Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I was sticking my finger in the bag and it seemed damp down about 3", so thought it was enough. Easy enough to water more often. Will see if they recover.

Photos as promised. Clarity on this small telstra phone is not good.

Well, that was an interesting experience. I just launched a pvc pipe over the neighbours fence.

As I said in the What are you drinking now thread, on the weekend I hooked up the retic to the garden on the weekend. This morning I thought I would pressurise it. Well I turned on the tap slowly, listened for the water to start flowing, garden sprays stareted to spray/drip, what ever they are meant to, and all of a sudden, there is a loud thud and a whoosing sound, followed by the clunk of a pipe landing on the neighbours roof, rattle clank, bang down their tin roof it went at 5:30am thank you.

I think the thud sound was a wad of dirt shooting through the pipe up to the end which had a cap on it, just before the pipe let go. Maybe the impact was enough shock to break the bond.

So this pipe was buried under all the gravel that is under mty artifical turf, with an upstand for future expansion. Been in ground for over a year now but never tested. Haven''t retrieved the pipe from their gutter yet. Maybe it was just a bad bond.

Even with the valve just cracked, it would have got at least 30m in the air. Hmm, hydro rocket launchers. Could be a fun experient to do with the boys????

Maybe we can do that after I have dug another hole to fix this pipe, and put a valve ibn the dead leg so its not under pressure when not needed.

Retrieved the offending piep from the neighbours roof last night. One hell of a story to explain why my retic was on their roof. Had to take over a beer for them to apologise for waking them up.

It appears that I had not glued in the pipe. Opps. Maybe I meant for it to be like that when I put the pipes in. I didn't have approval for the shed at that stage, and its intent was for it to be a water supply for the shed. Oh I don't know, it was over a year ago when I put my lawn down.

Dropped into BYAP in Jandakot yesterday to pick up some pellets. Boy am I jealous of the SP's that are in their tanks. Some of them are huge. They will weigh in over a kg surely. How old are they?

I have been keen to pull some of mine atthe end of this summer, but now I am tempted to leave them in for another season. I know Joels fish get fed many times each day, but they are magnificant specimens. They seem quite docile compared to mine though. Maybe I have too much shelter over my tank.

Also impressed with the IBC setup on display. The method used to cut the IBC cage really minimises waste, and maximises the tank size. For those that haven't seen the detail, the bottom of the cage is used to support the GB. They have cut just one ring high. The cage is inverted and the cut ends of the vertical bars go directly onto the paving. The base of the FT goes stright down onto the gorund. This gives an extra 200l of water in the fish tank. Great idea if I ever rebuild or add to my system.

For those in Perth, I highly recommend taking the time drop in to check out the systems, and get some ideas of what you can do. I love the mesh trelises up the back of each bed.

I realised this morning while feeding my fish and taking off the days tomatoes, that the only tomato plants that gave me any decent amount of fruit were the heirloom variety I bought from the Bull and Barrel Fete back in October.

How do I make sure I get some seeds or cuttings to take from these existing plants?

Do I just grab a few tomatoes before end of season, let them ferment a bit and then squeeze out the seeds and wash and dry them? or should I take some cuttings? Which part of plant is best. Do I put the cuttings diretly into the GB? Dip them in honey? Its something I have never tried.

I know my strawberries have been a little small this year, and since the hot weather started haven't produced much that s bigger than a pea, but I would like to see it grow for another season at least. Do you just leave them in the GB, do you trim them back? Only two plants are looking healthy. They are the ones at the front in the sun. Do I pull the others take cuttings, can you split them up?

Put some spinach and lettuce seeds in my seed raiser last night. Thinking about winter crops already.

Such a duffous when it comes to plants and gardening. Thats why I love AP, as I can actually get some food and a laugh at my fish with out having to bend down to do weeding or worry about fertiliser. Just plug the pump inot the power and off she goes.

Hi dr bee, nice to meet you at BYAP the other day. Should be able to leave your strawbs in. You can take cuttings of your tomato plants and just stick them in the growbed or stick them in the dirt and they will take. Fruit may grow through winter but wont ripen. My tomato plant has been in for a year and a half but im ready to remove it. Im a bit worried about the root system that I will find

Potato plant never made a come back, so I let the kids tip the bag out on the lawn and forage for spuds. There were ten babies, ranging in size 6cm long to about 1 cm. Roast spuds that night! Should get some rich green grass where we split the bag open.

They came from three shop potatoes. One had a few eyes sprouting, the other two only one or two. I think I made the mistake of planting them too low in the mix and then raised them up early January. I think that unsettled them. Will try again with some seed potatos.

UV had done its thing and the bag was knackered.

Pulled out the non productive toms, and lifted the shade mesh to let in some more light onto the strabs and toms. Still got mesh over the top. Just need to find a way of securing it easily, so I can adjust according to the season/weather.

Still getting a dozen or more toms every day, and probably 6 strawbs.

Put another 200l of water in the IBC and found that the murkiness in my water was caused by pellets sinking to the bottom and not getting eaten. I guess thats the danger of chucking in a spoonfull as you head off to work. Cleaned out as many as I could and didn't feed for rest of weekend. Cleared up significantly after 24hrs.

Now its cooling down, will put less in each feed. I don't think there will be any eaten this year.

Are you able to get hold of a few yabbies DrBee. Mine do a great job of cleaning up uneaten food

Cheers Charlie,

I've seen marron being advertised, but I like my SP being unchallanged.

Will do a search for yabbies in Bunbury. Do they breed in captivity?

Like rabbits

Mmmm, yum, I have enjoyed your tails of hunting various dams around Kal.

Will they leave the SP's alone?

Ive only lost fingerlings to yabb's. I think fish over 100mm should be ok. Its a size thing, big fish will eat little yabbies and most medium to large yabbies will eat fry and small fingerlings. Too many yabbies will also see them eating each other. Just throw in 3 or 4 and they will be happy together.

Throw a bunch of pipe cut off's in your FT and the yabbies just chill out in them all day. When the sun goes down they become active and scrounge around, any food left over gets cleaned up. I often go out to the system at night with a beer and a torch and watch them crawl around. The SP just swim straight over them and knock them around. The yabbies try to have a crack but they are too slow and uncoordinated.

Good news, one of my AP buddies is going to get some yabbies, So I have put up my hand for half a dozen. Figure If I get six, thtas 4 for the tank, two for the tummy. All SP's now big enough to look after themselves. Biggest getting up to a foot long, but no where near as fat as the ones on your scalse Charlie.

My buddy found out the hard way that you don't put the hose running in the tank and leave it unattended. There is only so much fresh tap water they can take. He has a nice green patch around his tank now after pumping water on the lawn all day. The result, no fish afetr growing out for 18 months, and a good water bill.

I don't leave the side of my tank when the hose is running. I am easily distracted, and have short term memory issues. If I get called away, the hose gets turned off. Hopefully not too much more evaporation this summer.

Hey there seamonkey.

A few weeks ago (probably 3) I had a few tomatoes that had benen eaten by something, so I picked them and then left them on the grow bed for about a week. I then squeezed them out and spread the seeds out a bit under a few pebbles. I now have tomato seedlings popping up.

Have thinned out the toms that are not producing fruit, so need to get a few more seedlings in. Lettuce and spinach almost ready to plant out. Might try brocchilli again this season. Boy we go through that stuff. I did a stir fry last night, one whole head gone.

Do capsicums grow over winter?

I've got some basil going to seed, so I'll see if they create seedlings.

I love this AP stuff. There is so much to learn in a controlled environment. If I'd seen these shoots in a soil based garden, I probably would have pulled them out thinkiing they were weeds. No weeds in AP!! (well only a few).

Needed to top up the system with some water on the week end. Asked the young fella to hold the hose on the garden while I flushed the hose. Well, apparently we don't have a garden so it all went in the grow bed and smashed all the little tomato seedings.

"That's lawn dad. "

Oh well, I know now.

Checked this morning, and about three of 12 survived the wet down. Also took out about half my basil. Fortunatly I haven't planted out my second lot of spinach or winter lettuce.

Stuck in some cuttings from a mulberry tree. Bought this mulberry tree for the in laws a few years back and it has bucket loads of fruit each year. Will see how the cuttings go. So far the don't look like the leaves are wilting. Will be interested to see how long it takes befoe they are ready to plant out.

What the thoughts here guys - 3 months?

Cuttings looking like they are still on the tree. No signs of wilting. Obviously roots won't be present yet, but the tips still seem alive. Fingers crossed!!

A bit worried though, as I'm going to pull out all my toms over the long weekend and get in the new seedlings (lettuce, spinach, chinese cabbage, brochili, beans and chillies). Hope I don't disturb the mulberries too much. Iknow the seasons aren't quite right for all them, but got to try and see what does/doesn't work.

Will also modify the shade over the top, so it doesn't come down the sides. Growth has been crazy since I rolled up the side protection. Basil and strawbs looking lush, not much fruit going ripe though, so thats why the toms are coming out. Keeping the strawbs in so they are good for next year and keep some mature plants in while the seedlings get bigger. Still want cover over the top to stop small plants getting smashed by rain over winter, and sun burn on plants was reduced over summer.