Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

You got the fish for fertilizer, ya got the market.... So long as you have water and and seeds your laughing...

By next summer I can see you standing next to a pallet load of basil saying "damn, they want 2.5 ton of basil every week"

basil. I see a guy holding a big bag of green stuff. You need a sign.

man I wish we would have more luck getting it going from seed... They just seem to rot in the netpots. It is easy in the growbeds, just chuck em in... but we are having to buy seedlings (albeit at grower prices) to keep up with demand, if we could growthe stuff from seed we would be so much better off. We have tried germinating the seeds in seed raining mix, but just don't get them past germinating... can't work out what we are doing wrong, too much water, not enuf, or whether the very young seedlings can't handle the bore water... next batch will be tried using rainwater.

Heather reckons it looks like either a mug shot with the haul or a pic of me just before I head over the border to pay off the mortgage

Can you strike cutting in the GB. Warming trays work well for seed germination but it is the root development time that gives them a better chance once they are dropped into the NFT. That why the roots look better on seedlings you buy.

Forgot to add the ones you start in the GB develop more water roots. When you put in regular seedlings they have to grow new roots to handle the water. Thats why some rot.

must try striking cuttings in the gb's. will follow up on that one

strike cuttings, or grow from seed in gb then transfer seedlings to netpots?
after all:

Stu - have you tried using grow-wool?

nope VB, is that the same as rock wool? once I tried that when I first started AP putting a cube in the GB's with seeds on, but I found it just grew algae . never have been much good as a from seed gardener

what about cuttings grown on one of those mist systems, I think VB had the plan but it is a form of aeroponics. YOu could just fill the top with cuttings and once they start to grow into the net pots you go. Will try and find the link for previous discussion elsewhere

Monya

With rockwool, soak it in a mild acid, rinse grow the seedling out of the GBs until it has roots apearing out the sides and bottom then put in the GBs. Rockwool holds large amounts of water and soaks up large amounts, seedlings probably damped off (rotted).

Hi,
I have not noticed this thread before, and have not read all of it, however, I did see that striking cuttings as an option is being considered. In our experience, with basil, we have far and away had the best results by simply striking cuttings and putting them directly into the water. We found some discarded styrofoam seedling trays, and simply stick the cutting down into the wholes. We usually put about 2" of the stem (no leaves) into the water. With in 2 days the roots start showing, and with in 3 to 4 days they were ready to go into the GB. This was WAY faster than just putting the cutting into the GB directly. I know you are using NFT, but if you were using DFT you would not even need to move the cutting. For sure though, you could get enough root growth with in a week to move the plant to your NFT. We did/do not have sufficient use for basil, so we had to start pulling it out. We took good notes, just incase we come across any big customers in the future.

Mathew

Mon- are you serious...
do you have a log of sowing dates?
I would love to see it along with sucess or failure rates.
Please

Or just save yourself the time, effort and heartache ... buy the seedlings, put them into the net pots, grow them and sell them...

Reckon that approach will probably be as cheap as doing it yourself (time, labour etc).. which requires a dedicated nursery....

Will undoubtably turn your plants around from seedling.. to grow... to sale quicker.... IMO