Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have been growing these plants for about 40 days now. I have various fruits and vegetables including: zucchini, cucumbers, strawberries, peppers, green onions and more.

It seems like my plants are flowering rather than growing fruit/vegetables? What am I doing incorrectly? I have suffered my fair share of minor setbacks building my first aquaponics system (fish die off, water leaks, etc) but overall the plants have been growing and look green. I don't notice many bugs. When I test the water, it is typically within correct ranges.

On some of the cucumber and zucchini leaves, there are some minor things like white spots, slight yellow, etc.

On the strawberries, there has only been one that turned red and I managed to eat it. The others start off looking nice as a white flower but then after a couple days dry up and die off?

Here are some pictures.











It has been reaching the mid 80's to low 90's here recently. I've had two fans on them to cool as needed.

Are my plants supposed to show fruit/vegetables at this time? Do they look healthy?

Looks like you have some deficiencies there. What type of feed are you using?

Not using any feed other than fish food?

Iron is one of the elements that isn't introduced through fish feed, you'll need to dose it semi regularly. Then slow it down as the system ages.

Have a look or chelated iron at the hardware/gardening store.

Thank you! Here is what I ordered - http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000NCTK4 ... ref=plSrch


How often should I use for 50 gal grow bed/100 gal fish tank? How much and how often? Thanks again! Hope it works

No, don't use that one.

It contains copper. Copper is bad news for the fish.

http://www.amazon.com/AquaIron-DTPA-Iro ... n+chelates

Try that one, and dosing amounts should be on the back, it's designed for AP.

Thanks .. changed my order.

Is this lack of iron whats keeping my plants from producing?

Also, today I did notice some aphids on one of the zucchini plants. Do you have any recommendations for bug control?


Thank you again

@Colum Black-Byron,

Thank you for your suggestion on adding chelated iron! The plants have rebounded back to green and are now starting to fruit (strawberries, jalapenos)! The cucumber and zucchini look good and like they are about to start producing as well. I appreciate your help! Forums like these are a great resource to have access to.

What is your opinion on organic Cal-Mag? I wanted to give my plants something to help them while waiting for the chelated iron to arrive, and the local store recommended this. I used it for a couple days and it didn't seem to do much.

Your system will naturally go down in pH and when that happens, usually folks add calcium and potassium in alternating amounts to buffer the pH back up(hydroxides or carbonates). So calcium is usually added during that and you wouldn't need to use organic cal-mag. Of course this all is dependent on what your top up water is comprised of since some of us have large amounts of calcium already dissolved in our well water.