Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Added another foot of dirt to the spuds, there were 12 shoots from 11 eyes, hope a few more come through. Fill dem bags I says!

Whilst filling the bags I remembered that I had put some basil and chinese cabbage seedlings out to harden up. I had forgotten to water them on Sat so they were knackered. I gave them a dunking and maybe one or two will be okay. Sprinkled some seed into the GB. See how they go.

BSF are back. I haven't been overloading my worm box, but they are present in there. Also heaps of worms. Maybe they can live together, just need to find a way to harvest them. The SP's didn't seem too interested in the larvae, but I had just chucked in a scoop of pellets.

Previous years I have been to eager to pick young leaves from my lettuce, and I have got a few tender baby leaves at the start, then a heap of bitter ones. Am letting these ones grow.

Got back from perth late yesterday and had a bit of a play with my system. I have been running constant flood for a while now, the reasons escape me, and I thought I'd do a bit of a clean out. I know when I have taken off the stand opipe in the past, the water comes out pretty grotty, I guess these are some zones that don't get much movment and the silt slowly works its way to these dead spots.

I set up some pipework out of my tank and ran it into my spare barrel and ran the siphon . It sucked most of the fines out. Did that once more then back to old but with the bell on. Wouldn't get going, so put on a reducer on the end (couldn't find a spare elbow), and off she goes, gets right to the bottom, does its little burp and stops. Yay. Bell siphons rock!!

The water got a bit murky as the bell pulled out all the fines in the bottom of the GB, so decided not to give the fish a feed. This morning, the bell continues to run overnight and the water is clear again? I'm guessing the fines are redistributed back through the GB and slowly come back to the tank, but in such small volume, it remains clear. Fish still lively.

Planted the Ginger in one corner, basil and cabbage planted last week has all sprouted. Lettuce looks like it is reaching the heavens. Nice a green, hope it isn't going to seed.

Feeling a bit envious after viewing Ryans (Chattersons Farm) system. Man thats a beautiful creation.

My tomatoes are held up by a bit of string, and the lettuce are getting hot. Whats that a mullberry in AP. Hadn't seen it there before checking out the photo. Heaps more Toms coming on. We are almost at the point where I could freeze a bunch for turning into relish.

Nearly all the seedlings disappeared again, so set some beer traps last night. No further damage to seedlings, and five slugs in the traps.

SP's are back munching their tucker.

Tomatos slowed their ripening when I dropped the shade, but now they are providing heaps of ripe fruit. Back to getting a punnet a day.

Potatos in bags working well. Got 6 plants in each bag. Might be over crowded as they get bigger, but that just means more spuds (I hope).

bugger the slugs! I am having fun with snails and what apear to be pantry moths. Bought some fruitfly trap - useless. Have some pantry moth traps in place and having some success. Have had nice lettice cos lettice meals - yum. Mullet have had 2 lost out of 6. SP doing well. system stable yipeee

Marticulus, Yep, more slugs in the traps agian over the weekend.

Cabbage starting to get more leaves, basil still struggling to get a start. Maybe I'll try in dirt to start again?

Heaps of toms and lettuce now.

Bad news about the mullet, but SP's seem fairly hardy.

I find regular applications of dipel deal with the pantry moths.

Wish my toms would hurry up and ripen! Any tips on speeding them up?

My tom plant has been growing since end of last summer, so have been producing fruit for quite a few months now. Plenty of sunlight helps. I put shade over the lettuce, and this goes over some of the toms as well. They have slowed down where they are in shade.Probably only got one punnet of fruit last week, but another punnet ready to come off tonight.

The cooler weather over the last two weeks has slowed down the ripening (I believe) in the last week, but I see heaps of toms almost ready.

Yep, Diphel worked for me too. And as we dont spray the plants with water each day, the application stays on!!

Topped up the water on Sunday, a little high, but not too high, but siphon outlet below water line. Ran yesteradya permananet flow, with low water in GB, younger seedlings suffered a bit. Some might survive.

Shortened the drop tube out the bottom of the standpie, and just put a simple elbow on the end, and siphon works a treat again. Everything back to normal.

Thinned out the lettuce a bit,and picked another punnet of toms. There will be another tonight, and more tomorrow.

Picked up a bag of the little hats for supporting reo when concreteing that was lying on the road. Maybe the could be used as little baskets for DWC? Anybody tried this?

Hadn't paid any attention to the plants over the first three days of the week. Been playing host to a mad Canadian at work. Have since got rid of him and sent him back to cold. It snowed in Vancouver this week apparently.

I picked some fruit from my two plants. Yeilded over 1kg of cheery toms.

Iceberg Lettuce looks like Cos. Lettuce trees?

Fish are hilarious. They don't even wait for me to leave before smashing their pellets. Banging into the walls.

Need more water again!

Xmas hot weather has been very productive for Toms. I was getting close to 1/2 kg of cherry toms every two days up til new year and the fridge was full of the things. Neighbours roma tomato bushes had gone beserk too, so I whipped up a tomato sauce. 3kg of toms doesn't go very far when you cook them down. Only got 5 bottles.

Enjoyed lovely sauce on pasta with a bit of capsicum and fried pascuito.

Spent a week away down in Busselton. Weened my fish off fodd for the week prior and left with fingers crossed. Got back late yesterday and 15 fish still exist. They were pretty happy, and cleaned up their food.

Potatos seemed to have suffered the most from lack of attention. Few of the plants have died off. Will keep watering, as some are still surviving.

Lettuce are all very bitter now so have thinned out and they are just sucking up nutrients at the moment until seeds grow. Tried another approach this time, a bit more structured. I wiped away the dry rocks, and put the seed on the moist rocks, then covered over again. Got about 50% strick rate so far.

Planted my usual, cucumber, cabbage, chilli, basil & oregano.

Whilst in Busso, I took the family to the new indoor climbing centre. $85 for a family of two adults and three children for a full day of excersize. ticket valid for entire day, and you can leave and get food from town, or bring your own, as long as you have your braclet still on. Every day since I have different muscles hurting. Heaps of fun. All the kids made it to the top a few times. Dad had to do all the ones the kids did. Was alot cooler doing that than sitting on beach at 40 degrees outside.

Hi Doc,

Thanks for all the info. I was wondering how you're growing your potatoes? If they're in wicking beds they should have enough water to last most of the week won't they? I haven't tried wicking beds so I am just being curious.

That climbing centre sounds great. Wish I had one close by. It reminds me we should do another trip to a climbing place close by, it is all based on zip lines between trees. So you move from one tree to another on the lines. Not quite Tarzan but still good fun.

Nice video here: http://acrobranch.co.za/parks/johannesburg/jhb-gallery.html


Regards, Martin.

MC,

I am growing the spuds in recycled salt bags. They are a nylon hessian woven bag out in the sun and probably dry out on three sides thatare exposed. Shaded in the afternoon, but we had 4 days of around 40 degrees. I did water them before we left, but....I will see how they grow. It is good to know that even after the plats died last time, they were still fresh after about a month in the ground, so hoping the same, but it was winter.

First day back at work is almost over and I need a drink! Ithopught I was coming back to work to recover.

Lol. I have young kids at home so I go to work on Monday mornings to recover from the weekend.

Cool, so you're doing potato bags, I want to give those a try some time. I like the simplicity of the idea. I don't see suitable bags anywhere though. I assume you need something like hessian that can breathe?

Regards, Martin.

I use air to breath mostly. Hah hah.

I think woven materials allow good drainage. Not sure breathablity is necessary. Lots of people here just split open bags of compost and push the spuds in the slits.

I know my mate had good success with that method.