Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone

My system is running pretty well. It's a 1300L system with three IBC grow beds.

My plants grow very well ( unless basil, don't know why...) but they show some deficiencies and I can't define what. Can you please help me?

Every week I check pH which is around 6.6 and 7. When I want to bounce up my pH I use potassium carbonate (KHCO3). Last week I added 10grams of epsom salt.

I try to keep Iron near 2ppm.

Nitrates are 40ppm.

Oh and the leaves on the pic are quiet young.

Thanks a lot

Sometimes it's very hard to tell what the deficiency is or even if there is one.

From the pic,it looks like a couple of "deficiencies" or nutrient lockout,but it also looks like heat stress too.

The 1st thing is to stop adding things to the root zone,you might be causing a nutrient lockout.Add the KHCO3 to the water & foliar spray the epsom salt.And see if that helps.

I had basil problems when the water (root zone) was too hot.

What's the temp of the water?.And can you show a pic of the whole plant that's affected too.

Hey,

I don't think it's coming from a heat stress because water temp is around 17°C. And I do not add things in the root zone, I always add KHCO3 in my sump tank.
Thanks

That is the root zone
It's where the water touches the roots.If you're using tap water where there is a lot of Calcium & then add Potassium and Magnesium to where the roots absorb or take up nutrients (root zone),it's possible you can cause at least one of them to become unavailable.
And since you are adding at least 2 of those weekly?,that could be a reason for the "deficiencies" (it might not be).

If you could take a photo of the whole plant,it would help determine the problem or tell us what part of the plant is most affected by these problems.

Oh ok thank you! But I use rain water and when it has not raining for a while I use tap water.

Yep, I'll send some pictures of my system and the plants.

Epson salt... magnesium right? Should only need a pinch of that a year if I remember correctly.

On the other hand deep green veins and light green leaves sounds more like an iron deficiency or potassium.

Mostly likey Iron since you haven't added it. I drop in a table spoon every two weeks in my system.

For patassium and micro nutrients seaweed extract is awesome in expensive stuff.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

Hey, here is some pic of my system and the whole plant to see deficiencies.

So what do you think?

Thanks again

Looks pretty good. One plant looks like snow peas that is very yellow. I grow snow peas in colder weather. This past winter I planted some in my media beds and some in raft beds. The raft bed peas do great, and the media bed peas hardly grow. Same system.

It looks like heat stress.My basil looked just like that (looks like a Magnesium deficiency).Some of them look like they have a Magnesium deficiency,foliar spray those with the epsom salt & only put the Potassium in the water.
You said the water temp was 17C,what's the air temperature?.

What's the red plant?.Is it not meant to look like that?

Hi, yes it' is peas. But I did not take time to harvest that's why it has turned yellow. I think the heat into the greenhouse does not help... What do you think about the deficiencies?

Thanks

Mat

[quote="7341"]It looks like heat stress.My basil looked just like that (looks like a Magnesium deficiency).Some of them look like they have a Magnesium deficiency,foliar spray those with the epsom salt & only put the Potassium in the water.
You said the water temp was 17C,what's the air temperature?.

What's the red plant?.Is it not meant to look like that?[/quote


Yesterday water temp was 20°C. But I'm affraid because in south of france we're heading towards a heatwave and air temperature into the greenhouse is around 55°C !!! I don't know how to cool it.. It's a small and cheap greenhouse.

Maybe air temperature explains why my plants look like that, and maybe ther is a link with deficiencies?

Thanks

-Mat.

Oh and plant on pic number 2 is red veined sorrel which definitly has a deficiency and on pic number 3, the big red plant is périlla, sort of shiso. And it does not have deficiency.

55°C
I don't think you have a deficiency problem.I think it's a heat problem.

The red veined sorrel looks normal for this time of year (I googled it) & the basil looks like that when it gets too hot.

If there is a deficiency,it's definitely not Potassium because of all those flowers.There could be a Magnesium one but again I don't think so.

A couple of times a week,foliar spray the them with epsom salt.Don't put it in the water,especially if you're putting Potassium in there.

I forgot to say in my last post that your system looks good

Thanks a lot.

I really don't know how to cool the greenhouse... I know that it's a big deal..
Where do you come from in uk? I've been to a 3 day course at bio aqua farm do you know?

I don't really know either .There's a lot on here from Australia & America who deal with those temperatures annually,hopefully some might be able to give some advice.

I would stick to seasonal plants & if the water temerature gets to 30C,get a chiller.


Yes.
I don't know them personally but they were on the forum here some time ago

memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=19081

Were they any good?