Covering the System

Our aquaponic system was getting a lot of black volcano dust
on the vegetables. Spots were also appearing on the lettuce.
Some friends suggested the spots could be from the acid rain
we often receive as a result of living so close to an active volcano.

After a lot of investigation and thought we decided to
semi cover the plant part of the system with
greenhouse quality plastic.

We made hoops about 7 feet tall from PVC  pipe and put them over the plant troughs. Then we ran the plastic over the hoops but not all the way down to the ground. We brought the plastic down to within 18 inches of the plant troughs so
air can flow   across the plants and they do not overheat
in Hawaii's tropical sun. The ends of the hoops are
also open for air flow .

A month later and it is obvious this was a good idea.
The plants are cleaner and growing faster. The
spots on the lettuce have disappeared.

All is once again green and clean  in the garden.

TARO

Taro is a root crop grown mostly in the tropics.
The root is a starch that is eaten by many Polynesians .
The leaves are also eaten when properly cooked.

I planted a few in my aquaponic system and have had fairly good luck
growing them. I used 1 gallon food grade buckets for net pots.
Drilled lots of holes in the buckets before putting coconut fiber planting material
in  them, then I cut big holes in the  floats so the buckets fit.

Once everything was wet the buckets were sitting on the bottom of the system resting on the food grade expensive liner.
Not a good situation !
Solution was :
Put small chunks of float material under the buckets and all
seemed to be well.

Three months later and the Taro are growing  much faster than they did
in the garden.