Aquaponics - Plants

Most plants love the environment provided by an aquaponics garden. Fast growing green leafy ones love it even more than everything else because there is always as much water and nutrient as the plants need.



Spinach (baby spinach pictured here), lettuce, basil etc will all grow amazingly fast in an aquaponics system. From what I'm told, the only plants that are probably not worth planting in aquaponics are ...

- mint, because it goes crazy and will take over the planet given half a chance.
-root crops like potatoes,  because it seems potatoes think its funny to make little ones in your siphon standpipe and everywhere else you don't want one. They block all your pipes and cause a stack of problems.
-beans. There are conflicting reports about beans. It seems beans don't like immature systems but grow just fine in systems that are a couple of years old.

One very important thing to keep in mind is just how much produce you are going to get from each plant. Don't plant out a half a dozen of anything that bears multiple fruit (like zucchini) unless you are in a family of ten or are planing on setting up a roadside stall. I've heard reports of well over a hundred cucumbers from a single plant and insane numbers of tomatoes.

Remember to plant things like lettuce every week or so to ensure a constant supply. You can just sprinkle seeds around and they will pop up some time later when you disturb the grow media. As you harvest a lettuce another will take its share of the light and grow like mad!

You can grow things very closely together because there is always plenty of nutrient and water. The plants don't need to compete for stuff that plants like so they all get along just fine. So plant them as close together as you can, allowing for just enough space to grow to full size.