A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Funny tasting veggies?

earlier in the summer I harvested a LARGE amount of cucumbers, they had a weird taste, i would describe it as bitter and it wasn't texturally what i had ever encountered with soil based gardening. i composted them and wrote it off as a nasty variety (pickle). today i harvested some long purple eggplant. same bitter taste and texture problem. any ideas? anyone else encounter this? id love to hear your input. thanks

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Coscia on October 23, 2013 at 4:59pm

i thought that as well, but the eggplant having the same funny taste? still a mystery. i just checked my water chemestry ph is a little low could that have any effect? btw ph is 6.2-6.4

Permalink Reply by Tony L on October 24, 2013 at 11:56am

I haven't read this yet, it's quite lengthy, but here is an academic paper (PDF) that may or may not help. The main purpose of the research was to study the relationship between ph and ammonia biofiltration, but it's in a cucumber/tilapia system. It might help you determine if it's a ph related problem.

RECONCILING pH FOR AMMONIA BIOFILTRATION IN A CUCUMBER/TILAPIA AQUAPONICS SYSTEM USING A PERLITE MEDIUM