Aquaponics - Silver Perch

It's been a while since I paid any attention to my Aquaponics system, but it was nice to find my Silver Perch have been busy growing.

I wandered out to the Aquaponics system for the first time in ages because it was making a slightly different sound, and it turned out to be a partial blockage of the pipe work.

Blocked with tomato roots.

I've been expecting some problems because when I pruned back the four tomato plants that are still growing from last year, I accidentally killed one by snapping it off at the base. The roots are all meshed together with it's three tomato plant buddies, so there was no way to get them out. I figured it would work it's way out in the end. It probably would have. The system was still working, with some water going through my overflow. The overflow exits from the surface of the fish tank water, where in normal operation, the water exits from the bottom via a solids lifting overflow. As a result it's unlikely that both would be blocked at the same time.

Anyway, everything seems to be ticking along nicely.

I don't really know how big this fish is (I'd guess around 40+cm), but it's in really good condition. They're not just long, but really heavy as well. Heavy looking that is. I wouldn't like to try to catch one, I think it would be a little disruptive.

I'm not sure if this is the bigger of the two, but one of them now looks like this...

Aquaponics - Roots in the media

It's quite possible that this is one of those things that everyone does, but it's so obvious that nobody mentions it.

Perhaps everything is one of those things, but I'd rather hear something twice than never know about it, so I'll say it anyway.

For some time, I've been harvesting things like lettuce, then spending valuable seconds of my life getting the media out of the roots and retuning it to the grow beds. Clay balls get loose a bit more readily than scoria, but roots seem determined to hang onto whatever media they find themselves in.

Don't get me wrong, this is no way an issue because it really is only a few seconds, but I'd rather spend those few irreplaceable seconds doing more important things - eating strawberries, looking at fish, that sort of thing.

But I discovered that if you just snap off the roots and leave them in a bucket, the media falls out all by itself.

Bam! Earth shattering tip right there.

I add an extra step for the worms.

When I pull up a lettuce, the root ball always has a few worms in it. Even in the constant flood grow bed there are worms everywhere. And as much as I'm happy to feed my worms to the fish, I like my worms and like it when they live in my growbed rather than die on the ground. So when I snap off the roots, I lay the ball of roots, and media back on the growbed until the next time I wander past. This allows the worms time to get back into the growbed as their root ball home slowly dries.

The next day (or whenever) I drop the root ball into my root ball bucket, where it dries out and leaves the media behind. After the bucket has seen a few root balls added, or when I get around to it, I return the loose media back to the grow bed, and the dried roots and stems to the compost heap. Once in the compost heap, they sit for eternity. We don't use the stuff.



120 Things in 20 years - Wasting compost from the roots caught up in my aquaponics media.

Aquaponics - Bucket tomato

I had a pair of tomato plants a while ago that I decided needed to be uprooted so that I might rebuild my system, and rearrange my grow beds. Mainly, they had to go because they were using the grow house for support, and the grow house had to be moved.

They didn't like it.

In fact I would go so far as to say they didn't like me.

I had to cut them free of the grow house, and the bits that were still in tact were all snapped and bent and generally looking more like tangled green string than a tomato plant, so I pruned them back to almost nothing but the thick base stems with a root ball attached.

Healthy looking no?

No.

Actually that photo misrepresents, because that photo was taken today, but framed to look like its from the past so that later when I show you the "after" shots, these "before" shots will look pitiful in comparison.



Nobody will know.

I put them in a bucket of running system water instead of composting them, because I figured it might be worth keeping what was left of the impressive root ball they had developed, and try to make use of it to get a head start on what I would have had if I planted some new seeds.

Most of the root ball was left in the grow bed, and what was saved looks like it's slowly looking for a nice place to sit and turn to compost.

I think that's why my once cared for plants didn't seem to like me any more.

But it turned out to be a bit of a success after all...

It's later, and they seem to be beginning to get the hang of it.

Which is nice.

It seems a little strange to me that they should be growing roots in the air, but I'm guessing they think it's a little strange that they should be living in a bucket of water, so clearly convention has gone out the window, and it's time to have a go, and see what happens.

Not only are there new air-roots, but there are even some nice, fresh, new, under water roots that I hadn't noticed.  

In fact, the reason I noticed them at all was that I saw them growing out of the hole in the side of the bucket to let the water out.

Sometimes it pays to get a bit ill and turn your back on your system for a few days.

I think the thing runs better without me.

There's fresh growth up at the top end as well.

Plenty of it, and even a stack of tiny clusters of flowers.

And this!

Huge isn't it!

Its amazing what you can grow in a bucket with running water while you're sick in bed.

Keep in mind, there is no media in the bucket, just water and roots.





I for one am impressed with my ability to grow tomatoes, but we middle aged men tend to think that about our tomato growing skills for some reason. If you know a middle aged guy, who lives in suburbia, you know it's true.

Tomatoes. (it's because all they need is too much of everything water, fertilizer, heat, sun. Too much of it all, and everything works just fine. I'm willing to bet that if a study were ever done, tomatoes would turn out to like too much beer as well)

But still - not bad, me.

I'm also slightly impressed with the universe and all the strange stuff it can do.

Not bad, universe.

Actually, my tomato was nearly the size of a large grape, was totally flat on the other side except for a large yellow crack running from top to bottom, was split, crackly, and charred looking on the bottom, where not only was it full of holes,  but where it had an entire civilization of something living in those holes.





My first 120 Things in 20 years, aquaponics water bucket tomato was delicious, and today I found a radish in my pocket that I'm pretty sure I didn't put there. (no civilisations were harmed in the eating of this tomato)

Also, it's "be nice to your mum week" because, if she's like my mum, she just got out of hospital.

I got her a radish as a gift, but it's a surprise.

I realise its not a surprise to my mum because she will see this, but it was a surprise to me, so it still qualifies.

Get well soon mum.

Aquaponics - disaster, strawberry towers, and narrowness

Normally I tend to dive right in to aquaponics disasters, but this time I thought I'd narrowly avoid one instead.

I decided to do a post on my two spinach plants I have growing in my strawberry towers.

That's them from the front...

and from the side.

I look at them every day, but what I don't see is the root system.

It turns out the root system has been growing down into the drain hole of the strawberry tower it lives in.

The result was the water was restricted from leaving the tower, and was getting ready to overflow at any minute.

Seen here is a meniscus forming on the lip of the hole for the plant. This is looking into the bottom  hole, down toward the drain.

Seconds to spare.

No doubt a lot of water was still getting through the drain, but it did look ripe for disaster.

The roots looked like this when I removed the plant. It's difficult to see in the picture, but they reach the ground. This means they were not just blocking the tube, but were probably growing in the large PVC drain half way to the fish tank.

Definitely something to look out for, and another mark in the "cons" column against my system design.

My only real course of action was to prune the roots. They were so long that even if I only used the top holes of the strawberry towers, they would still reach the bottom, and thus, the drain.




















120 things in 20 years, the disaster that never was - Aquaponics - disaster, strawberry towers, and narrowness

Aquaponics - Striking roots

I have a funny feeling plants really enjoy the symbiotic relationship they have with animals.

I've taken a number of cuttings over my life, and with varying success had them sprout roots. But it seems with aquaponics, you could put a tree in a blender, burn it, pour acid over it, belt it with a hammer for an hour, then then stick a bit in an aquaponics grow bed, and it will take root.

I had the base of some celery left drowning in water in the fridge for 2 weeks and discovered unsurprisingly, that once all the stalks had been consumed, the base had stated to rot, and was very ready for the bin.

It had a few tiny pale stalks still on the base, so I planted it instead.

It's a week later and the pale stalks have all turned green, and it's growing nicely. I pulled it up to see if there were any roots, and it turns out there are.

I wonder if plants think it might be a good time to lay down roots when they find themselves in the company of live animals. Perhaps there is some kind of animal hormone that triggers the development of new roots.

I remember reading the word "hormone" on a packet of powder that was said to encourage root development in cuttings. I cant remember what it was, or what it said, but perhaps I should have paid more attention.