Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi from Singleton NSW,.
Just started planning an AP system. Was going to grow some fish in our pool, but the wife said to start small and thought AP would be interesting. We already have a traditional 10m3 vege patch, fruit and citrus trees.

Hi Rockman welcome to the fascinating world of aquaponics.

sure you should always start small and work your way up as you learn more, blahh blahh blahh.

The problem is though that AP is highly addictive and your system will just grow with you. eventually taking over your mind, it will become "your precious". may even take over your back yard eventually.

Just plan to build a system in phases. i.e. plan out the space for the expansion in advance.

Or just buy a duplicate of Faye's system....either way works

Welcome to the forum Rockman. We'd love to see some photos of your vege garden and the future AP space

Any system that you build, make sure you can easily modify it so that when the pool becomes your fish tank you dont have to make many changes to add your grow beds

Thanks for the responses.
I have attached some pictures of my little garden (it looks so little when spread over .85hectares ).

I have an existing 6m x 3m concrete pad, with power. So was thinking of building a greenhouse on this, and designing it to take 12m2 of GB.

The current crop from the dirt vegetable patch is (see if you can see them all in the picture)
Tomatoes x 4 types
chillies, hot, medium and burn your butt off.
Lettuces - a mixture
Herbs, basil (2), rosemary, thyme, sage, mint,
Spring onions
Potatoes
Capsicum
Pumpkin
Strawberry
Cucumber
And probably some others.
Citrus ,Fruit trees= lemon(4), orange, mandarin, huge lime, finger lime, chocolate pudding tree and some other native berries.

Stone fruit tress= nectarine, peach (2), and something else ( but the fruit flies eat most of these).

Cheers

And the rest

Ok, Rockman... I'm officially green with envy. First... you have the most exquisite grounds. Lovely space for your dirt garden...

So, wtf is a huge lime v. finger lime??? Out here in the desert, we just have limes... or some access to key limes from Florida.

Now... when my Da's Meyers lemon is trimmed, the next year the lemons are the size of oranges... I have small hands, but they fill it- about 2 1/2" - 3 1/2" across. The un-pruned gives about a bushel of lemons 1 1/2" in diameter. I didn't know 'huge lime' was a variety.
[pardon my language, but former military... it gets away from me]

Ah, when I said huge lime, I was referring to the size of the tree.
It seems to produce fruit almost all year round. And at this time of the year, there must be at least 200 limes ready to pick.
Before we bought the land, it had a dairy on it. So there are some areas that are very fertile, having cow poo/wee deposits for over 40 years. This is probably why the citrus trees thrive. I have discovered that watering them really helps too

The finger lime is an Australian native lime, they look like chubby fingers and the flavour is amazing. The bush is very prickly and makes a great barrier for the dog.

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/320272/growing-australian-native-finger-limes.pdf

Oh - and don't worry about the language, as a coal miner and sailor, I know language that would make a soldier blush

Cheers

Finally getting back to you! Thanks for clearing that up, re: limes

Magnificent location... fabulous to have been a dairy... except... how's the odor? Don't get me wrong... healthy cow poo is not an issue...
I live about four miles from an old (grandfathered in) pig farm, and the owners did not use their heads. Consequently, when the humidity goes up, the stench drives everyone in doors for about 8 miles...
Fools planted bamboo on the perimeter... but they didn't rotate the beasts, so nothing 'ate' any of that nutrient/ammonia. What a waste. I imagine it will be a seam of coal in a couple hundred thousand years.

The read was amazing... I've never heard of it. Clearly, if it is native to NSW, it won't have made it to Vegas. What a remarkable looking fruit. Is it tart as other lime? The variations on the colors of ripe fruit made me wonder if there are sweet varieties? What a kick that would be on a sundae...