Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok so my nitrates reading was really high so I decided to take the plunge and plant out the system.

Looking for feedback on whether my spacing is ok and whether the water level is alright?

The seedlings roots were rinsed of any soil and the hole for planting was roughly 5cm deep.

Running the system as CF at the moment to establish the seedlings then will switch back to F &D.

I watered the seedlings with seaweed solution in a watering can last night as well.

LETTUCE


SPINACH


CUCUMBER


EGGPLANT


Thanks in advance for feedback!

spacing is fine.

as long as your roots are in the water but your stems arent, you are at the right depth.

You might be able to get away with planting a little closer if you wanted to - given there's no competition for water. I've had to do that to deal with high levels of nitrates. But the downside is more work in the form of more frequent harvesting/pruning so that plants get enough light.

Sometimes the insects can get further along when the spacing is tighter because you don't catch them as early but either way keep an eye out.

I guess it depends on the plants...

Rightly or wrongly and beginning with only one grow bed I saw it as a challenge to see just how much you could pack in.
I even grouped snow pea plants in lots of 4-5 plants climbing up the one piece of string - and having 2 strings laden with 10 plants.

I guess it also helps keep the nitrates in check right...?

Here's the spacing on my Cos lettuce as at approx 15 Jan



And now today - it may be hard to believe but we started with 50 lettuces - have eaten a few along the way and as the plants spread and grow larger leaves we remove them so they haven't been bolting or causing any issues being packed in. There's 12 celery to boot!

Oops... I relocated the 2 rhubarb and added more lettuces



The other grow beds almost seem bare in comparison


Looking at your grow beds - how many ppl are you feeding? If two of those cucumber plants took off I would consider removing the rest and adding in two Zuc's and two pumpkins

I'd double the eggplants

Spinach spacing looking good - are they a baby variety or normal size once grown?

Maybe add a few more lettuces?

Thank you so much everyone for your feedback.

PmI think given this is my first time, I might add one more eggplant and a couple more lettuce... But thats it.

We'll see how we go.

Cucumbers are a big favourite with myself and the kids. We grew some monster cukes in the soil patch this year and they only lasted one meal per cucumber!

So I'm pretty confident we'll use whatever we can grow.

The spinach is a mix of baby and ironman spinach.

How many fish?

FYI - my list as follows across 4 (new) grow beds - with NO fish for apprpx 4-6 wks (although the new fish didn't eat for 2 weeks on top of that)

3 tomatoes
1 Rosemary
1 Lemongrass
20 something spring onions
1 strawberry

6 pumpkins various species
12 basil (various)
3 chilli
10 Marigold
2 capscium
6 bush beans
20+ garlic chives
12 celery
50 lettuce
50 spinach (25 baby + 25 rainbow)
2 rhubarb
1 corn
6 red cabbage
1 passion fruit

Most of these plants were all added after we took the last 6 trout out and a roughly 4- 6 wk break before adding 50 silver perch.
During the period with no fish and having added grow beds - I still had trace nitrates showing up.

Pending how many fish you have, I'm gonna bet your system will support alot more plants.

Ok ok! I'm going to whack some tomato seedlings in there, plant the last eggplant...

Hubby is building me a structure to support shade cloth etc so hopefully we can get a late tomato harvest.

PUMPKINS - Don't they need heaps of space? Won't the pumpkin vine completely takeover my AP system?

run the pumpkin off the grow bed onto the ground. problem solved