Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Im guessing you mean Blossom End Rot

I havnt had any of that but I do get about 10% splitting from the stem base around the fruit a bit

Im going with growing too fast for the splitting

If your getting blossom end rot your short on calcium

Yes too hot can trigger lack of calcium uptake from messing with transpiration, have you got your system shaded

All the books / information written about growing in Mediterranean climates are not really applicable to Australian conditions when the extreme days turn up its worse

Another possibility if your nitrate is off the chart it could be messing with calcium uptake (competition between fruits and plant growth)

Thanks for that.nitrates are at 40 ppm and they have no shade getting full arvo sun and did look very dehydrated over the hot period.sounds like that's the cause. I might have to look into some shade cloth to get some shade on them.

Slugs are certainly persistent

Had a cleanout of slugs in a growbed at the end of October including a 24hr deep flood

Tidy up and new plants to go in so brought the water up with my deep flood extension and caught 11 slugs

Had an invasion of caterpillars caught a lot and sprayed with Dipel , once the caterpillars go brown they are a lot easier to see , lots of little ones dead that were almost impossible to find in the jungle .

No tomatoes at the moment a month of too hot weather caused that (flowers fail)

Picking Suyo and Apple cucs

Sweet yellow chillis

Planted some mid and late season tomatoes so should have some later on

Have a lot of frozen tomatoes that I thought would get fed to the chooks but they will get used now.

Corn didn't do any good (only grown one good crop in AP since I started) guessing probably not enough Phosphorous

But they are good for burning up nitrate .

Weather has been much better cool nights and day temps in the mid 30s celcius

Fish are smashing their feed .

Suyo Cucumber

Kang Kong

Broccoli Yellow Beans and Suyo Cucs

Seed starter system made out of old Hydro bits I picked up a couple of yrs ago

Discovered a leak in a IBC fish tank , its been protected by UV stable plastic , I don't know how long the IBC was out in the sun before I got it .

About a third of the way down the side it started leaking , pushing on the side could hear it cracking , so big reshuffle , fish out into a temporary tank , emptied tank shifted it out the way and set up a spare round tank I had.

Ive said this before in all things aquaponic if you think something will take an hour allow 6hrs.

Im about to start a job that's long hours so need my system set up for low maintenance , I have a spare pump set up ready to go if I need it right now all I have to do is plug it in.

Plants are going great the brassicas are perfect I think ive found the right time slot for them , they are challenging in hot climates as they just run to seed.

I have a trellis up from every growbed with climbing peas they are just starting to get going

I harvested two of my cod they weighed 3.5 kg and they taste fantastic , next week end I recon I will do some more , not going to risk losing them through the cold season.

Im planning to carry a few through another year and see how big they will get.

Terra, your system photos look really great. Well done. Yeah, I'm struggling with slugs as well in a new GB that was recently set up in my greenhouse. They are devastating the seedlings that I have planted and each time I keep things flooded, there are more.
3.5 Kg cod! How did you cook them (says I as I dribble on my shirt, chuckle, chuckle)?

Slugs are dreadfull

They are coming into the egg laying season so we need to hit them hard now or the numbers get really high through winter.

When I deep flood a growbed I leave it flooded overnight at least then when I replant I put a few of the iron based slug pellets around each seedling stem this seems to be working well and I am keeping slug numbers down to only a few

I cooked the cod cutlets carefully they were fantastic will get some photos of the next lot.

Awesome system read mate. You have got me thinking about setting up multiple systems rather than 1 big system.

Also i was reading you had a dwc bed before your GBs and then moved it. I was thinking dwc after growbeds but then thought about the ease of solid removal from a dwc by sucking it up off the bottom

What did you find better?

My DWC had a radial filter before it which helped clean the water up , it still got a remarkable amount of sediment in the bottom which I would just use a large hose and siphon it out onto a fruit tree was pretty quick and easy to clean.

Most of the commercial systems are DWC for a good reason easy to clean with a vacuum

Cleaning gravel is a lot harder as you probably know , my gravel beds are starting to get to a point where I will have to clean them , my water is a bit murky when I am using the auto siphons if I leave it constant flood the water cleans up a lot.

I think its mostly root fragments perhaps my worm numbers are down after the really stinking hot summer we had

I set up a temporary radial filter for a couple of weeks and just sent a bit of water through it , got rid of a lot of the fine particles in suspension that just go round and round.

Im thinking of building a couple of sand beds on the end to handle these fine particles , I could send the water through my solar heater (on Timer) then to the sand beds .

Two systems are a good idea I have small fish in one to quarantine , easy to salt if I have to

We can also grow leafy crops in one and fruiting crops in the other and adjust the nutrient base to suit.

We have 3 days in a row of of overnight minus 3 celcius and max day time temps of 14 Celsius so the cod wont feed this week.

Greenhouse plastic over the whole system is helping heaps but the dreaded aphids are turning up , aphids love greenhouses

Couple of Pics had system covered with greenhouse plastic for most of our cold months kept the water to a minimum of 12c other little system in main shadehouse got down to 8c I moved fish out of there in july and put them in the main system sump (I am not a fan of fish in sumps , hard to see them to check on them) .

Those fish are back in the second system now getting some new plants in

I have some Tomatoes about egg size already (Alans Early Variety)

Heaps of Lettuce , Apple Cucumbers getting going put a second lot in today

Have put some Suyo Cucumber seeds in starter pots these were a real winner last year NO MILDEW and keep setting fruit through the worst possible heat.

I think plastic will stay on another couple of weeks (makes access hard have to climb over growbeds)

I might just roll it up and leave it on top for next year in case I don't get the whole thing shifted AGAIN

Over the plastic is Tuna Net (a heavy net I have scraps of) pulled down onto hooks stops the plastic flapping in big winds.

Cant see in pics but I have 2 horizontal ropes about head height that go right though the full length of greenhouse gives me heaps of room to train Toms and Cucs along with the fruit hanging down

During the Summer (Our hot season) I have shade sails that I hook up on the sides I can hook them up or just unhook them and let them drop to the ground so on nasty days I have them up if the weather is mild they stay down (better Bee and Wind access)

Need to get some more fish I have 5 x 4 kilo Cod and 10 x 1/2 kilo Cod in this system (little ones in a second tank)

PH around 7.2 and almost zero nitrate

Looking good! I'll be up your way for work mid next month driving ADL - Waikerie then around Loxton/Barmera/Berri/Renmark area between Thu 17/10 through to Mon 21/10 driving back to ADL on the Tue morning. If you're closeish and up for a visitor I'd love to have a squiz and perhaps a cold beverage! shoot me a PM if so.

Had to make room for new fish so the 6 big Cod have found their way into the Freezer

3 to 4 kilo live weight

Fish scraps in deep holes under fruit trees

Bit sad but I didn't want to risk another winter and 6 fish taking up my main tank had to change

Ive lost fish ready to harvest twice before

I now have 38 in my main tank and all the other make shift temporary add ons have been shut down

I have 6 middle size fish in my second small system which should be good for this time next year


So generally bit easier to manage

Getting lots of Apple Cucs

Getting ready for a big replant of the beds and of course a slug killing session

Do you buy your suyo cucumbers locally, I have never heard of them before. I have been told that there is a cucumber that is resistant to powdery mildew but didn't know where to get it . I need one here as I have problems with it. just get them going nice and they get mildew.

Im pretty sure I got my first lot from Eden Seeds I bought three packets they don't have them listed this year

I started off this season with my old seeds but didn't have a lot of luck only got two plants up (might have been too cold and wasted most of my seed) I gave the plants to a mate with a AP system and he only grew these so we are going to save seeds from these plants and same as last year these plants performed well.

A bought another lot from a well known seed supplier but we have been disappointed with the fruit , they still grow ok no mildew ect but the fruit size and numbers were well down , thinking possible cross pollination with something else at the seed supplier.

So bit of a lottery maybe , maybe my nutrient levels were a bit different but the new batch of plants did the same in my mates system so probably not luckily we have half metre long fruit from the early plants to save seed from.

So if you give them a go don't give up on them if you get a crook batch , the first time I grew them they swamped us giving heaps away they tasted fantastic.

My sister still has some seeds from the first batch and is saving seed for me also .