Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey I'm not that old just ask les, sorry elk!

yep - and a lot of people are concerned about their use in soil gardenning also. Has always been an active topic on permie forums. I'd steer clear myself, moreso in a closed system like AP.

some sites discourage old trye use in dams as hidys for yabbies due to possible leaching................

Good experiment though C1 - there are heaps of things that could replace the tyres if it works :-)

truck tyres?

Garry D has successfully grown spuds in aqua

All you would need is a continuous flow growbed with the drain very low in the bed. Ie. There is water running through but only pooling in the bottom.

spuds need low pH, higher levels lead to scabby skins on the spud (I think )

I think Gary D was doing his in coco-peat..... coco has a pH of 5.5-6.5 generally..... not sure what he had them in..... think it might have been a half barrel.

maby the easyest way to get potatoes from an ap system is to bleed off some water to water potatoes in a dirt bed and replentish the water to the system?

also takes away the need to change water now and then

was away for a minute- yep right there J, lime is added to the soil (when using soil) that was our only concern potatoe 'e' is heavy with lime,

an excerpt from how to grow them in soil:

High nitrogen availability leads to plenty of top growth and poor tuber production. The addition of some super phosphate will be an advantage also.Cover lightly with soil so as not to fill in the trench. This will be done as the plants grow and is called “hilling”. Hilling ensures that the developing tubers are always covered by soil as they will turn green and become poisonous to eat if light reaches them. Simply push in the sides of the trenches as the plants grow to cover the developing tubers. This will also help produce a larger crop as roots forming on the covered parts of the stem will also grow potatoes. On a well maintained crop you can expect around twelve to fifteen tubers to develop on each plant.

I tried to sumarise but my brain is spent!!!!!!!Dough Brain

im thinking of just setting up a dirt bed for potatoes and watering it with the ap sounds like the best/easyest way eh

Are potatoes possible?

I view my setup as a hobby I try hard not to kill fish, and I enjoy a good feed of produce (haven't eaten any fish yet), so if things work great, if not, there is always something else.

So are potatoes possible? I don't know, but am giving it a red hot go. Ive got 2 200 litre drums with just the top 300 mm cut off. I have a 15 mm verticl pipe with holes drilled in it for drainage, and a 13 mm feed pipe with hole punched in it to water the crop.

Bottom 150 mm is scoria with four seed potatoes in it in each drum. As the potatoes sprouted and grew, I've packed sugar cane mulch around the plants, filling to close to the top.

Since I started with sugar cane mulch, I've read that it may have a low ph, but then Jamie earlier commented that spuds don't like high ph. It doesn't seem to have upset my fish (blissfully ignorant of the effect on ph because I don't yet have a test kit).

So in a few months I'll be able to provide a better answer.

But the general mantra here is 'Go ahead and try. Take one for the team'

Cheers

gg

I wish you better luck with the results than we had!
We ended up with a gooy mess, heaps of growth though.
Good luck!