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This is a 50 gal rubbermaid stock tank with 2 zucchini, 2 cherry tomato, 2 dill, 1 bell pepper, and a lot of green onions. They were all planted in about late-march. 

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Looks fine to me....if you start having problems from lack of light or air circulation, or if you start showing nitrogen deficiencies, then you might have too many plants. Or not enough fish :)

Here's a picture of one of my overcrowded beds from a long time ago:

My Growbed Runneth Over...

Wow. How old are your grow beds, guys?

Mine is still almost barren (6 month-old bed). My bell pepper, egg plant(RIP) suffered from curled leaves. Tomato plant grew wild with very few tomatoes but lots of aphids. I had to toss it out even before my first harvest. Garlic rotted. I am trying Dill and Cherry Tomato now. The only plant that has grown so well is mint and I have just barricaded the root system to limit it to one side.

My outdoor grow bed gets about 3 hours of direct sunlight each day.

Congrats on your success....

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Mine is only 3 months old. Thats why I'm worried that it will turn into a jungle by the end of the season. I live near Dallas, TX and we are akready getting high temps in low to mid 90s. The plants really like that.
This picture's probably around a year oldish. At that point my system gad been running for a little over six months.
Hey Andy, let's see if we can fix up your growbed a little. I'll send you a friend request and we'll shoot some messages back and forth if you like.

Andy said:

Wow. How old are your grow beds, guys?

Mine is still almost barren (6 month-old bed). My bell pepper, egg plant(RIP) suffered from curled leaves. Tomato plant grew wild with very few tomatoes but lots of aphids. I had to toss it out even before my first harvest. Garlic rotted. I am trying Dill and Cherry Tomato now. The only plant that has grown so well is mint and I have just barricaded the root system to limit it to one side.

My outdoor grow bed gets about 3 hours of direct sunlight each day.

Congrats on your success....

It probably will turn into a jungle....but is there a problem with that? Maybe, maybe not; depends on what you like. There's always the option of pulling plants out when a problem occurs.

Ryan Garlington said:

Mine is only 3 months old. Thats why I'm worried that it will turn into a jungle by the end of the season. I live near Dallas, TX and we are akready getting high temps in low to mid 90s. The plants really like that.

Thanks, Alex. Friend accepted. Have you spotted any immediate problem to fix? My area is an aphid heaven. It's impossible to eradicate them. I'm now spraying diluted detergent on the affected leaves. That seems to help a little. As for the curled leaves, I have no idea what caused those. The bell pepper's new shoots looks better now somehow. Just yesterday, I cut away the damaged top and started an elevated layered system for it (I have read that in one of the threads which I can't seem to find now). I used shredded coconut husks and garden soil on top. I'm testing the pepper and one cherry tomato on these.

The tomato problem was mainly on stunted (and limited) growth of the fruits. Some developed faster than others even though the flowers bloomed later. Others remained tiny and undeveloped on the vine. After three months, there were only five noticeable tomatoes. I shook the flowers almost everyday thinking that it might have been pollination issue, but that's not the case. They do get some wind too. The plant had plenty of leaves and grew quickly (I diligently trimmed away the suckers). 

Your growbed box design looks really nice, btw. It is almost the same size as mine. 

Looking at Ryan and yours, I think I have not been ambitious with my planting. I have been testing what is suitable for my environmental condition and comparing them to those I planted in soil. Lemon grass seems to fare better in soil. Btw, I live in Bali, the tropics. It's warm all year round.



Alex Veidel said:

Hey Andy, let's see if we can fix up your growbed a little. I'll send you a friend request and we'll shoot some messages back and forth if you like.

Andy said:

Wow. How old are your grow beds, guys?

Mine is still almost barren (6 month-old bed). My bell pepper, egg plant(RIP) suffered from curled leaves. Tomato plant grew wild with very few tomatoes but lots of aphids. I had to toss it out even before my first harvest. Garlic rotted. I am trying Dill and Cherry Tomato now. The only plant that has grown so well is mint and I have just barricaded the root system to limit it to one side.

My outdoor grow bed gets about 3 hours of direct sunlight each day.

Congrats on your success....

How did you get those spring onion growing upright??? Mine bend and droop all the time (planted on soil because I was afraid the roots might rot in the aquaponics growbed; apparently it doesn't, judging from yours). Maybe there's a little too much wind here? I ended up using sticks and clear plastic to prop them up. 

Have you thought of where the zucchini plants would be climbing to? I have been thinking of planting the same, but I don't think I would have the space when they start to grow long. My previous tomato plant was just too messy. It grew to almost 6' long that I had to roll the vine up. 

Most of the onions are actually pinched against the side of the container. The ones not against the side are cuttings from green onions from the grocery store.

You probably are missing some important nutrients. Lack of fruiting, leaf curling, usually the signs of a nutrient deficiency. Which also explains why aphids are eating them up. Aphids are annoying, but bugs go after plants that are stressed out, nature's way of taking out the weaker link.

Aphids multiply via a form of cloning, which they do so efficiently they have been known to give birth to already pregnant young 0_- If it all possible, I would look into getting some ladybugs or something to get them under control. If you use sprays, the ones you miss will just multiply again ridiculously fast. Lacewing larva and ladybugs are good for aphid control, and both happen to be relatively inexpensive.

Andy said:

Thanks, Alex. Friend accepted. Have you spotted any immediate problem to fix? My area is an aphid heaven. It's impossible to eradicate them. I'm now spraying diluted detergent on the affected leaves. That seems to help a little. As for the curled leaves, I have no idea what caused those. The bell pepper's new shoots looks better now somehow. Just yesterday, I cut away the damaged top and started an elevated layered system for it (I have read that in one of the threads which I can't seem to find now). I used shredded coconut husks and garden soil on top. I'm testing the pepper and one cherry tomato on these.

The tomato problem was mainly on stunted (and limited) growth of the fruits. Some developed faster than others even though the flowers bloomed later. Others remained tiny and undeveloped on the vine. After three months, there were only five noticeable tomatoes. I shook the flowers almost everyday thinking that it might have been pollination issue, but that's not the case. They do get some wind too. The plant had plenty of leaves and grew quickly (I diligently trimmed away the suckers). 

Your growbed box design looks really nice, btw. It is almost the same size as mine. 

Looking at Ryan and yours, I think I have not been ambitious with my planting. I have been testing what is suitable for my environmental condition and comparing them to those I planted in soil. Lemon grass seems to fare better in soil. Btw, I live in Bali, the tropics. It's warm all year round.



Alex Veidel said:

Hey Andy, let's see if we can fix up your growbed a little. I'll send you a friend request and we'll shoot some messages back and forth if you like.

Andy said:

Wow. How old are your grow beds, guys?

Mine is still almost barren (6 month-old bed). My bell pepper, egg plant(RIP) suffered from curled leaves. Tomato plant grew wild with very few tomatoes but lots of aphids. I had to toss it out even before my first harvest. Garlic rotted. I am trying Dill and Cherry Tomato now. The only plant that has grown so well is mint and I have just barricaded the root system to limit it to one side.

My outdoor grow bed gets about 3 hours of direct sunlight each day.

Congrats on your success....

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