Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Bump - anyone know watercress well enough to answer this question?

Thanks Scotty. BTW Scotty how fast does upland cress grow?

It's been a couple of years and I don't really remember for sure. I think it was a bit like parsley that starts out pretty slow but then does alright (but I wouldn't stake too much on this memory). I think I would have noticed if it grew really fast or really slowly though . Is it not starting up like you hoped?

No it is starting fine. Since I have never dealt with it I do not have a benchmark to know whether it is normal, under performing or doing better than excellent

The plants that seem to be struggling is the spinach. It has grown maybe one inch in 2 months. The watercress was just stems with a couple leaves when planted and it has exploded in growth. It is probably 4 or 5 times the size since it was planted two weeks ago

[quote="crackenfish"]Here is a weekly update. The cress is growing really good, the spinach is slowly growing but not doing the best. And I have some upland cress started. Can anyone confirm that the plants are watercress? Sad to think that in a month I will have to shut the system down. I plan on getting grow lights for next year and hopefully I can grow enough to sell the excess. Has anyone done a cost/benefit analysis with growlights?/quote]
Crackenfish, I'd never trust an online plant ID. Nor do I trust my knowledge enough to say that your plant is certainly watercress, mostly because I don't know what other options I'd need to rule out. I will say that it looks just like my watercress. The stems are square/cornered, sort of like mint, right?

The corners are square/cornered like mint.

Then from what I can see, I'd pick it and eat it if I came across it in a creek.

I hope that's helpful.

How about this:

I have made this excellent watercress and cauliflower soup. If i could get a steady harvest of the cress, I'd make it regularly. Perhaps in my new system.

Once you get a good root system going, you'll have more than you'll be able to eat. Slow steady nutrient feed, and cool water is what it likes.

That is what I am finding out. If I have lots I will have to figure out what to do with the extra or maybe figure out how to package and sell it.

You get it growing year round, and you won't have any trouble selling it, when the weather gets bad and the wild grown is not growing, yours still will be and the locals will want it even more.

Well the hard part is there really isn't any wild stuff around here and I am in a very rural area. Since my season is winter and I think most of the cress is imported which is probably a good thing for me! Just gotta figure out how to pack and ship to the city four hours away.

Another weekly update. Pictures are about a week old though. They are growing well. I think could do better though. There is a lot of gunk and nasty growth in the plastic media. Does anyone know if that causes problems? Definitely want to do a better solids filtration than what I have. Does anyone have experience with pressurized sand filters? Maybe Stuart or Ryan can answer that question. I wouldn't mind drum filters but they are a little bit beyond my price range...

Hi Crackenfish,

The gunks probably mostly bioslime and solids being broken down. The media in the filter is pretty coarse and I think that's part of the issue. The other part is that to clean the media you have to agitate it and flush away the solids (usually done with air but tough to do with the plants in there). A smaller media or a thicker layer of media would help with the solids. What I'm seeing just seems too open to really trap the solids as well as it should without having a really thick media layer. A few questions for you - Where are the outflow and inflow on your filter? Is this a floating media? Is this only intended as a solids filter or is it also intended as a biofilter?

It is course media. You can't find it anymore but it is like biobarrels. So the water gets pumped from the second settling tank into the media bed with the plants. The inflow is on the bottom of the bed and the outflow takes off the surface. The media will float but it is not a floating media like K1. It is most definitely not intended as a solids filter but that is what is happening. I just want the extra biofiltration. The water then flows into a tank that is 1,000 liters and has 600 liters of K1 media, which is the main biofilter. I would definitely like better solids filtration but some might be more work to look after than what its worth and others are way out of my price range. A drum filter would be great but not sure where I can get one that is affordable, high quality, and just big enough to do between 2-4 tanks. I have considered that maybe I should do DWC but right now with 10,000 fingerlings and a poor solids filtration I need all the surface area I can get.