Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i guess the drain rate vs stocking depends on the grow bed volume. the bigger the grow bed the longer the cycle you can have while still "turning over" tank volumes per hour. yeh?

Have returned to find a myriad of seeds popping thru the gravel, and good growth on the plants. Will take some pics later. ATM, there are about a million lettuces popping thru, corn, peas, capsicum, cucumbers, heaps of unidentified growing objects too.

The seeds coming thru is definately the most rewarding and interesting feature IMHO, just so amazing that they grow in the gravel

Your signature is spot on Stu.....

some pics.

Can someone give me an idea of what is wrong with this cucumber plant. Some of the leaves are looking a bit funny.

Also, new lettuces

And one of the barra in the poly tank

Quote"heaps of unidentified growing objects too."

Are you sure these aren`t electric spinach monya
(That`ll pay for your greenhouse real quick)
On a more serious note, your system is looking awesome well done

regarding the leaf - was it ever pressed down against the stones in the grow bed? I have seen those sorts of marks on the leaves of plants which have been leaned or steppen on...

hey Am, It's possible that happened when I had some major floods early on and the plant was small, but it seems to be getting worse, so I'm not sure. Am tempted to remove the leaf in case it is a disease.

G06
the UGO's are perfectly legit I can assure you

Mystery seeds have grown like an inch today, now present themselves as tomatoes, just the ordinary type

That's a lot of tomato plants Stu

Hi Monya,
do other leaves have this? It looks to me a bit like bacterial leaf spot, which can affect the fruit but not always... pick the leaves off and give the plant a topical spray of diluted seasol
it could also be like Aquamad said, pressure damage from the gravel

Andi

Andi,

It seems to be spreading to the top leaves aswell. I am reluctant to spray all the leaves. It is not on the plants from the same punnet that were planted in my dirt garden. Am convinced now after closer inspection that is not gravel damage

Hi again Monya,
I did a bit more reading on the effects of the leaf spot, apparently it can decimate the vine and make the fruit go squishy, it's one of those diseases that a combination of warm weather and rain kick off so maybe the green house/flood-drain is giving it the humidity it needed to take off if the ones in the dirt garden are ok? And saying that the plants were all probably infected when you bought them, but this one has the right environment for the disease to bloom...
If you pick off leaves and try and combat it like that don't compost them because it survives that...
I'm going to have a go at adding a picture so you can compare it yourself.

Andi

Geez, thanks heaps for that. It sounds like the best thing to do would be to get rid of the plant altogether?

no probs
if it was me I'd sling it before it spreads to other cucurbit plants in your system

I agree - good work there!
Dont even worm farm it as spores etc can survive (bacteria are tough little buggers as we all know!)