Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

System:
700 Gallons
Flood & Drain
20-30 tilapia
Started cycling in Feb 2014
Mineralization and degassing tanks added a couple weeks ago.
PH 7
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrates 40
Water temps vary from 80-92 F so far this summer

Basil looks like it needs Iron, top up your iron chelates. Squash looks like it's got powdery mildew, weekly spraying on milk 1:10 diluted with water. I've never had much luck combatting it, but I've never really tried hard enough.

Curling leaves is usually potassium, I like to add a few banana skins to the media beds, they'll break down and add potassium.

Lmannyr, the Basil isn’t suffering an Iron deficiency. Iron deficiency will initially present as yellowing between the veins on new growth, not older leaves, and if left unresolved will result in the newest growth coming out completely yellow, even white.

Iron deficiency is normally a result of lockout due to a high pH of 7.5 or more. With your pH at 7.0, and no obvious symptoms of Iron Deficiency, Iron Chelates aren’t required at this point IMO, although adding a pinch every couple of months won’t do any harm, just don’t go silly with it.

The distortion and curling of the newer leaves on your Capsicum (Bell pepper) are symptomatic of a Calcium deficiency... not Potassium. Potassium deficiency will initially show as yellowing between the veins and along the leaf margins on older lower leaves, but with new growth remaining healthy and green.

Capsicum plants are normally the first plant in a system to show signs of Calcium deficiency. It can be caused by a general lack of Calcium in the water, the result of using rain or filtered water, or growing a lot of fruiting plants or Calcium hungry greens such as Silverbeet, Spinach etc in the system.

Calcium deficiency can also be caused by low water temps below 20C, even when there is sufficient Calcium in the water, and is especially evident in Capsicums when the water temp drops below 16C, but that shouldn’t be an issue in southern FL at the moment I would imagine.

It can also be a result of nutrient lockout, caused by competing nutrient ions stopping the plants from taking up the Calcium, ie: when there is an excess of Potassium or Magnesium in the system.

The powdery mildew is a result of high humidity, regular rainfall, or overhead watering. Remove and dispose of the worst affected leaves and resolve the humidity or overhead watering/rain issue if possible. I know it’s commonly presented as a remedy, and you could certainly give a try, but I’ve never really had great success with the milk method. You could try spraying with a Potassium bicarbonate based fungicide, or a Potassium Silicate product, such as Budlink.

Mr damage +1 you my friend are a genius.

Thanks for the detailed response.

My water is very cloudy and and I'm unable to se the bottom. I use rain water to top off.

The cheque is in the mail Cookie!...

although adding a pinch every couple of months won’t do any harm, just don’t go silly with it.

Can you expand on this please Mr Damage.

About every 2-3 months I add a small amount of Chelated Iron to my single IBC system, whether there are deficiency symptoms or not, not much though, only about a 1/4 teaspoon.

In my kid's single blue barrel system I add a "pinch" every 2-3 months also, and by "pinch" I mean the same amount as what you would do when adding a pinch of salt to cooking etc.

I don't think that is powdery mildew - more like the silvery leaves of a zucchini plant that you sometimes get.

Or maybe I'm wrong

These are pictures of the latest growth. The leaves are a pale green.

Thoughts...

Squash is huge! I mean it's the biggest vegetable plant I have grown so far in my life. Amazing! Problem is, no squash is growing from the flowers. I have tons of flowers but no squash. Flowers get big and yellow, open and close at various times, and eventually, fall off. All the flowers look the same, male I think. The flowers do not have a buldge beneath them.

Thoughts? Thanks.

No pollination.

On some plants there are a bunch of male flowers for each female. The female would be found below a cluster of males. Look for clusters and then a single. It's possible the plant is too young still to produce female flowers. First blooms don't always produce fruit.