Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

What do you mean setting up the trellises outside of the growbed? Can you give me an example of that? I get using a string and all but I don't really know how to do that otherwise because my system is on a countertop.

Description
The plant is a small, half-woody, attractive, fast-growing, brittle tree; shallow-rooted; reaching 10 to 18 ft (3-5.5 m) in height; rarely as much as 25 ft (7.5 m). The leaves are muskily odorous, evergreen, alternate, more or less heart-shaped at the base, ovate, pointed at the apex, 4 to 13 1/2 in (10-35 cm) long and 1 1/2 to 4 3/4 in (4-12 cm) broad, thin, softly hairy, with conspicuous coarse veins. Borne in small, loose clusters near the branch tips, the fragrant flowers, 1/2 to 3/4 in (1.25-2 cm) wide, have 5 pale-pink or lavender, pointed lobes, 5 prominent yellow stamens, and green-purple calyx. The long-stalked, pendent fruit, borne singly, or in clusters of 3 to 12, is smooth, egg-shaped but pointed at both ends and capped with the persistent conical calyx. In size it ranges from 2 to 4 in (5-10 cm) long and l 1/2 to 2 in (4-5 cm) in width. Skin color may be solid deep-purple, blood-red, orange or yellow, or red-and-yellow, and may have faint dark, longitudinal stripes. Flesh color varies accordingly from orange-red or orange to yellow or cream-yellow. While the skin is somewhat tough and unpleasant in flavor, the outer layer of flesh is slightly firm, succulent and bland, and the pulp surrounding the seeds in the two lengthwise compartments is soft, juicy, subacid to sweet; it is black in dark-purple and red fruits, yellow in yellow and orange fruits. The seeds are thin, nearly flat, circular, larger and harder than those of the true tomato and distinctly bitter. The fruit has a slightly resinous aroma and the flavor suggests a mild or underripe tomato with a faintly resinous aftertaste.

There are a LOT of great ideas out there. Here are 463,000 of 'em...

Google Images: hydroponic tomatoes

There is wisdom in observing how so many do it with strings or string-like contraptions:



However this is pretty amazing!



--
Sam

Dont stress about the ph. My tomatoes grew fine despite high ph. Yield was low, but spacing was too close I think and it is a new system.

At higher pH levels, the nutrients can go into other chemical forms that are no longer plant available. So yes, the nutrients are still in the water but they won't be in forms that allow the plants to access them.

Here's a link to a common plant nutrient pH chart: http://www.growing-life.com/shop/pH_and ... chart.html

Most folks try and keep their pH in the 6.5 zone since that is optimal for plant uptake without adversely affecting the fish. But of course, it can take some time to reach that since you don't want to change the pH too quickly. One option for you is to use phosphoric acid or muratic acid to adjust the top up water before you add it to slowly bring the pH down. Just do it SLOWLY.

Nitrification will also slowly bring it down depending on how often you have to add top up water. But this can take quite a bit of time depending on # of fish, feed rates and amount of carbonates in your water.

Hope that helps!