Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I built a simple outdoor AP system outta stuff I had laying around the house. The tank is a 30 gallon bucket with 9 fathead/rosy red minnows and I plan to add some mosquito fish. I got some tomato seeds for it but I don't know how to prepare 'em. How do I get them started? Just put them in some soil 'till they have a few leaves than transfer them? I'd like to not spend any money so stuff I might be able to find at home is my first choice. I plan on upgrading the system during the summer though.

Welcom to BYAP Hybrid. I do my tomatoes two ways. I start from seed in soil and let it get its true leaves and about at least 4" tall. Then I wash off (gently) the soil from the roots and plant it in the growbed. The other way is when that plant takes off like a rocket and sends out muliple branches and starts flowering I take off some of the "suckers" and stick them straight into the growbed and they root themselves in the gravel.

Thanks for the welcome and advice kevrev!

You are very welcome, and it's my pleasure

I just throw the tomato seeds in the growbed. They go ape.

yea I dont waste my money on tommie plants anymore as you can use all the suckers from one plant over and over, each plant produces more and so on.

Not to mention... That along with pumpkins, they love to just randomly grow in your compost.

Thanks everyone! In my back yard we smashed pumpkins last year and now theres 30 pumpkin plants just randomly growing in the sand(I live in the desert)! I tried transplanting a few to the AP system and it lasted a few days but didn't work out.

Do you replace your tomato plants? My plants is over 6 months old and the root mass is massive...

Also will the seeds from my plants be more adapt to my aquaponics since the momas grew that way?

Im not sure about others but when winter starts here and my tommies stop growing I pull them out.

Speaking of root mass, check out this celery I pulled out on the weekend. Its about 9 months old.

Ditto.

Because space in a GB is limited, either the plants perform or they meet the compost heap. Plants also grow so fast and well that as soon as conditions become favourable you can chuck them back in... Of course, people with GHs can are not as limited by weather conditions as outdoor systems.