Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I did do a bit of foliar spraying about a week ago. I went and mixed the Iron sulfate and Maxicrop in the hose end sprayer and tried my hand at staining everything The two liquid supplement concentraits seem a bit thick and bubbly when mixed but don't seem to have caused any harm to the plants that got the treatment.

The bean family plants seem to have liked the treatment in the system. I don't currently have any cucumbers growing in the system to know what they would think.

The ammount of maxicrop I used in the system doesn't seem to have caused any harm and may be doing some good.

I use chelated iron powder. I mix 2-6 tsps into 100 gallons of water. I know its not much but I figure less is better than hurting the fish. Hasn't had any ill effects on the fish. I usually added 2-6 tsps once a week. Worked great. I tried this other stuff that was made of bone meal and had several minerals. It made the water dirty and smelly so I stopped using that.

Rupe and Ozzie turned me onto maxicrop. I add 2 tablespoons to our 140 gallon ponds once a week. Sometimes more. Fish are fine. They told me so.

Make a difference HN?

The chelated iron is like magic. I had some deficiencies in my personal system and the veggies perked up, grew like crazy and were much stronger.

I can't really tell about the maxicrop because I am putting it in both systems but I do notice the veggies are growing faster. The fish are totally fine. I have been using maxicrop around the yard, tested a few spots on the grass and some ornamental plants. it works awesome! I compared chemical fertilizer and maxicrop and the maxicrop area is much much greener and healthier but the chemical fertilizer is thicker. Makes sense since maxicrop is mostly minerals and very little nitrogen.

Good stuff!

I much prefer my veges to be greener and healthier... than thicker...

Same goes for the people around me ....

Gotta love that Maxicrop....

check the size of the lebenese water cress silver beet and cabbage also tomato and thats all running on fish poo worn juice and seasol

Gave up on the strawberries FF?

I have all mine growing in dirt now

Yep mine to one day other things more important now

the iron could that be added to the tank by adding a piece of say, scrap steal to the water and let the normal reactions take place?

Not the Strawb's!!
That's how I convinced the wife to escalate to the next level!!

Carbon steel gas tank GB's haven't eventuated yet so I'm using chelated Iron,
What levels should I be dosing a 1000 litre system?

Dicko

Thats what I have done - no iron deficiencies yet...I do add a fair bit of seasol regularly though. Aparently the iron gets chelated in anerobic areas of the growbeds, so mine is pretty well buried.

Bump.

Is there a reason people do not use pieces of seaweed directly? Seems like it would be cheaper than maxicrop or seasol extracts.

If you have an easy supply of seaweed from relatively un-polluted water, you can make your own sea weed extract or probably just bury it in a few areas of grow beds. Some people do bury pealed bananas in grow beds so why not sea weed.

I thought decaying food was a no-no?

I've done the pealed bananas in the grow beds with no real problems.

I suppose the issue with decay is if you overload the system beyond it's capacity to handle both the fish waste and whatever you add, you could wind up with problems. That said, the more composting worms you have in your grow beds, the more solids your beds will be able to process.

I don't know if anyone has tried putting sea weed or kelp meal into their growbeds. I suppose kelp meal might be better used in fish feed. And depending on the type of fish, perhaps letting the fish eat the sea weed would be good to.

I suppose there might be some danger of transmitting fish disease with sea weed but if it's a fresh water system and salt water weed, the risk might be minimal, Not really sure as I don't have a convenient place to collect sea weed.