Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Everyone seems to be saying that brassicas thrive in AP but I've never had any success. I've tried brocolli, cauli, brussels, bok choi, wombok and they grow slowly and rarely produce anything worth mentioning. Except Rocket, that went nuts.

I only put two and two together recently and realised that they are all brassicas and I have been having abundant success with everything else. Leafy greens, fruiting and non-fruiting plants.

I know that brassicas have a requirement for boron, was thinking to supplement with a tiny bit? I have transplanted some seedlings out several months ago and there were several still in the pot that I couldn't fit in that are about triple the size of the ones in the system.

Sorry, couldn't resist...

How do you go with beetroot? Beetroot love boron so they might be a helpful indicator if boron's your problem.

We did also grow this beetroot in the same system....

I had a really good crop of caulis and broccoli, the caulis are all gone now, but the broccoli secondary florettes are coming along nicely. The biggest cauli was just over 2.3kg.

Possibly helped along by occasional additions of Blood and Bone, which does have some Boron:
Typical Analysis
% W/V
Nitrogen (N) 9.9 Calcium (Ca) 1.6 Zinc (Zn) 0.008
Phosphorus (P) 3.7 Magnesium (Mg) 0.25 Copper (Cu) 0.011
Potassium (K) 7.4 Iron (Fe) 0.11 Boron (Bo) 0.024

I've not had wild success with cauli or broc either - small heads. Bok choy were good though. How mature was the system when it grew those crops Joel?

Earthbound what's your secret? What do you use?

No probs here either.

Possibly one of our better growers.

Out of interest, what happens to yours Colours?

They just stay as seedlings, barely growing at all. Everything else is busting at the seams.

I'm pretty sure Earthbounds beds don't have 20 additional filters on them, maybe that's the trick? Naa, that's silly Charlie.

I have no filters on that bed, that us silly Charlie.

Good motivation!!!

Skeggly, what fish are you currently running? Are they the main flowerheads of your broccoli? I could so use all those leaves to make chips. Wish my system was like that... I have that much silverbeet but there's only so much silverbeet 5 people can eat, despite me pushing the limits with every meal. And you can't make chips out of it. You can but they taste like s#17.

I'd love to do a comparison about the different nutritive content of fish breed's food to see if there is any similarities between them and the deficiencies that people experience.

Have read more on boron. Apparently about 80% of the plant's boron is contained in the cell walls and deficiencies can weaken the walls. When I'm regular with my application of seaweed concentrate, my plants grow well and are relatively disease free. I assume the boron in the seaweed contributes to this (as well as all the other trace minerals it contains).

A tell tale indicator of of boron deficiency in broccoli is that hole that you see in the main stalk. My plants never get to the stage where I can test it.

Another thing I have learned is that I have been spelling broccoli incorrectly all of my life until now. ...

I think you'll find EBs system did have many filters - all integrated into the GB Also had integrated mineralistion - absolute genius

My trout system didn't produce well for broc or cauli this year and that was with 150g of food going in per day. So I think it must be some trace element problem, certainly not lack of N, could still be K though...I have not supplemented much with seasol though...

I think they both can be very effected by stress at a young age and transplant shock so that's another thing to consider....

Earthbound? Yr holding back on me? What is this mineralisation thing? Just looked up eatherngroup, his website is currently down.

I had problems growing Bok choi.. but they seem to be getting alot better recently. same for cucumber and watermellons but.... thats nkt a problem no more!