Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Whats they cost and do we just call/email to book?

Details here, http://backyardaquaponics.com/shop.html ... y_id=7just old dates! Yes phone or email to book Scott.

Great too see the turnouts faye!!!

Keep it up!!

I know how you all love photos so here goes.
Everyone admires the big barramundi in the family system while Carl explains the requirements for keeping the fish healthy and happy.


Participants are shown how to acclimatise fish to a new environment to minimse transport shock. Introducing fingerlings to a fish tank is a bit like transplanting seedlings in some ways

The standpipe determines the height of the flood level in the bed, while the small holes regulate the slow draining. Standpipes should be checked regularly to ensure that there are no blockages caused by vigourously growing roots.

No workshop is complete without a planting demonstration. I love to add variety of colour and texture to an aquponic system combining a bit of companion planting. So we have purple basil, mixed lettuce, chives to repel aphids and capsicum to produce fruit. These are seedlings and carrot seeds, okra and purple king beans were also added in the gaps.
This photo shows radish, basil, tomatoes, spring onions, oregano and kang kong all growing in one small bed. There is no competition for moisture and nutrients and lots can grow in a small space.
Water plants such as mint, lebanese water cress and gotu cola can float on the surface of the fish tank providing shelter for the fish.

Aquaponic grown lettuce have to be the only way to go in Perths hot summers. Our sandy soils don't hold water and with water restrictions it just makes so much sense.
Of course the next photos are some of my personal favourties


Not the greatest photo, but you get the general idea. These are lacewing eggs- Beneficial bugs. The eggs are laid on the end of fine strands. AAaah Why? I hear you ask. Well, if the lacewing laid the eggs directly on the leaf the first larva to hatch out would eatt all the others. Voracious predators they are. So why is it good? Well the larva walks around predating upon aphids and when they are dead the larva piles the dead skins on its back, making it look mean as well as camoflauging itself.


These are not so good. They are eggs of the crusader bug. Laid all in a line on the stalk of a silverbeet plant. I shall be relocating it to the chamber of entomology situated on my desk for further research.

If you use your imagination you can see all the dead bodies piled on this lace wing larva. The creature at the bottom looks almost like an earwig. I had it in the bug catcher and it found the tiniest bit of green plastic to weave into its garbage pile, amazing little creature.

You got off track there a bit Faye.....

The photographers were in short supply last night at the twilight workshop. Perhaps we need some new inspiration and camera angles. It was an intimate gathering with a few unfortunate last minute cancellations. The temperature did not seem to drop and we inlisted the help of some misting sprays to help cool the hot paving and outdoor area.

There is always an opportunity for people to ask questions and last night there were actually a couple of questions that i have never been asked before. It was in relation to the taste of fish grown in aquaponic system compared to fish farmed in fresh water.
It was late- so I forget the other one for now.

The current summer crops are "a very diverse mix".

The following are off the top of my head
tomatoes, capsicum, chillis, okra, eggplant, beans, silverbeet, celery, spring onions, chives, garlic chives, laksa leaf, parsley, cabbages, gourds, basil and purple basil, mint, lebanese watercress, gotu cola, nasturtium,leeks, rainbow chard, beetroot,thyme, marjoram, lettuce, just to name a few! Carl and I really enjoy presenting the workshops and judging by the feedback the customers get a lot of relevant information out of them.

Oh, Amanda just rang and said she loved the workshop last night. Had a couple of questions about whether she could mix dipel and eco rose. She did want me to pass on to you that she really enjoyed it..

Aaw, thats nice!

Never, never, never mix products without knowing that you can do so. Dipel should be left on the leaf surface to be ingested by caterpillars. Eco rose, I am guessing will be absorbed by the plant/ leaves and therefore they work in a different manner and should be applied separately, possibly eco rose first on one day and dipel after that.
If in doubt check with the local aquaponics store or online forum for further advice.

Hey Faye - was interested to read your comment about companion planting chives to repel aphids. I literally had about 1 square metre of dense chives in my grow-bed. They had been there for a couple of years - started with just a thin row. Earlier this year or late last year they were totally wiped out by aphids. Millions of the buggers. Go figure. They also ate the onions I had in the bed which I'd grown from what Jaymie gave me (don't know what type the onions were - a bit like spring onions but these things divide. She had nicknamed them trifod onions).

Sometimes it is a bit like our english language VB, there are exceptions to the rule.
It isn't just me that believed chives would keep away aphids, as there are many references to them in companion planting. I have only seen the black aphids infest the chive plants in this way as the others are cleaned up by ladybirds in around a week or so. We will just have to keep watching and learning, I guess

Yeah it only seems to be the black aphids that get the onions and chives etc. And none of the plants around them have the black aphids on them, just the onion family.

So what likes black aphids? Don't the hoverflies and lady bugs eat them?