Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi dr bee

We got the Beetroot seed through Diggers Club but I am pretty sure I've seen it sold at some nurseries also. The winter tomatoes were freebees and came with the burkes backyard mag a few months back. We also planted some of the seed into punnets. Not sure how they will go but we will find out in due course.

The barra are still feeding but not sure how long that will last. Will be getting trout in May so hope they keep eating for a month longer

Possums LOVE strawberries!!! and can climb really well Have you tried flooding the GBs? may have slugs which also love strawbs. Our strawbs all passed away in the "great salting" a few months back

Found my GB flooded this morning. Think the tomato roots have invaded my drains. I run flood and drain with a siphon, so I need the water to drain quickly for the siphon to work. It sucks out at three or for times faster than the full rate my pump runs. Unfortunatly I didn't see the need to have holes going all the to the top of the external pipe when I made up my system, so looks like I will be digging all the gravel out from around the drain tonight, and putting a few more holes in the outer pipe. I noticed flows were a bit slower on the week end and removed some roots from the drain, but that only gave me a few days extra before this all happened. Fortunatly the top of my pipe is only just above bed height, and the sides still extend higher, so no chance of pumping the FT dry.
Could have slugs, as some lettuce shoots looked nibbled on this morning. will make some beer traps on weekend. Seems such a waste of beer.

I'll have a look for the beet seeds next time I'm in Australind.

try and make it a regular routine to turn your media guard.

just push down on it (so you dont accidently lift and get media under it), and just spin it around. It will cut off all the plant roots and you will be good to go. I do this to mine at least once a month.

Thanks Charlie, will do that next month. I dug out all the stones around the guard on Saturday, and thinned out the tomato plants too. Drilled holes in the guard all the way to the top, so should get good drainage regardless now. Unfortunatly I think some of the seeds I planted have been buried when I replaced the stones. On a brighter note, some of the lettuce seeds planted have now got 4 leaves on them.

How did you guys ride out the winter? Did you get any trout over the cold season?
I persevered with the Silvers. Still no fatalities!! They kept eating over winter and seem pretty hungry already.
Been eating plenty of lettuce over the winter months. Yay, I can finally say that I grew something sucessfully in AP. baby spinach is a winner too. Snow peas got plenty of flowers now, so should have a few to chuck in salads/stirfries shortly.
Have got tomatoes coming up well in understory of peas/beans. Grown from seed in potting mix in those strawberry punnets. Looking nice and strong this time, with no replaning 2 or 3 times like last year.
Got half a dozen strawberry plants growing too. I think summer will just be strawberries and tomatoes, after last years failure with bitter lettuce trees.

Hi all
We have been flat out planning new projects (amongst other things this winter) .

Time for a brief catch up.

In April we visited Gavin at Fergy Springs and brought home 12 rainbow trout fingerlings approx 5cm in size. They took up residence in the seasonal tank and have not looked back. These days we wake up to the noise they make splashing around and demanding breaky We have set harvest day for next weekend as this is when all the kids can be with us (we really hope we make it through this weekend first). How do we fish for pellit raised trout in an IBC?

The barra that we got last season didnt do much as we ended up with pea soup water then the season finished sooner than it should have. SO, indoors they came. This gave us an opportunity to do a head count... we purchased 20 and ended up with 24. Then a friend needed to rehome 3 more so we took them on also (one of these died later) so now we have 26 barra ready to grow out.

Our SP are doing well but really need to be encouraged to eat. Worms seem to do the trick. They eat pellits for a few days after a feed of worms.

Our new expansion is going to have 5 deep GBs attached to one tank and 4 GBs attached to the other. will post pics later .

Probably should mention harvests from the systems also

We have been harvesting parsley, lettuce, brocolini and beetroot in huge amounts. we managed to get a green cauli to maturity as well. Last years first planting of celery is still going hard and the asian greens were a hit as well. We got some giant snow pea seed through Diggers and they were easy to grow but funnily enough kept disappearing. The purple podded peas were good but not very prolific and the asparagus is really getting cranking now.

In May we caught and graded the SPs. The 6 largest were introduced to the frying pan.
Does anyone have a better way of cooking them?

Wow, Love the beetroot.
I planted out seeds for my snow peas in seed raising mix after last years fail. Getting plenty off ech day now. I have aspailed my peas down the fence to utilise more space.
My SP's are going crazy on pellets, but don't seem too active when I toss in worms, although I don't get a build up of worms in tank, so they must be getting eaten. Funny how the eating habts are all different, yet they all came from Gavins!
Have just planted some heirloom toms I picked up from Bull &Barrel fair, and planted next to plants grown from yeates seedlings. Will be intersting to compare output - quantity and taste. Have got one lettecue to go (icebergs were the only ones to work well), and a few spinach - been eating heaps of quech. Will give the peas a few more weeks. Just growing basil, stawberries and tomatoes over summer. Stawbs have started to fruit already. bigger than last year, Noticed this morning that the first one is starting to go red.
Will have to catch up again this year to review progress. Somewhere in between cricket matches (3 kids playing different grades now!)

Glad to see that it is working well for you guys
So you have three different systems now, and two of them are inside?

We actually have four separate systems. 2 outside (SP and Seasonal systems) and 2 indoor (both Barra from last years unsuccessful grow out) Tho cant really say unsuccessful because they are all still alive (but cost a motza to keep warm thru the winter )

This time next month will be a big celebration. Our 2nd Wedding anniversary and 1 year of AP. We attended the November 2011 BYAP workshop for our "paper" anniversary

I have successfully passed the good wife challenge - how to keep her husband busy


Hi dr bee. We got our SP from Golden Ponds. Gavin didnt have any at the time we wanted them. But as fingerlings we gave them the odd feed of worms and that may be the trick but then we usually have an abundance of worms in our 2 worm farms. The beetroot are really good, less earthy than the deep red ones and of course a lot less messy. We often have them grated raw instead of carrot on burgers etc.

A get together would be great. Maybe Borby and a few other locals also? Lets keep it in mind and chat again!!!