Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep.. burying bananas.. to provide Potassium for fruiting/flowering/seeding plants... is an often adopted technique in aquaponics...

Not entirely true.... bacteria in the root nodules of legumes fix nitrogen for the legumes benefit...

The benefit to the soil.. is only acheived once the legume has died.. and been turned into the soil to decompose... releasing the fixed nitrogen.. for other plants...

Yes, much better way to say it. :-)

Not entirely true. They have onion and pea seedlings in there at the moment but its too early for them

Things aren't "growing in bunnings".... they're just taking their time dying...

Or, in the case of a tree such as Sandalwood, which is semi parasitic, where its roots grab hold of the roots of a host tree (normally an Arcacia) and feeds off the nitrogen created.

I had great luck last year with beans

they grew faster than I could keep up

jT

Thanks for that RRFF, you could also put potassium bicarbonate (used in winemaking) in the AP water if you want to supplement for potassium. Bananas are sprayed a lot with pesticides so I would worry about stuff from the peels.

Do people here prefer bush or pole type beans? I have tried bush with mixed success really, and I haven't tried pole beans. JT's looks nice! Pole beans also make sense to save bed space.

You may have noticed in other threads that my beans are growing really well.

Up to the roof in fact which is a good 3m+.

The things is that while they are flowering really well I'm noting getting many beans.

This variety is doing better but still not great

Just look at how many flowers this branch has produced but only one bean


I've had very persistent high NO3 for a while so the general consensus has been that K, Mg and Ca has been locked out by the high NO3.

I've done water changes and cut back on the fish food but the NO3 is still high at ~ 200ppm. I've added shell grit in multiple locations and I've been adding KOH, Lime (Ca(OH)2) and MgSO4 in a ratio of 1:4:1.

From my reading the problem is either lack of pollination or Ca. If its pollination how do you hand pollinate beans?

If its Ca I guess I just keep adding more. pH is up to 7 though so I'm running out of room to add a lot.

Interesting point about legumes RR.


re: banana skins - sources of potassium and phosphoruous etc. (also calcium in one site)

http://www.rd.com/home/9-extraordinary- ... r-bananas/
http://themicrogardener.com/diy-fertili ... ana-peels/ - mentions blender option....

seaweed extracts etc similar and may be an option - but perhaps have the beans out of the GB and in
some adjacent system ? eg. I have used dutch bucket style for some vegies so as not to have them dominating GB's and makes it easier to dose them if water goes back to sump rather than FT.

http://www.pollinator.ca/bestpractices/beans.html

Sounds like you need some snazzy gadget to measure all those elements Stu
Me too! my beans have really necrotic leaves at the bottom, some bits look purplish so wondering if P is involved as well as Ca/Mg/K.

The deficiencies I'm experiencing in AP are giving me the Sh*ts, all 3 systems have them, and are all mature now (1-2 years old). I'm getting better growth from my soil beds at present.

Could it be a variety thing

Could be my bush beans went off last year, only got climbing ones in this year. Might put some in and see how they go...

Hom nom nom I hope my bush beans go that well! I've got some in the dirt garden and some in the AP so it will be interesting to compare, they're only a few weeks apart at most.