A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners
Florida Keys System Intro
Hey,
Just wanted to introduce my mixed media system with a short video. I shot it a few weeks ago and much has changed since then, but I'll make an updated version shortly.
Any questions or comments are welcome. Thanks!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on
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oh good I was able to watch.
So what do your water tests say so far? What source water do you use?
You will probably need to supplement a little iron. Chelated iron works best for aquaponics but can be hard to find so in the mean time you could get some of the liquid iron and mix it up according to the directions and spray it on the plants that are having the problems (careful to do it when the plants will have several hours of cool before beeing burned by the sun/heat of the day though.)
Maxicrop with Iron might be an option to get not only the trace elements but also iron.
As to the gravel getting your plants dirty. Don't flood the water over the top of the gravel, most plants really don't like that. The top of the gravel should be at least an inch above the high water level in the bed. I have a new grow bed that I need to either lower the water level in or more likely top up with another inch of gravel since it has settled and the water is not flooding over the gravel and the plants will start suffering for it if I leave it too long.
good to hear you are pioneering Aquaponics in the Keys!
Welcome
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Permalink Reply by Josh on
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Im glad it worked this time. The video was shot a few weeks ago and since then I have added a cap full of maxi crop with iron which seems to have helped out alot.
Also, the gravel has been cleaned by the flooding,but I do still need to top of the extra inch or so with gravel.
The water source was mostly aged tap water with about 100 gallons or so of rain water. The system is also finished cycling i believe, as there are no ammonia, no nitrites and about 20ppm of nitrates.
One issue that I am constantly having trouble balancing is shading. Too much direct sun and the plants fry, too little and they get leggy. I thought I had figured it out finally with a thin white tarp that diffused alot of light but still kept things pretty bright. However, now Im seeing that my lettuce is beginning to stretch too much for my liking. So back to the drawing board on that.
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Well the stretching may be partially due to the shading but I don't expect you are going to have very good luck with lettuce this time of year.
I've used 40% aluminet shade cloth over part of one of my systems from about mid April through probably October with pretty good results. My big system gets a fair bit of natural shading in the morning from trees and late afternoon from the house so I don't have any shade cloth over it and this time of year only the cool weather crops that are still hanging on are suffering. Granted, with no tarp over it, rain will have a bigger impact on the system. You need to have some form of screened overflow to prevent fish loss if you allow rain to fall directly into the system.
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Yeah, you're probably right. Im not really seeing and leggy-ness from my other plants. I didnt expect much success with the lettuce either, but thought i'd give it a shot. I have peppers and basil among others that seem to really be thriving with the current lighting, although I do have some opal basil that has lost its purple coloration, but is growing like gang busters. Is that due to inadequate lighting?
I do have some queensland lettuce, ethiopian kale, and new zealand spinach that I ordered. These varieties are supposed to do well in south florida summer. I'm going to try those soon, as I really want to grow some leafy greens in the system
Oh, and as for the screened overflow on the FT, I already have that; a stupid heron was eating all my fish!
Thanks for the responses.
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