Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have designed and constructed several small and medium scale aquaponic systems and have been amazed at how well all the vegetables grow. However I am very keen to extend into growing fruit trees as I have seen these grown hydroponically and can't see why they wouldn't grow in aquaponics. Has anyone tried this and were you successful?

I was thinking I could use the blue barrels but cut them in half width ways instead of length ways, so I am left with a deep bucket 600W x 450L. I'm not sure of how to do the drainage though. . . the large roots of the tree would be an issue. Although I have thought about grafting the tree onto a dwarf rootstock to inhibit some growth.

I reckon if I planted half the barrels with plants that fruited in the winter and the other half with plants that fruited during the summer, the majority of the nutrients would be taken up on a periodic basis. The reason I have only half of all the plants fruiting at any time is that most plants use more nutrients and water whilst fruiting, so if I keep only half fruiting at a time then the nutrients that the other plants cannot use goes into the production of fruit. Well thats the theory anyway.

A quick search of the forum will bring up many hits concerning this topic.... most of which point in exactly the direction that you are heading...

I'm attempting boysenberries and blueberries atm...
not 100% if they're going to like it, as they're a touch seasonal, but we'll see how she goes.

Reckon Blueberries should be a goer Kuda... don't know much about Boysenberries...

concern is too much water... see my thread for issues... some discolouration of leaves.

Going to set up some of the blue barrels on a different pump and timer. Trees and some tomatoes on a dryer cycle.

5 months in, how was the experiment with blueberries??

Thinking of different plants to try here.

I have noticed many plants do better with much less frequent flooding. Our systems must flood often because of the need for bio filtration. A separate pump and timer for the fruit trees would be good. OR an tree specific system. A mechanical/bio filter (gravel even) with no plants and a small continuous pump could provide bio filtering, and the flood and drain could be cycled through once or twice a day.

AHH no,no ,no ..... blueberries like PH around 5 - 5.5 ,, I don't think the fish would like that

Blueberries may prefer a low pH but if everything else is to their liking, most plants can actually do fine in a much wider pH than what is touted as the ideal. I mean cucumbers are supposed to want a pH of 5.5 in hydroponics but many people grow cucumbers in their AP systems at a much higher pH.

I've got papaya growing in my AP system and now I've planted some dwarf bananas. I'm trying to root some lemon and kumquat cuttings in the AP system at the moment as well as some red mulberry cuttings.

I probably won't be trying blueberries in my AP system since it tends to a pH well above neutral and the soil around here is normally more acid so the cucumbers and blueberries make more sense to go in the ground for me.

As to less water for fruit trees. I suspect having a separate pump on a timer to feed the fruit trees less often is a good option. Another option might be to plant the fruit trees in a trickle bed that doesn't flood (you miss out on the filtration from the fruit tree media but if you would otherwise only be flooding once or twice per day, you don't get much filtration from it anyway so if ya don't want to bother with another pump and timer, then a trickle through feed for the fruit trees might be fine too.

Blueberries were unsuccessful. Boysenberry and grape are going great guns, although both seem to have shut down for the winter atm.

I have my trees on a trickle. Didn't want to splurge for a new timer so I have two pumps running off the same timer. Timer runs 10 minutes every 3 hours. So far, herbs still growing well and fruit trees growing but no fruit. Trees are only 1 year old though.

If the blue berries aren't in the ph range of their liking 5 to 5.5 the bush will get smaller and smaller each year and die. I have to add soil acidifying fertilizer to mine annually and mulch with pine straw which also lowers the ph. My soil is naturally at 7.5 same as our well water. Oak leaves seem to help also but still have to dose them annually.

everything I do is in a standard flood and drain bed. I haven't bothered with trickle feed or 50% dirt systems or anything.

The blueberry died in its first season. I tried to transplant to dirt, but was unsuccessful.

Ive read the rabbit eyes blueberries are more tolerant of higher pH

Vaccinium ashei

you need 2 cultivars

daleys has them sometimes