Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Good thing turnip greens are delicious, wow, that's amazing growth.
MartinC, that 5-2 fasting diet sounds pretty cool, good luck with it. I have a lot of trouble with cravings too.

I haven't tried turnip greens in the AP system, but I planted a '7 tops' variety of turnip greens that is just for the tops doesn't actually grow turnips... planted it in the hoop house in dirt and they went crazy, grew way faster than we could keep up with. Need to get back in the habit of juicing then I can get through a bunch of greens, unfortunately it always seems like I decide to juice when I don't have fresh stuff available and have to buy it at the store... I have been taking a break for a while now so maybe if I get stuff growing crazy again then I will be in the mood for juicing to use them up.

I grow my turnips for the 'root', which is actually the enlarged base of the stem, as well as the highly nutritious leaves. They are are so closely planted that the ones I'm consuming presently are mostly leaves, but I'm doing this in order to thin them out to allow larger turnips to develop. It's working.

I plan to commence harvesting trout later this week.

What kind of media are you growing turnips in? Hydroton? I haven't had good luck with root crops in AP but only have one small hydroton bed right now.

I don't use hydroton, rather 'blue metal' or ~20mm aggregate. I've had great success previously with turnips and swedes, however, I only grow carrots and potatoes in soil. I've had no success in either medium with parsnips.

I commenced harvesting my trout last week. I removed close to 40 and they ranged in size from 290g to 420g, with a median weight of around 340g. I'm happy with that, especially considering that I don't feed the fish anywhere near as much as they could eat due to my system's filtration limitations.

Nice looking fish PLJ and 290g to 420g is a good harvest.

How did your last batch of beer turn out?

>> I've had no success in either medium with parsnips

try wicking beds - I couldn't do either in soil/garden or AP - great in wicking beds (500-600mm deep IBC).

I chop IBC 400/600... look a lot like your turnip ones and similar outcome.
germination is the hard bit...not the actual growing.

The temps at time of planting are critical for germination. warm with bit of chill.
best time is autumn so you can eat them over winter...
I carried some to Xmas last year - but germination is hard in colder temps.
went too late this year and none germinated...

you have to turn bed soil over each year and re-add organics (but not too much)...
some good gardening advice for growing parsnips in Aust. via web.

Thanks, Joblow.

My last batch of beer was a turmeric flavoured one that I haven't yet tasted. I put some in the fridge today and will apply the critical taste test tomorrow. My previous beers were Thai white turmeric and temulawak (Javanese turmeric) and I'm happy with the flavours that have been developing. My ginger beers haven't been achieving the potency of flavour that I'm striving for so I currently have one on the go utilising your suggestion of incorporating some chilli.

Darren, I've not yet delved into the art of wicking bed construction but have been setting up a few circular, raised garden beds in my AP area which are fertigated with fish-water. Carrots are really powering in the one that's completed, along with broccoli and daikon, so I'm thinking I'll give parsnip another try in amongst them. I have a packet of hollow crown parsnip seeds and a packet of Bulgarian giant leek seeds, each of which I intend to sow tomorrow. With a bit of luck and some reasonable germination I'll have a reason yet again to put off the construction of wicking beds for another year!

I'm looking forward to hearing how the Chilli flavoured Ginger Beer turns out.

If your ginger beers haven't been achieving the potency of flavour that you're striving for, there's always the super hot chilli's.

Just use them very sparingly, and they might need cooking first, I think they'd be too hot added in raw.

I'm currently germinating some Carolina Reaper seeds and when they grow I think I'll try some in a batch of Ginger Beer. I bought a bottle of Chilli Beer years ago from a fancy bottle shop in the Melbourne CBD to try and it was way too hot, not pleasant at all, so I don't want to go that hot.

It was like Rocket Fuel and burnt when you drank it, so I'll be going very carefully with the Carolina Reaper.

Joblow, my botanist daughter gave me a selection of frozen chillies last week, including Carolina Reaper, but I have refrained from experimenting with any of them just yet since my own quite hot chillies are at least known to me. There are so many variables and parameters, even with something relatively straight forward such as knocking out a batch of ginger beer, that I'm adopting a steady-steady approach with just one minor tweak at a time. Thanks for adding a splash of heat and colour to my thread.

Adopting a steady-steady approach with just one minor tweak at a time, is the way to go PLJ.

That Carolina Reaper is one to be handled with care

Bump.

The big tank has been serviced and the large, over-summer silver perch relocated; time once more to restock with fingerling rainbows.

This will be my eighth trout season and I'm looking forward to a good one.

I've introduced 10 silver perch (~160-180mm length) into the tank to help clean up the scraps, a methodology that proved its value last season.

Once the tank is refilled and before the rainbows are introduced, the net goes back in place to prevent the enthusiastic jumpers from landing on terra firma.