Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My barrel system has been going great guns - except for during the last few few weeks where all my Kale seems to have gone to sleep.

The Kale had a bunch of caterpillars that I got rid of with dipel spray. I removed the damaged leaves leaving plenty of new growth still bunched together in the centre. Then we had a hot spell of weather that prompted me to move the barrel system to a new location that gets afternoon shade earlier in the day.

Everything else in the system is doing fantastically (chard, parsley, and spring onion), but all the Kale seems to have just stopped. The leaves that were new when I trimmed the damaged leaves are still there, no larger, and if anything wilting just a little. The colour still looks mostly fine - just no growth at all in weeks.

I've checked for any more caterpillars - and found none. I also re-baited the beer trap and caught one small slug, but no recovery has happened since then either.

The plants are less than a year old, and I would have thought should have plenty of life left in them yet. Is it more likely that they are suffering after effects of caterpillar attack, or heat stress, or something else all together? What is the collective wisdom about the best way to proceed?

Thanks,

Pcal

Best bet is to see if any other APers in your area have the same thing going on.

I know that Kale is a biennial so it should have some time left. Several possibilities I can think of;

1. Not enough nutrients - These are heavy feeders it may just be short on some nutrient or the other plants are getting them first. Try a foliar feed (something with high nitrogen) and see if that helps.

2. Root rot

3. May just have to recover after loosing so many leaves.

4. Temperature - My climate's pretty mile so I don't know about this one but it could be an issue since Kale is supposed to grow best in cooler temps.

Cheers

I've discovered the "root cause" of my Kale problem. My first big newby mistake - didn't keep a close enough look on the condition of the water in the stone guard. Got a bit of algae in there that blocked off the drain hole turning my timed flood and drain system into a constant flood one. I only discovered it when I bought a new PH meter and cycled on the pump to fill the stone guard so I could test the water - and heard it start overflowing only a few seconds later... Not sure how long it was like that, weeks presumably.

The parsley, chard, and spring onion seemed to like it, but the kale didn't...

So, I presumably have some serious root rot. The kale in the photo below is the best of my 4 plants - is there any hope for them? I've cleared the hole, so the system is now draining again (aeration has retuned to normal). Is that enough or should I be doing more?

Regards,

Pcal

Seems like it should help. If the Kale has root rot though you'll probably be better off pulling it out. Give it a couple weeks if you want to find out whether it bounces back though. My experience has been that it's rare for this to happen.

I have done alright with Kale in CF during past years, I have more issues with Chard - every system is a little different.

Cheers

Mine certainly slowed down over winter but is actively growing again now. The plants have now been in for 18 months.

I'm guessing you would have had separate aeration for a CF system. Mine was relying on the water draining back into the tank to aerate the water. The Kale didn't survive - half the plants actually fell over by themselves and had no roots at all left on the end of the stem...

Guess I'll chalk it up to experience...

Sorry to hear they didn't make it pcal. I'd wait a few days, then plant something different in the spots that the Kale didn't make it (go for something that's not susceptible to root rot).

No additional aeration here. I do have 8 different outfalls into the sump as well as several other outfalls around the system into various tanks so I don't really feel much need for it.

Cheers