We are fast approaching winter and the weather has been damp and cold, but it is nice in the hot house where we have the aquaponics.
The sweet potatoes are going okay with the first ones better than the last ones. We did have some die off so I have planted some more shoots and I also planted a whole sweet potato with shoots on it. I am looking forward to seeing how they go. The potato I planted with the shoots hasn’t died back at all.
This is English spinach I think (I didn’t keep the packet – slack I know) and I pick off this about twice a week and it keeps coming back. It is very tasty sauteed with garlic and butter.
We have planted some broccoli and cauliflower seeds and below is the broccoli. I planted over half a bed and the good thing about broccoli is that it grows side shoots, so once you’ve picked the main head you get the benefit of those extra bits. That is why I planted more of these than the cauliflower.
With aquaponics you can’t harvest everything at the same time, you need to stagger harvesting and planting, otherwise it mucks the system up.
The tomato seeds that I planted weeks ago are still coming up. Some came up and died off but there are about 3 decent looking plants. Here is one below.
I have also planted some more spinach seeds and pat choi seeds in the same bed.
Below are the original capsicum plants that we put in last November. The leaves all drop off and then new shoots appear and then they flower. We haven’t actually gotten any fruit off them but we are still holding out. The original tomatoes have finally died off and we might actually close this bed until we can get some more fish.
We still have fish in this milk vat and they are growing well, I still can’t get a decent photo, but this shows the water flowing and the air hose making bubbles Air into the fish tanks is so important, without this air the fish die.
No 2 daughter picked the last of our tomatoes and we have laid them on newspaper on top of the sump tank. I have left some red ones amongst them in the hope that they ripen. I go out each day or so and pick out the majority of the red ones and bring them inside to eat.
Well that is the latest on our aquaponics, we now have power installed properly and have decent lights so we can work in there at night.
We are working on getting some more fish, we need at least 100 more and at the moment my husband is thinking of sourcing trout.
Blessings
You may find this post linked up at some of these great blogs.
this all looks great!
Out of curiosity, what are you using for pollinators?
Thanks for that. I had to ask my husband what you meant (bit daft sorry), he said that we aren’t putting in plants that need pollinators. We aren’t growing pumpkins or stuff like that out there. Does this make sense??? Blessings
What a system! This is something far different than we have done… it looks very interesting. It also seems odd that you are going into winter… I had forgotten about the different season… we are well into spring here and so glad it isn’t time for winter yet. 🙂 Thank you for sharing your pictures and words.
Thanks for stopping by and yes I find it hard to think of you in spring and us in autumn. The aquaponics is great and we are hoping that it will grow well during the winter. Thanks and blessings.
This is neat -My husband is interested in trying Aquaponics. I’m more of a dirt gal but willing to try something new too.
Thanks for the information.
Carole
We like it Carole because the vegetables are supposed to grow faster and you also have the benefit of providing fish for your meal table. Let me know if you give it a go. Blessings
Love seeing these updates! Aquaphonics is something I pretty much exclusively read from your site, so I’m learning things slowly. Maybe in our winter, I’ll have time to really ready up on it. Will you be able to grow things in there through the winter?
Blessings,
Hey there, yes with the plastic on it should grow through the winter. In our northern states (Queensland) they use the aquaponics systems under shade cloth, but they don’t get as cold as us. We hope that once the fish get bigger and their manure output larger that it will be supplying us year round and we will hopefully be able to grow tomatoes all year too. That is what we have seen happens. Will keep you updated. I don’t know how it would go in snow though, maybe you could heat the hot house?? Blessings
This was a really interesting post Terri. I have just recently watched the home grown food summit, and a few of the presentations were on aquaponics, which I had heard of in name only before. At the moment we are on the beginning of the learning curve with keeping chickens, but I will certainly be keeping aquaponics in the back of my mind for future years. Thank you for sharing this- I am going to read your previous posts on it now!
Thanks Gwen for your encouraging comment. My husband has had an interest in this for over a year and it did take us quite a while to get up and going and we are slowly getting things to grow. It is great to go out there and see the seeds sprouting and watching things grow and understanding the science behind the system. We definitely aren’t experts though and we are learning as we go. Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend. Blessings
It blows my mind that as we approach summer, you are approaching winter Terri! I read somewhere that if you put your tomatoes in a paper bag and fold over the top they will ripen in a few days. Maybe you could get a few of those larger grocer bags and place some in and see what happens?
Hey there Nicki, it is hard for me to imagine that you have warm weather when we are getting colder, quite amazing really. I have heard that about the tomatoes and paper bags and you have encouraged me to give it a go. Blessings and thanks for stopping by.
Wow…your system is really looking great! I can’t wait to see what you do next!
Thanks for linking up with Green Thumb Thursday. I hope to see you back again this week!
Lisa
Thank you Lisa for stopping by and for your comment, also thanks for your link up. Have a great weekend. Blessings