Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Has anyone had any sucess with beans or peas? do you need a nice leafy green in with them to take up the extra nitrogen?

hey, that is a good question
Stands to reason that you would... I forgot how we used to plant beans and corn together - the corn would utelise the nitrogen from the beans and the beans got a good place to grow

This will be an interesting discussion. From what i know, legumes fix atmosheric nitrogen into the soil, in essence creating a nitrogen fertilizer for the next crop. I belive they do this via "nodules" on their roots, that then get broken down in the soil probably into a nitrate for the next crop (speculation). As our fish waste is primarily a nitrate nitrogen source, i don't think there would be much added benifit from the nitrogen fixing. That is NOT to say don't plant legumes! Just that i do't think they will have the same effect as ground planted legumes. (The nitrogen content of our water is certainly not lacking anyhow )

Your basic bean/pea plant will leave very little of the nitrogen that it has fixed from the air, as it will direct it towards the peas/beans that you will remove and eat. You will also remove the plant from the system when it has finished. When using legumes as green manure, you dig them back into the soil - or at least chop and drop - and this is how the soil benefits from the fixed nitrogen.

My concern with growing legumes in aqua is that they are not nitrogen lovers and will sometimes not fruit properly in this situation. The nitrogen is used in leaf production and all energy is directed here. They will then often produce little or no flowers. I'll be growing these in my dirt gardens and concentrating on nitrogen lovers in the aqua system.

Yeah, I haven't grown many peas or beans as yet, have some snow peas doing fairly well, see pics here http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... 7&start=15 .

I think once you hit the 6 month mark you'll be able to grow legumes. I like the idea of growing them as they strip a lot of nutrient making it possible to have more fish per garden (in theory)

The leftover bean plants... I'd be disinclined to add these to worms then back in system. I'd put them in my soil patches. But that's just me, and at this stage I could easily be swayed to do otherwise.