Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It seems to me the choice of good and bad perennial plants, in many cases (read mint is always bad) is subject to the amount of time a person has to maintain their system. If I've read it right, Charlie had no probs with pepino while Yavimaya and Charlie's friend found the demon in the plant.
Then there's planning correctly. I've found that some of my problem plants have been more about their position in the gb than the actual plant, or the lack of support structure being in place at the beginning of the plants growth.
For example, putting a tall plant/s in the centre of my gb has caused other plants to be shaded out of existence whereas placement to a side would have allowed other plants to also get the benefit of sunlight and warmth.
I'm sure there are many tips that the forum guru's can give, and probably have given to better plan out our gb's to improve plant access and planting density.
As for time, I'm sure everyone else has been allocated part of my share. What's the story?!

So far the pepinos in my friends system havent caused an actual problem, however they did take over the 1.8m x 2.4m bed within about 6 weeks or so of going in.

we are yet to see any roots come out the mediaguard, but im sure it will happen one day.


Charlie, what was fruit size like? especially in the second / third year??
i had some in soil that had massive fruit first year, smaller second year and third year was about the same as second.
my brother had huge fruit first year and is a bit neglected this year, but fruit is small.
the friend with it in the system has the biggest fruit i have seen so far (first year) and am wondering if it could just be what the plant does or perhaps lack of attention means worse fruit in following years.

I had to go back through my system thread to find pics but this was the only one I found sorry. I remember getting a good harvest, maybe 20 odd fruit but our following summer destroyed the entire plant so unfortunately I don't have consecutive years to gauge. My friends pepino lasted for a few years and did really well with regular pruning.



While I was searching around I see Robob grew some as well...
viewtopic.php?p=402894#p402894

Thanks for that charlie.

i cant wait to see how they go in AP over multiple years, in soil in melbourne the fruit seems to drop off in quantity and size with consecutive years as i said, which kind of sucks.
They are meant to die off in "cold" climates during winter and be planted as a annual, i dont know how cold it would have to get, i thought maybe the 12c that the water will get down to might be enough shock to kill them off here. We will see.

Pepinos died for me....

i like perennials because I'm lazy...

Perennials are a really intersting topic! I don't understand why most people grow much more annuals. They are more work, more expensive, less productive (on a total time scale) and less reliable. Also I don't understand how it can be a problem that they grow too big and outcompete other stuff. If anything grows too big just eat it or feed it to the fish. Sounds more like an advantage than a disadvantage to me. (For plants spreading by rhizomes I do understand the problem though.) I'm just getting started with Aquaponics and testing various perennials (see topic "salad machine"), but I already grew some perennials indoors in Hydroponics and if I could recommend just one perennial plant everyone should grow, it would be Gynura procumbens. It grows in Aquaponics, I'm growing it since 3 weeks in my system. It's a leafy green that you can eat fresh or cooked. It tastes better than lettuce in my opinion and is very crunchy and juicy, but not fibrous. But more importantly it's a medicinal plant. There are some people on youtube who claim to be diabetic and eating this plant daily allows them to stay off their insulin shots and still have normal blood sugar. There's also tons of published papers on Google Scholar on that matter and other stuff like anti-inflammatory properties, cholesterol, etc., it's no hoax! The plant seems to upregulate the sensivity of insulin receptors, which is totally amazing! It does not grow rhizomes, so easy to keep in check and is easily propagated by cuttings. So, get this plant, let it get huge, eat it every day and especially for diabetics, give away cuttings and spread the message

You've got my interest there, Painfully Obvious, and I am curious about this gynura procumbens or longevity spinach.
Does anybody know of a source for this plant in Western Australia?
Western Australian state customs will nail this kind of thing if it is sent from out of WA, so it would need to be a local source.
This looks like the kind of plant I need in my gb. Soon I'll be back to skinny, fit and surfing again.
(I heard that! This is serious.)