Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just mix the feed sizes, eg 3mm and 7mm pellets and the fish help themselves to what they want and what they can fit. Easy peasy!

The growth in 19 days is amazing. Getting the balance right between number and size of fish and number of plants has been the key. 15 SP's are getting through 4 - 5 feeds per day of about a tea spoon per time, no waste, so will step it up further. Water quality still good. Getting heaps of flowers on the strawberries now and berries a good size. Also adding 1 capfull of Seasol twice per week.

Anybody tried mixing trout and 6 month old SP's?

Just thinking about options getting through to next summer, or just be patient and add some more small SP's.

Caught a few sand whiting off the rocks at Emu Point, Albany over long weekend. Took the friday off. Water so clear, weather 10 degrees cooler than Bunbury. Fresh cooked fish is the best. Little bit of butter in the pan. Yum, yum. Wish the boys were not keen on fish, as we had to share it around.

Well, all the lettuce had been pulled and is being converted by the worms into something usefull. No need for lettuce in grow bed at moment as toms sucking like crazy. Should have our first toms off the vine this weekend/next week. Coming up to dull red stage.

Poured in a heap of seeds last weekend. Thought they would get sucked down into the fish tank, but I'm seeing a few little green leaves poking up through the gravel already. Lettuce, brochilli and chinese cabbage. Thought I'd try this method now its coming up to cooler weather (apparently). Last time I grew them in growing media, and then transfered them to baskets, then planted into the GB. Hopefully less disturbance of the roots, and we might get a feed.

The toms are going off like a cracker. After hand polenating, (thanks to advice on other page somewhere (used index finger by the way, as I forgot to go and get a cotton bud) I am seeing lots of fruit budding. Will hopefully get a good crop, as Mrs B was commenting that we haven't had much of any crop off the system yet.

The fish are growing well, biggest ones longer than what the kids brought back last weekend after fishing. 200mm I guess, not quite big enough for me to pull out. Hope the water stays warm for a few more weeks, and we might get one on a plate before winter sets in.

Still did enjoy fresh fish for breakfast. Two long weekends in a row have yielded fresh fish. The extended jetty down at Koombana bay has plenty of Whiting and Skippy swimming past.

Good luck to all over the heat wave this coming weekend.

Yep, we ate 2 vine ripened Roma Tomatoes. Great flavour, maybe needed another day or two, but they fell off in my hands so guessing they were good to go. Not enough to feed the family, but good to see some produce.
Mrs B was quick to cut up and offer to all (one for us, one for kidsx3). I would have been a bit selfish and just shared between 2.
Plenty of fruit now showing. I need to remember leave a cotton bud out at the set-up so I can give any flowers I see a little prod. Using my fat fingers currently. Using same technique with strawberries, but will put in more plants for next summer. Two not producing enough to feed one person let alone a family. Maybe next summer I will run just tomatoes and strawberries. Its all good if they go to seed.
Need to modify supports, as they tend to be holding the plants down. Boy there's some weight in a vine full of fruit.

Well a new season is here.

What a difference a years made. I was a bit disheartened by the production last year, bitter lettuce, brochilli going to seed, slow delayed growth on most things. Beginners don't dispair. I moved house and the AP system twice, replanted most plants 3 times, and it was a virgin patch. Yes, the in ground produced much more last year, and still produced probably as much this year, but there no work to weed, far less bad bugs, and the planting density is far higher.

Remembered that I can down load photos from my phone to the work PC.



Winter went well, with plenty of lettuce and peas grown by AP eaten. Lettuce all gone, spinach is providing the greens now. Just cutting leaves off as we require them. Thats how I treated the lettuce too. Made them last longer, but did mean the leaves were smaller.

Tomatoes starting to fight for space with the peas, but I don't want to thin them out yet as the snow peas are lovely.

Tomatoes are starting to fruit. Not really sure what style half of the are, the other 3 are heirloom (thats a silent h apparently!) Both types are fruiting.

Strawberries (6 plants) all starting to fruit. We get at least one fruit a day now. Normally I share with the wife, unless she gets the good ones when she hangs out the washing. Kids haven't experieinced them this year yet. They are just packed with so much flavour. Almost like they are artifical, like the stawberry mix they use in milk shakes.



The fish survived the winter no probs. Eat some, but not ravenous, but now the days are longer, they smash the feed off the surface. Most days they get fed twice, wekends, up to 5 times as I potter around the garden.

I have a bucket with duck weed in it beside the fish tank. I take a handfull out every other day, and top up with a splash of fish water to keep it growing. Doubles its size in a good day if conditions are right. Have been allowing mozzies to breed in it, but dumping it all in the tank, so my fish are getting wrigglers as well. I then scoop out most of the weed back into the bucket and refill with fish water. The SP's go wild when the wrigglers go in the water. Not seeing much action when I chuck worms in, but they do disappear after an hour or so usually.

There will definatly be a feed of Silver perch later this summer.

Getting a good feed of tomatos each week. Our salad last night was fully tomatoed by AP. The heir loom toms are small grape size, and the others are big toms. So nice on a slice of fresh bread with a bit of pepper.

The SP are smashing their food now. I have found that if I give them a big feed, there is plenty left over after an hour, but if I give them just a spoonfull, I can feed them every hour. Suprised at the range of size in the batch. All from the same batch. I am guessing the largest is about 250-300mm long, but the smallest is barely 100mm long. Will definatly have a cull at the end of summer, and put in some trout for winter.

Looking at most peoples systems, it look s like I am running my beds a bit low. Have about 8 tomatos, and 76 strwaberries. Have some basil to go with th etoms, but no greens. Now I'v got shade over all the plants, they are looking alot healthier than they ever did last year.

Using heaps of water again. It was nice to have the water level high due to the rain back in December, but even with adding 20-30l per day the water level is dropping.

Any photo updates Dr Bee? Sounds like your system has been going well and the shade will defiantely help with the extreme heat that we have been getting since xmas.

Faye,

Thought I took photos this morning with my phone, but they appear a bit foggy. Mind you probably not unexpected considering I walked out from air-cond house into hot steamy weather outside. Will try with a camera this afternoon.

Didn't get below 27 last night, and must have been 50-60% humidity. A quick check of BOM says it was 30 degrees and 46% humidity and next to no wind when I would have been outside.

Phew, hot, hot, hot right across our country. No wonder they call it sunburnt.

Shade has helped keep the grow bed a bit cooler. Going to try putting in some more lettuce. Damn we eat a shit load of that, and $2.98 for a head yeasterday at the stupidmarket. At least I could add my tomatoes, and they had flavour.

I haven't put bird mesh up this year, but so far I am not having much any loss of vegies to feathered friends (or was it a bobtail?). No fruit has been attacked. Plenty of holes in the tomato plant, but I can't get the basil to grow quick enough before mrs b takes it off to cook with. My one large basil plant has been belted by something. Its got more holes than leaves. Did find a bug, but the SP's finished it off quickly. Then I thought, perhaps I should have had a closer look at it so I could work out a plan of attack.

Reduce reuse recycle. Well thats what I'm trying with the salt bags for my pool. Hopefully the spuds will be grown before the bag splits. Damn that UV. If this works, I might keep a few going all the time.

Not sure how long spuds are meant to take, but the leaves are dying off. Have been watering regulary, well, once a week anyways. Will have a feel around and see if any spuds are present. Do you wait till the stalks die off?

I put some shade mesh right around the tank to make it look a bit neater. Damn temps dropped stright away and fish slowed down their eating. Looks neater though. Actually, its a good thing, as I'm runningout of food, and not due to head to Perth until Late Feb. Will drop into BYAP and pick up a bag of food on the way through.

Feeding still gives me a smile. It is not a chore listening to the SP smash their pellets. They bang into the side of the tank, and make a good splash.

Had to refill my tank over the weekend. Had lost over 200l in last month due to evaporation/transpiration.

Still heaps of tomatoes. Letting nature pollenate the last few months. Working a treat, so weather mustn't have been as hot this year. Have same issue of trouble with strawberries as on someone elses topic. Heaps of small ones, not many big ones, but the flavours are really intense. Just like the old redskin lollies.

Will put up some photos shortly.

Dr Bee, once a week watering for spuds doesn't sound enough to me. Perhaps the foliage died off due to lack of water. It takes many weeks and even months to grow potatoes, I think. However, when the foliage does die down, under normal circumstances and growing conditions that would be the time to harvest. Digging down to have a feel (and harvest) and see if they have formed little ones, is commonly termed bandicooting and can be done to early, new season potatoes. yummy cooked up with mint and serves with lashings of butter and a little salt.

Good info Faye

I think from memory, my last lot of spuds took around 3 months to grow to a reasonable size, even then I could have left them longer. It was my first time

Yes it takes months to grow potatoes.
If you havent had them in for atleast 3-4 months, i wouldnt even expect to get potatoes of 5cm.
im certainly no potato farmer, I plant them at any time of year and they do fine, watering certainly helps, if they arent completely dead i would start watering again. They are pretty hardy and will come back nicely.