Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yes, although I haven't applied any for a few months, but I am thinking about adding some more B&B and Seasol this week as a few plants are looking a bit yellowish here and there- although most look fine, and the romanescos are powering on.

How much do you put?

Typically 100g of each, either into the ST or into the GBs, but have put in up to 200g of each at times

The 2nd romanesco broccoli head, this one quite a bit larger. We only just finished the first one tonight, and it was delicious. I think some blanching and freezing will be on the cards very soon.



The chooks and ducks love the leaves from these, they are all roosting with full crops tonight.

The trout decided they weren't hungry yesterday afternoon, so I have a couple of hundred grams of pellets to scoop out of the ST. I only fed them 25g today, as they initially ignored them, but were gone when I checked later. I thought the SLO seemed to be a bit slow going into the ST, so poked my fingers into the extended T fitting at the top (50mm poly) and felt a fish in there. It escaped at some stage during the dismantling, and I couldn't see any fish in the ST, so it must be swimming in amongst the rest of them, hopefully with no injuries. It must have taken quite some effort to get into the SLO. The Murray Cod is still hanging around the bottom at the edges, not eating much, and now it is significantly smaller than most of the trout.

.
Never seen or heard of that variety..
Looks more like. Cauliflower ..
..
.

I've seen it here before, but it looked more green and had a spiral shape.

But, it sure looks good!

Chris, that's a similar variety, mine are yellowish tending to purple at the ends. When they are small they have the same form as your pics, but they grow fast! There is also a pure purple variety.


>>Looks more like. Cauliflower ..

Indeed it does, they are all brassicas

Thanks. A 3.6 pound head is giant! I haven't tried any broccoli but Pacman. They like the heat here. But, a large head is a pound.

Hi Gordon,

Do you have any involvement with this event? I thought of you when I saw it advertised.
http://rsaa.anu.edu.au/world-record-stargazing

I know it is on, but no, I'm not involved, or employed by ANU since 2011, but I wish them luck - they'll need it to see any stars! Have you seen the satellite image?

I might pull the 25cm Newtonian out to look at Saturn, to help with the numbers, if it isn't too cloudy.

Or perhaps I'll just watch the TV instead of trying to look through the clouds, as the participation requirements are just not going to be met out here in the sticks.

>>the requirements of Guinness World Records is that all sites have a minimum of 25 participants as well as 2 independent stewards and an auditor

August's temperature plot




This lot of trout seem to have a fair few days when they dont want to eat much, but I have no idea as to why that might be, as the water parameters are similar to the large system, where they don't seem to have days off. In any case they are all still alive and growing quite well, although the big system has some larger fish, and some smaller ones too.

We've planted a few tomatoes, capsicums, beans etc in space freed up by cauli and brocolli harvesting.
The banana isnt looking too well after the snow and some cold nights, but I haven't given up all hope on it yet.

We'll have a stack of red cabbage to harvest in a few weeks- a couple of them had an infestation of aphids, but close examination shows that lots of them had been stung by wasps, so I just wash them off the plant every now and then, rather htan eco-oil them, and hope the wasp numbers build up some more.

Looks like you had one freeze during that logged cycle

Those temperatures are recorded at the meteorological standard 1.5m screen height, but there's generally frost on the ground if the screen temp is under 5C, when it's calm, so there were actually quite a few frosts in August here. Being up the side of the valley a bit makes the minima a few degrees warmer than down near the front gate, where the frosts are heavier.