Planting to foil the insects

No pesticides can be used in an aquaponics system that has live fish dwelling there.  The fish  water is circulated through the troughs where the vegetables live and then returned clean to the fish tank. 

Any pesticide on the plants will be dripped into the water and  will kill your fish. Therefore , dealing with insects is tricky.

About the only thing you can do is to plant  'stinky' things that repel insects.  My favorites are :

bunching onions, basil, and french marigolds.  I scatter the 'stinky plants' throughout the system with extras near the beans , peas and cabbage type plants. The onions and basil  we eat  when they mature, 

 the marigolds  are just pretty.  French Marigolds will grow into huge creatures

and take over your system , if you let them. They need heavy pruning and after a couple of months replaced with new small starts. I take the old marigolds and plant them in the ground nearby . They rarely even wilt and continue to grow and chase away the insects.

We have small mosquito fish living under the vegetable troughs to control the 

mosquito  population. The mosquitoes lay eggs in the water and the tiny mosquito fish 

eat the larvae . Occasionally the mosquito fish population  explodes and we scoop out a 

few  and the chickens have a treat eating the extra small fish. .

Tubers in an Aquaponic system

Did you ever wonder how to grow root crops in an aquaponic system?
It can be done and the results taste great. The trick is to use really big net pots
filled with lots of coconut medium .

For carrots, parsnips, beets , you can plant a circle
of seeds in each pot. Taro , a tropical tuber, works also.

Of course this means you need to make big holes in your  floats and insert the big filled net pot.
If you can't find big net pots  , take a regular black plastic pot and slice pieces out along the sides
and bottom of the pot.

Happy weed free gardening !