Has anybody tried FPJ, FFJ or OHN in Aquaponics?

[Yusuf Mario Germino]

Hello everyone.

Lately, I've been reading a lot about natural fertilizers that organic gardeners/farmers are using.  In the pursuit until now of finding red worms, I started to try to find alternative ways of boosting the growth of my  AP plants.  Besides the challenge of the weather (mid 40's on a regular basis, Jeddah is an all-year summer capital) vermi-composting is another issue I am dealing with.

 

Anyway, FPJ stands for Fermented Plant Juice where fast growing vegetables like kangkong, sweet potatoe etc, are fermented using equal part of molasses or muscovado sugar and water. This is kept in a cool dry dark place for 7 days, then strained.  For every liter of water, one tbsp of the decoction is dilluted and sprayed once a week to plants.

 

I tried to ferment a batch last week and successfuly strained some on Thursday. Sprayed my plants in self watering container pots the same night and repeated it again last night, and sprayed my fruiting bittermelon, basil and okra last night.  I have a week to observe them, but maybe it is true or just my imagination, on Friday morning, the day after spraying my ornamental plants with it... i can feel the energy of the plants, almost like an aura.  They all seemed so happy to have had it the night before.

 

Anyway, I hope this is something some of you can experiment on.  The FPJ is supposed to stimulate growth and blooms.

 

Sprays should be done in the night or before sunrise as the experts says that growth hormones of the plants are most active during those times.

 

Will share some pics once I achieve good result. 

 

I also tried giving them blended banana (with skin) juice since last week.  HOpe it also helps.

 

 

Ciao!

 

Mario

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Yusuf,

Where I live we have an abundance of ocean seaweed and because of that i use it as a mineral source in AP. I am aware that this is not an ideal approach for sustainable AP, but as it is still available at this time, I still make use of it. I have read that seaweed extract (Like your melon foliar spray) is a deterrent to plant pest ( building the immunity of plants is another approach to keeping pest away), and I'm going run a trial to see how well it works. At present I use it every few months as addition to system water but this does not seem to help as far as a pest repellent goes. This link shows how I make it 

http://aquaponicscommunity.com/forum/topics/making-your-own-seaweed

[Yusuf Mario Germino]

My experiment on bucket hydroponics with FPJ failed.  The swiss chard seedlingd dried, i am not sure if it was the concoction's strength or the outdoor heat.  I tried to clone some basil cutting also in the same concoction but all plants dried.  I therefore conclude that I have to reduce the amount of FPJ to introduce to a hydroponic system.

 

Amazing though is the health of my plants in the Aquaponic systems sprayed with FPJ concoction (2 tbs/liter of water), they are growing like mad.  Many many fruits from my Bitter Melon (Ampalaya), Cucumber and brocolli seedlings seem to be all strong. 

 

I hope to see good better results as I continue the weekly spray.  All fish are fine, no problem at all.