Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Last couple of days in aquaponics have been a little rough. First me breaking that pump the other night, which was okay cause I needed a bigger one.

But I get home today and my other pump has no pressure. No bueno, so I open the valves as much as I can, because the fish tank is more elevated than the grow beds they got a little trickle all day, but nothing like they are used to, and the strawberry wasnt getting any. Got in touch with pump company through Amazon, I have another that will be here tomorrow.

Luckily when I got off work the new bigger pump was here, I was able to get it all back up and running. The pump I rigged up is working fine, so I will leave it and have a back up here tomorrow in case this happens again.

Other than that, everything is still stable and were is it needs to be.



I moved this squash plant to the corner of one of the grow beds. In theory I have just going to let it drape off the side. I was going to transfer it to outdoor garden, but after some research, its almost impossible. The plants become reliant on the constant water and nitrates.



Fixing to have to make some cages or start stringing them up



Cucumber in second row of tower started from seed



Another cuke, grape tomato, both started from seeds and some lettuce in the bottom row of tower.

The cukes will be transferred to top to grow on trellis will build going across the roof

Looks good, those plants are looking very healthy

any ideas what these little guys are?





they are only on one pepper plant

from one of the leaves I removed off the plant

I think I cleared the majority out



any ideas?

Look like aphids to me.
Great set up by the way.

Maybe they are, I am used to the aphids around here having a gray coloring and almost always see the eggs clusters, I didnt see any.

Also never had problems with aphids on pepper plants, only squash or cukes

After some research I think you are right, which got me to thinking, where the hell did my ladybugs go?

Maybe they flew away home because their house was on fire...

What does that mean?

aphids in indoor aquaponics are going to be a constant battle.. i dont know that you can ever annihilate them. I guess you could do ladybugs again.

you can help your plants by spraying the leaves with water specifically early in the morning because the aphids are more active at night and hide under the leaves from the sun.

The water just knocks them off the plant.. they come back.. but you are severely limited by what chemicals you can spray on them in an aquaponics grow bed.

It means I'm getting old...

The sun was baking my plants in the north west corner of the green house. I am currently waiting on some shade cloth so for the mean time I through this up. Dont know if it will hurt or help. But all the plants bounced back after I put it up

Do you still think you are going to be able to keep water temperatures down when it's 110 outside?

They are aphids... and they are a pain in the a**.
I have had a lot of problems with them especially on strawberry plants and capsicum. It is best to try and get rid of them or get the numbers down while there are not too many as they spread quickly sometimes. Your ladybugs are good but if there wasn't anything for them to eat they may have left your AP system, and then perhaps the aphids appeared.
Personally I try to spray the aphids with a homemade chilli/garlic/tomato leaf/water mix they are soft shelled creatures so that can kill them but you may need to spray for a few days to knock them back.
I don't have an exact recipe for amounts but be careful as making the spray too strong can burn your plants. Also if you do make that spray then try not to spray the plants during the hot part of the day as that will more likely burn the plant too.
If you gets aphids AND ants start to worry and try to kill the ants as they sort of herd the aphids and suck nutrients from them or something and will also carry the aphids down into the roots of the plants making it almost impossible to get rid of them.

Cotton, I am worried as much as your are skeptical. I lived in Coppell for a few years and lived all around East Texas so I familiar with what July and August has in store for us.

The shade cloth I am ordering supposedly will decrease inside temp by 10-15 degrees. The thermostat on the fans I am installing will kick them on at 85. The windows will stay open, and the air will be flowing.

I am hoping the inside of the GH will be cooler than the actual outside.

On top of that the main fish tank is inside the shop and stays shaded 24/7, which stays about 15-20 degrees cooler inside there.

If all else fails I have two windows units I was given that I can use.

It might be a losing battle, but this is my first year in. I have always been known to take on dumb impossible task and this might be one, but I have also been known not to fail.