Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

will potatoes and or carrots grow in wicking beds.

Yep

Beaudy....wicking beds ....sometime in the agenda of things

This helps in planning second system....
IBC F/T flowing into 300L G/B, siphons into sump.

from here the return pump will split 2 different ways... back to F/T, other way into RFF (I think) then into small holding tank/barrel that will pump up to 2m height NFT and gravity feed back to sump

somewhere in there ( this is still in my head not even on paper) a hose will run to X number of wicking beds...

Photos of the spuds I grew in my larger system thread, posted on P42 and 43.

though if you have a spare barrel a potato barrel may be better.
Just as productive - if not more so.
Google 'potato barrel' - common approach uses manure and straw, but other options as well.

and leave the wicking bed for other things.

and leave the wicking bed for other things.
Depends on how many wicking beds you have

Yes potatoes and or carrots can grow in wicking beds.

I grew three types of certified spuds last winter/spring/summer in two WB's the experimental bath tub and one of the 4 self watering WB's. The exp. had lighter fluffier veggie mix soil and so produced larger, rounder spuds and was a lot easier to find & dig out with just hands.

Nice looking crop there Pete

How much room would you need to supply potatoes for a family of 5, thats what scares me. Id love to try growing them but for our family those above would last a week.

From what I've noticed in my short time at this you get between 6-20 spuds per plant depending on the type. So you can see the plants are about 30cm apart which equates to about 12 plants per square meter. The differing varieties don't grow at all the same rate or mature at the same time which it great if you need staggered harvesting.
It seems the certified taties grow bigger and stronger than the recycled supermarket leftovers. I bought mine at Bunnings where they had about 8 varieties all labeled with different uses eg better for fries, roasted, steamed, etc.
I had limited space available so used whole seed potatoes but found they can be split into 3 by cutting between the shoots and air drying for a couple of weeks before planting.