Plants

[Sylvia Bernstein]

what do you have the most success growing?  what specific varieties to you recommend?  what should be avoided, in your opinion

[Rebecca Nelson]

We have grown just about every vegetable I can think of in aquaponics. Of course, the leafy crops are fast-growign and easy, but fruiting crops can be grown as well. The flavor and quality of the tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and peas we have grown has been outstanding.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

The plants I've had the most success with are the leafy's, cucumbers (amazingly productive. coming to our house now is like visiting someone who is growing zucchini in August. everyone leaves with a cucumber!), leeks, broccoli, and tomatoes. And herbs of all kinds, but especially basil, parsley and dill. The drier herbs (oregano, thyme, marjoram) struggle. Sugar snap peas and peppers are doing well also. My nemesis has been beans. I seem to get a nice initial crop, but then the plant becomes deficient in what I think is iron. Super sensitive to pH, perhaps? Anyone else have this issue? Tried carrots as well, but the aphids got to them before they could do much.

[Kathleen Paynter]

Hi All!

Rebecca was kind enough to allow me in the greenhouse on Sunday to help out. We have many plants growing but with the dullness of winter I decided that we could use a splash of flower color. I am ordering some hearty cooler weather pansies today. My wonderful coworker Dusan wants to order some Russian Kale and dandelions....he has a recipie for a smoothie drink which includes bananas and dandelion greens. yum, yum!
Can't wait to plant our seeds in the greenhouse. By-the-way....my little tilapia frye are all grown up. They are so active and healthy and have grown so big!

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Banana and dandelion smoothies? Wild! Hard to believe we are getting into flower seed ordering season, but a little color sounds good about now!

Kathleen Paynter said:

Hi All!

Rebecca was kind enough to allow me in the greenhouse on Sunday to help out. We have many plants growing but with the dullness of winter I decided that we could use a splash of flower color. I am ordering some hearty cooler weather pansies today. My wonderful coworker Dusan wants to order some Russian Kale and dandelions....he has a recipie for a smoothie drink which includes bananas and dandelion greens. yum, yum!
Can't wait to plant our seeds in the greenhouse. By-the-way....my little tilapia frye are all grown up. They are so active and healthy and have grown so big!

[Ken Richardson]

I would like to find out if anyone is growing fruit trees in AP and how they are doing. I know Murray is doing it from what I understand but also would like to hear from "less" experts on what they have done. I started two avacado trees and a date tree so far from seed and they are doing well at about foot and half high. I am thinking of doing drawf citcus trees to get further along with the plants. Another ideal with growing them might be a wicki bed. Has anyone done this with trees?

[Two Jay]

Does anyone have great success stories growing Tomatoes in an AP system? I am still in the process of finalizing my system design, I know that will never actually end, and am looking for a good spot in my greenhouse for each type of veggie.

We currently plan on growing the following plants, but not limited to: Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Lettuces, Peppers - Hot and Bell type, Spinach, various herbs, maybe some edible flowers... I know I am missing something, besides sleep. Our focus is on resale, most anything that we personally need through the year will mainly be grown in the dirt and stored via canning, freezing or drying.

[Earl ward]

I have had good success with tomatoes and cucumbers in a media based system. I have not had much luck with bell peppers, peppers were small in size plants were also small in size. This could have been caused by the depth of the media it was only 8 inches for peppers instead of the 12 inches for the tomatoes.James Kaiserlian said:

Does anyone have great success stories growing Tomatoes in an AP system? I am still in the process of finalizing my system design, I know that will never actually end, and am looking for a good spot in my greenhouse for each type of veggie.

We currently plan on growing the following plants, but not limited to: Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Lettuces, Peppers - Hot and Bell type, Spinach, various herbs, maybe some edible flowers... I know I am missing something, besides sleep. Our focus is on resale, most anything that we personally need through the year will mainly be grown in the dirt and stored via canning, freezing or drying.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

I have had great luck with everything you mention here, and I have 12" beds. I have pepper plants that I started a year ago that are still going strong...and they have been moved around a number of times. My only complaint is that they were big aphid attractors in my greenhouse last winter, but I'd literally pull them out of their beds and soak them in the fish tank for about 15 minutes and they'd be clean again. Tomatoes and cucumbers are insane growers. I honestly haven't grown much spinach, but I have grown several other greens - just never seemed like a great use of space when I could have a tomato plant in there instead (you never can have too many tomatoes in my opinion). Starting to make more used of vertical space with Nate's towers and that is how I"m growing the short lived stuff (just harvested a ton of greens). Haven't really found the plant that won't grow well in a 12" bed yet.

James Kaiserlian said:

Does anyone have great success stories growing Tomatoes in an AP system? I am still in the process of finalizing my system design, I know that will never actually end, and am looking for a good spot in my greenhouse for each type of veggie.

We currently plan on growing the following plants, but not limited to: Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Lettuces, Peppers - Hot and Bell type, Spinach, various herbs, maybe some edible flowers... I know I am missing something, besides sleep. Our focus is on resale, most anything that we personally need through the year will mainly be grown in the dirt and stored via canning, freezing or drying.

[David Hart]

It gets so hot and humid during part of our summer here, in central FL......I was trying to figure out what to grow at that time.
I had a few sweet potatoes in the cupboard that had started to sprout ( I found out this is 'stems', not the roots like on a regular potato)
I don't know if I'll actually end up with any sweet potatoes (in the gravel) but, they grow so fast, I'm almost afraid to turn my back on them, when I'm standing close by :-)
At least I know they are using up some of the nutes.

[Growitright Aquaponics]

Does anyone have any experience with wheatgrass in an aquaponics system?
I have heard mold is a big issue with wheatgrass an not a good choice. I am thinking
this may have something to do with temperature or ventilation control because wheatgrass
likes a cold climate. Any feedback would be great.

[Two Jay]

http://www.suretogrow.com/hydroponics-research-wheatgrass This is a bit of information. I am curious as well, my guess is that humidity and air circulation at the base part of the plant causes most of the issues. We have grown wheatgrass and other sprouts, if the water is not changed frequently, there will be problems. Good luck with your search.

[Ken Richardson]

Grafted trees produce fruit in 1 to 2 years, vs. from seedlings 8 to 10 yrs. http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/avocado.html
I do not have a root base to graft to, so it will be awhile before fruit will bare. I do not know of any that have been grown aquaponicly either though. Maybe with luck it will cut down the timeframe. I have also planted date tree and pineapple. The date tree is steady growth and the pineapple is too early to tell yet. I have not had luck with lettuce, brocolli and certain types of tomatoes. I have cherry growing. I have two sugar baby watermellon growing very well. I had corn, several died of root rot, but I have two left that made it, one growing very well the other slower but ok. I have basil that is growing well, along with squash, green beans, okra and a seedless green grape. Alot of the things that I cannot grow start out well but after getting a few inches in height they start whilting and top part of stem is normal looking but weak and the root part is very thin and anemic looking. I dont know what is causing that, when leafy stuff should be growing well.(certain leafy stuff, not all). Once the system settled it has been at 6 ph all the time, even for a small unit (30 gal FT, 12 sq ft of GB). I have worms in the grow beds that are doing well and the water is a nice amber color, but I have not yet tested for ammonia, nitrate or nitrites. This is also grown indoors with some sunlight and growlight. I think I dont have the needed spectrum for root growth that I need for all plants. Not sure yet about that, its a learning process.

ernie.j said:

Do you have avocado trees available to you for grafting to your root stock? In nearly every case, avocado trees need to be grafted in order to produce usable fruit. Trees grown from seed are used mostly as house plants.

Ken Richardson said:

I started two avacado trees and a date tree so far from seed and they are doing well at about foot and half high.