Aphids in Your System

What to do when aphids invade ?  Screaming and cussing help you
feel better but you need something else to kill off the aphids without
killing off your fish.

A good beginning attack would be to make a tea with garlic cloves and chili peppers .
This needs to be sprayed on your vegetables several times a week.

To make the tea crush a whole bulb of garlic to a real mush. Do the same
with a handful of hot chili peppers. You  need to wear rubber gloves and eye
goggles when handling the chili peppers. I once got chili pepper
in my eye and thought I was going to die. (The cure for chili pepper in the eye
is cold milk in the eye…..lots of it.)

Add  two gallons of water to  the garlic and chili pepper mush.
Let it set in the sun for several days. Strain and spray on your plants.
Again, protect your hands and eyes.
Spray on your vegetables 3  or 4 times a week.

Wash your vegetables before eating.

Fish and other Creatures in your Aquaponics

Who or what lives in your aquaponic system ?
I have white Tilapia living in
tanks that drain into my vegetable troughs.  BUT  they are not the only creatures in
the system.

 Who else lurks  there under the vegetables? It probably depends
on where you live.

Here in Hawai :
Red worms magically appear after 6 months or so . Later a small shrimp that
cleans the roots of the plants appeared. These are both good guys that you want in your system.
The red worms and the small shrimp (gammarus) live on the bottom of our system as well as in the roots of the plants.

Pests occasionally found in the system include slugs , snails, and once even a centipede.

There are other creatures that you can add to your system too.
Prawns like to live in your troughs
under the plants.  They are very tasty but on the down side, they fight and kill each other
and even crawl out of the system at times.
Catfish can also live under your plants and if fed won't do too much damage to your plant roots since they are bottom feeders.

Old Guys ! No Weeding or Watering Your Garden !

Plant your veggies in an aquaponic garden and you will
never again have to pull weeds or water your garden.

Your seeds are planted in a net pot filled with coconut fiber.
Once the seeds sprout you stick the net pot into  a hole in
in the styrofoam float.

The water from the fish tank flows under the float and feeds and  waters
the plant.

Aquaponics is an ideal gardening method for those of us
starting to be bothered by age related problems.

Best Lettuce

I have come to the conclusion that the best lettuce grown in the aquaponic
 system , in Hawaii , is Butter head lettuce.

 I like the small miniature heads . They grow
quickly and they don't take over a lot of the space on the float.
One head makes a big salad for one person.

The mini Butter lettuce comes in 3 colors  green, red and a
kind of mix of red and green.

Butter lettuce  seems to not be too picky
about the weather. It grows  even when it is really hot outside
.
The secret is the  lettuce likes the  cool water in the system, so even when the weather and
sun are hot the plants have cool water circulating around their roots.

Aquaponic System needs Iron

Plants are growing again as we recover from the snail invasion.

Lots of green beans have been planted  in batches 2 weeks apart. They are jumping .

Summer squash is growing but has a lot of yellow on the leaves.

Taro is also growing but looking pale.

Butter lettuce is growing fast now and looks good.

Thai Basil is producing lots of tasty leaves.

Kale is just starting to grow.

Swiss Chard is speeding up too.

The yellow showing up in the squash and 

taro is a message. The plants are telling us that there is an iron deficiency in the system. So we will dilute some chelated iron 

and slowly add it to the system. The yellow leaves should disappear within a week and things will grow even faster.

System is Back

Everything is  restarted and kicking up a new plant storm !

Cleaning everything out then flushing the fish tanks into the plant troughs
with added water  made the lettuce jump !

 Green beans are poking their heads out
and starting to vine.

The taro is jumping.

Watercress loves the new
cleaned up system.

Basil is taking off like gangbusters.

Marigolds  here and there are getting ready to keep the bugs out.

Aquaponics is great !

Starting Over

We ran our system for 5 years before the snail invasion .

The fish did not seem to eat many of the snails.

 This week we shut down

the vegetable troughs  and kept the fish on standby. 

We emptied the water from the vegetable troughs , cleaned out the sludge at the bottom , bleached the troughs,

washed the rafts , let everything sun dry , washed out again  and refilled with clean water.

We let the water sit for two days to burn off any chlorine  before  hooking everything up to the fish tanks.

Pumps are on and  water is flowing . 

Today we plant new sets.

To prevent a new invasion of snails , slugs etc we bought 50 pounds of diatomaceous 

earth and spread it on the ground around the plant troughs. 

Hopefully we  are good to go for another 5 years.

Big Island Spring Cleaning

After 5 years of aquaponic activity we needed to cleanup the system.
Slugs  are always a problem and we had been keeping them under control .
This year however we let a child help us with the system and she put a snail
into it.  Then we had hundreds of little water snails. At first I tried to just catch them
and kill them. After a month or so that was not working and the snails were really multiplying.

The cure ?  Clean out the whole system and start over ?  Maybe . I am not sure but we are trying to control them naturally before we go that route.

We cleared out the vegetables and put fish into the vegetable troughs. We are not feeding those fish
and we hope they will kill and eat all the snails and slugs too.

I'll let you know in a few weeks if it works.

What Not to Plant in Your Aquaponics System

Some lessons are only learned the hard way.

I planted a yellow cherry tomato in
my system . It grew over 6 feet, had a handful of tiny tomatoes, and created a root mass
that totally choked up the water flow in the system. Lesson learned ?  Plant only determinate type tomatoes.

Water Cress. I planted a little sprig  and it grew and grew and grew and tasted good.
But, it totally choked up the water flow in the system. Lesson learned?  Control the
damned water cress . Feed it to the chickens if you can't eat it all and prune the roots.
Also just tear it all out every few months and start over with a little sprig.

Peppermint. I planted a tiny start and it tried to take over my whole system. The chickens do not like to eat it and you can only drink so much peppermint tea. Lesson learned ? Plant the mint in the ground and
keep it away from your system.

Basil. Wonderful to have an abundance of basil . It is so nice to have enough for lots of pesto.
The catch is after about 2 or 3 months in the system it grows a woody trunk almost like a tree.
When you try to take it out of the system it tears up your foam floating board that holds the plants.
Lesson learned?  When that stem starts to thicken take the plant out of the system and stick it in the ground somewhere. If you water it good it will continue to grow, ….sometimes.

Marigolds. They are so pretty and they keep the bugs away but they do the same thing the basil
does if left in the system too long. Pull them out before they tear up your foam board.
They will definitely continue to grow if planted in the ground and watered.