Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've had them since the start of the year, when they were only a few cm long. I know they can grow much faster, as the beast from the bung hole, which died months ago, probably from eating too much at once, was much bigger than any of them are ATM.

The latest water and air temperature graph up to 22:00 tonight, showing the cold airmass passing by that cooled things right down, and also reduced the appetite of the Murray Cod. It should be high 20s to 30C for much of the next week, so they should be back into eating more soon.



As previously mentioned, I've dropped the salinity well down to under 300ppm, and the strawberries have really taken off, with lots of large fruit coming on. I've picked some already and its been very tasty, although a couple were a touch softer than I prefer- but still way better than the ones my wife bought recently.

Hey there,
I just recently had an amazing tabbouleh at my local woodfired pizza joint - Whats else do you use parsley for?

Parsley is fantastic on garlic toast. Also, I use it to season salmon.

Parsley goes great with tomatoes and cucumbers to make a nice gazpacho!

I made some celery and parsley soup the other day, it was very ... green, and actually tasted pretty good too! I eat some straight off the tree every time I walk past it
The top of the parsley is now well over my head, there is just so much of it I really don't think I'll be able to use it all, but will dry a big batch of it and make more celery and parsley soup today, to freeze for later. As the amount of trout decreases in the freezer, the amount of soup is increasing.
ATM, and for the past month or so since the chooks are back on the lay, we've been close to food self-sufficient with AP produce and eggs, preserved fruit from last year, jams etc, the excess eggs we sell at the market have been covering all other fruit and veg purchases.
The big job ATM is getting the cherry trees covered in bags to keep the Qld FF and birds off.

Love your work. I eat parsley like its a vegetable, love the stuff.

What kind of net do you use and where do you get it from? I need some for my figs, persimmons and plums.

My Parsley is so big I'm eating it as celery.

Colours, they are made from shade cloth that I sew into large bags, some cover a branch or 2, others the whole tree. There is a pic of a couple of bags of cherry trees about half way down my web page, linked below. I've made some from fruit fly netting too, but they tend to catch on braches a bit more and are more of a PITA to get on and off the trees than the shade cloth bags.
I've also got about 50 traps with Cera Trap attractant spread around the perimeter of the groups of fruit trees, and have already caught hundreds, if not thousands, of QFF.

You know how it goes Stuart- photos, or it didn't happen!


Tape measure @ 1 metre

A couple of pics from yesterday- here's a clump of spring onions which I harvested recently. I decided to replant the roots to see if they would re-shoot, and it's coming along nicely




I tried to pull one of the celery plants, but failed due to the roots. In the end I snapped off the stem and pulled a few of the larger roots I could get hold of, then chopped the remaining block up a bit. I might add a few worms to that area soon too

That is one huge rootball.

I'm glad I keep them in my DWC (they thrive in there, easily my best grower).

There was a bit of excitement in the AP system at 5am this morning, the sort of excitement I really could do without! I've got some nasty scratches, missing skin and bruises on my arms from the encounter. A Swamp Wallaby, probably looking for a drink during this unseasonably dry, hot (new high temp record for Oct yesterday) weather had fallen in to my buried FT whilst trying to have a drink. I leave it 1/4 open at night to assist in cooling in hot weather. It was a big effort to remove it, as it was thrashing around a lot, and those powerful rear legs can easily disembowel anyone or any animal on the receiving end! Eventually I was able to get hold of both rear legs at the same time, whilst my wife got hold of a front leg and we lifted it out. Fortunately its claws were not super sharp, and none of the veins in my arms were ripped out
All the parasitic bugs of various kinds didn't want to get wet, and its head was swarming with them, although they had a good dunking each time it fell back in during a failed attempt at removal. I hope the Murray Cod had some new and exciting bugs for breakfast! The water was pretty dirty after the wallaby's swim, so its still a bit hard to see, but I don't think there were any fish casualties, and they were eating well this morning. The biofilm, which is making a comeback on the bottom of the FT, is showing plenty of scrapes.
At least the system water is at a pleasant temperature for a swim



EDIT: Glad to see this post did apear, I kept getting this:
>>General Error You are not allowed to access this file.

every time I tried to post

Wow Gordon. God on you for risking life and limb literally for the wallaby.

That's a great story, Guna. You are probably getting close to having enough material for a book, by now.