A bit of advice from a more expericed grower..

[mark gordon]

Hello everybody,

our aquaponic system is in its second year and we have winter literally beating down my greenhouse door.  So rather than fight the inevitable we have harvested most of our tomatoes, and while I plan on keeping the water temp above freezing, and the system still running, we aren't going to attempt with heating the greenhouse this winter.  Our greenhouse temps have literally gone from 50 degrees in water and room temp, to down around 40 in the water, and 34 inside the greenhouse.  I am not concerned about my goldfish, they appear fine.

So question 1.  we have 6 big tomato plants, that are in need pruning, and we also have about twenty ever bearing strawberry plants and a few asparagus crowns in the same grow bed,  If i were to cut most of the stems off the tomato plants, Should I just leave the root system in place, or pull it out,  I would like to keep the asparagus crowns intact, and am not sure if the strawberries will die,  we plan on relocating most of the strawberries next spring into towers, but again concerned about the mass of root system that the tomato plants have created.

I have turned on my water heater that I built last year, and water temp is gradually coming back up,  It should be hovering close to 55 degrees by this time tomorrow.  but need some advice.  I will check back later this evening for any feedback.

thanks

Mark

[Scott Roberts]

How is your worm population in that grow bed? If they are fairly active you could leave the roots for them to eat.

[mark gordon]

Hi Scott,

I haven't added any worms yet, but am open to the suggestion.  I like the idea of letting them take care of the roots.  Do they just stay in the grow beds?  are they helpful in any other ways,  I guess I can look them up and learn about them.  My next step was trying to figure out what next to plant, that would do well in a colder climate. 

[Chris " Wild Dog " S.]

I noticed on several You tubes, it was mentioned that lettuces love the colder weather. Hope this helps, I am NooB in Ap, but finaly saw a question i could answer ! lol hope this helps man.

                                            Happy growin to ya,

                                                                         Wild Dog