this next year and wondering what would work best for this, Does gravel cause a problem with them growing or whats the issue?

I do! Had my first harvest maybe 2 months ago. The leaves got pummeled by slugs while I was away, so they never fully developed. Had a fair few decent size ones though and heaps of middle size.

Was in constant flood, and I just dropped the level down as they developed.

I have almost a full bed growing now, and dang.. they are the fastest growing plant I've ever had

Sounds like your the man I need to talk to, what kind are you growing? How does it handle the media? Why kind of issues if any did you have? How deep did you plant them? I guess some degree above the water? And where did you get your potatoes?

most important question..... what media are you using mr. water?

I use clay balls, which dosnt seem to effect them at all. I just use cut offs from my shop bought taters that had started to grow legs. Sliced them off, left in a bit of water for a day then just shoved down to the moisture line.

Tubers all grow under the media. Never found any rotten, but if they were fully submerged for a long time.. its possible. I did have a few fully submerged but they seemed fine.

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As you can see, they seem quite healthy. They're outpacing the tomatos in the same bed, and they arnt slow growers!

Nice!

That looks awesome and wow outgrowing tomatos that's crazy, do you think they would grow in gravel? Anybody got a good source for potato's? I'm trying to find some for next year.

Hmm I don't see why not, I've found most root vegies push out of the clay, but potatos don't seem to. You can always pile more stones up around them.

Just buy some of your favorite potatoes, don't eat them all and leave a few forgotten ones under the cupboard and bang, they start to grow legs! Slice off the bit with legs (bout 20mm thick) and leave in a plate with water in the bottom for a day. Then just bury them a week later, and you will have big Potato stems popping up everywhere.

It's great getting a load of potatoes from the ones we normally toss!

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The consensus over the years here (and in AP in general) is that root vegetables dont do well in gravel, most wouldnt even try in expanded clay.
i might have to have a go in some expanded clay myself after hearing of your success.

there is a video "citizen peng" put out a few years ago of him growing sweet potato i think inside PVC pipe buried within his grow bed, that was his method of getting around the fact that rocks dont move easily enough for the tubers to grow.

first let the the cut area dry for a day, when putting in water (not even needed) place the new grown in the water, not the cut side of potato.

or just use the whole potato...... cutting them is good if there are multiple eyes sprouting around the potato and you want to multiply the number of plants you get.

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I think the most important thing is to have highly oxygenated water, to keep rotting at bay. I am running constant flood myself, but I take the water lever up and down twice a day, to try and avoid dead spots.

Curious to see if others have had any success. Good luck if you give them a go!

Oh really! You're right I've googled it and I've been doing it wrong. Seems to work but next time I'm sure it will work better. Thanks for the heads up

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I will be giving this a try, and I'll see how it does in my gravel. Does anybody know if the greens of the plant are toxic to animals? If I could I'd trim them and feed it to my rabbits.