Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thank you Delores!

Quick update:
So, I started some other projects around the house, and Let some things grow a little too long in the bed. My wife had a point, if the plants were using so many nutrients and growing so well, why not plant something we can eat......So, out came some volunteers.

First, I had a small, wild type sunflower volunteer. They grow in the front yard every year. I figured I'd leave it a while, since the flowers attract small pollinating bees. Well, that little while turned into a long while.

Second, I had some babies from my mulberry tree germinate. It's a big mulberry, Pakistan variety. They grew slow the first 6 months or so, and I figured I'd transplant them and give them to people. Well, I gave one to my neighbor with leaves that were close to the parent. The others took off like the beanstalk from Jack and the beanstalk.

Today, they came out....

The mulberries were pretty easy, with a little pushing and pulling.
The sunflower on the other hand, was very well rooted, with a tenacious matted root ball. I had to fight with that thing.

There were lots of compost worms, which gave some of the fish a quick meal. There were some midge larvae on a rotting silver beet/ chard root.

I was able to rinse the root bits from the gravel pretty easily, using water from the radial flow filter.

I got some zucchini seedlings planted right away. I popped a lemongrass pup in there, and threw in seeds for a few veggies and flowers. We'll see what pops up. Some of the seeds are old.
Seeds: Bok Choy, Amaranth, Radish, Okra, Persian Cucumber, Yard Long Cucumber, Green beans, Cosmos flowers, and Zinnia flowers.

I took one of my old tomato cages and capped the ends with air tubing tied off with knots.
I'm not sure if the metal would be a problem, leaching wise, but the metal was sharp, and this took care of that issue. Not, that I could get it pushed in very deep anyhow.....I planted the cucumber seeds in the middle, and a few beans around the edges.

Longevity spinach ( I think that's what it's called, my neighbor who gave me a cutting calls it Insulin plant, she uses it for diabetes) grows very well in AP, as I'm sure some of you know.

I've put it in a few salads. And boiled it up a few times. But more than two minutes is too long. It gets very slimy if boiled long. It tastes good though.
I added soy sauce, a little sesame oil, some onions from the system, and toasted sesame seeds.
It was good, just need to work on timing of the boiling.

Do any of you have any recipes for this green?

These are growing nicely. The few first fruits are getting big. Another group is setting right now. They are pretty good, not extremely hot, but have a good kick. They are a chile Guero type chile.

These pics are mostly a few weeks or more old. I just realized I hadn't done any updates on this system for a while.

I cleared the bed a bit, and planted some of these things late in the season.

The squash did very well until the sun started getting lower in the sky, and the ph started crashing. I thought it might be too late to start squash from seed, so I bought a small pot with started plants at a local nursery. It had 3 growing. I planted them out and one didn't make it.

Since the ph has come up a bit, and I started adding calcium carbonate and potassium, it started flowering again, but hasn't set any more fruit. It produced over nine pounds of squash overall, and a fair amount of male flowers too. I was very happy with the production.

i can only imagine how it would have done if planted in the spring.
It has some mildew on it now, but will be coming out soon.

The cucumbers only produced 7 or 8 cucumbers, but they were delicious. I planted the seed very late in the season. Only one plant came up. The plant is still alive, but not doing anything now.




The beans have been great. They are still producing. They were planted the same day as the cucumbers. They have pretty flowers too. They are a thin "stringless" type. I don't think I have pics of the beans themselves.
I have pics of the beans that I planted from our dry beans somewhere.


The peppers were started last January, and planted in the GB in June. The plants grew slowly before they were put in AP. Then they took off. They have been cropping well, and are still flowering a bit.





I decided to grow Okra, since a friend had given me the seed.


It is near 5 feet tall now. We got of first windy fall day a bout a week ago, and they fell over. I propped them up, and they are still producing. Each plant makes a decent sized pod every 2-3 days. I have three plants going.

I tried Armenian cukes, and they produced 2 decent sized cukes. Then they set a few more, but they stayed in suspended animation. They were planted the same day as the beans and cucumber, and the weather has cooled now. the plan is still alive, but not doing much.

I'm going to need to transition for the season soon, but I want to get the fish transferred to the other system first.

I have had a fair amount of leaf miners this time around. I'm not really sure how to get rid them, so I usually remove heavily infested leaves and crush the heck out them, or drown them. I also got leaf rollers this year, which i had never seen before. I squished these too. But, a population of assassin bugs showed up too, and i think they helped.

Hi to everyone!
Will, tomatoes look so healthy and tasty!
Thanks for sharing this information, it was helpful!
This summer I have started to grow microgreens. But I'm new at this theme at all.

Bump! Haven't heard from you for a while. How are things going in the garden?

Hey D!
Things are going relatively well in the garden.

I have one very strawberry-crowded bed that is needing to be thinned pretty badly. The berries produced in the spring, and now are just sending runners everywhere. They are getting a mildew looking mold on the leaves in the thick of it all.

The same bed has some overwintered mini sweet bell peppers that are doing very well, my son planted the seeds from store bought peppers, and they came out pretty true to type which is cool. I figured that they would be from hybrid stock and would probably be different.

The habanero that overwintered in there is just waking up.

Lots of kale this year. Any recipes????

Tomatoes are just starting to get ripe. The tomato that I had great success with a few years ago self sowed, and I got one plant that is producing now. But the tomatoes are smaller this time around.
There is also a stupice tomato, which I put in because they have always been small plants in the ground for me compared to other tomatoes, but not in AP!!!!! It's ALIVE! It has grown very large, contributing to the overcrowding.....It does have a lot of unripe fruit. I just harvested a few today, but will probably taste them tomorrow.

I have a late planted calabrese brocoli, It is growing beautifully, but I don't know if it will form brocoli properly. It is a variety I grew in the past in soil, but planted much earlier. It usually produces mulitple small brocoli heads.

The cucamelons keep pumping out tiny cucumber tasting morsels. The lettuce is still pretty good, only slightly bitter.

Harvested a few ears of corn.
The plants still showed iron deficiencies, but not as bad as the first go round.
Deficiencies do seem to dwindle as the systems mature.
Well, I'm probably a little better at supplementing too now.

Got some peppers, lettuce and basil going pretty well in wicking pots too.

D St John, I am curious about what you are/ have been able to plant in AP in Socal right now (August). I will likely clear the strawberry plants soon, and want to get something in there ASAP.

My wife's favorite kale recipe is to chop it up, then add 1/4 cup coconut oil. The coconut oil makes it easier to scrape into the trash. She hates kale.

But there is a good kale salad they sell at Costco, mostly because of the sweet poppy seed dressing. Otherwise just kale, carrots, craisins I think. It's been a while since I've had it.

The garden is looking good! That sunflower was a tree!

I just harvested the last of my corn. I planted pumpkins a month ago and I have watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini and tomatoes well established.

I'm thinking I might have time for another round of corn and I'm trying to get some peppers going.

When you clear your strawberries, will you pull them out and over winter them? How do you do that? I just learned about over wintering peppers, I've not done it properly in the past.

Cheers!

HAHA! Yes, that coconut oil recipe sounds great!!!

I have noticed that not all kale is created equally.

I like the reddish variety I'm growing best right now, probably followed by lacinato/ dinosaur.
The red leaf kale is more tender, and tastes a bit more like mustard leaves, I think.

I feed it to the chickens and tortoise quite a bit.

I usually eat a few raw leaves a day to keep the doctor away.

I also like that costco kale salad!

I have experimented with a kale slaw, it was pretty decent.

I have grown mini popcorn plants in the ground and they grew and produced quickly. they might be good for a late summer crop.

Peppers have overwintered for me in the system just fine for the most part. I didn't do anything special, just pruned them a little an propped them up. Some have kept leaves through the winter. Some lose them and grow them back when it warms up. Especially the C. Annum varieties (Serrano, SantaFe grande, mini bell peppers.) It has been hit or miss with Habaneros. I lost one plant toward the end of winter. It just kind of withered up and died. And the previous season one kept growing when things warmed up, but in a very stunted way.

I really am unsure about strawberries. This is my first round of growing them. I guess it is two seasons now, but they weren't so crazy the first season, so I didn't really do much to them. I have also been feeding the runners to the chickens and tortoise from time to time.

My thought was to just leave some (a few) of the rooted runners in the bed over winter, so they can do their thing next spring. The berries were OK as far as strawberries go, not amazing, so maybe I should take out more. Or try a different variety....

My main reason for clearing them is because they have crowded everything (Lack of air flow). Secondly, I probably won't get any harvest from them for another 5-6 months. I don't think these are ever bearing types. I'd rather get something in there that will produce a harvest.