Introduction to Aquaponics
Plants
- Essentially, the majority of vegetables can be grown within Aquaponics, but there are certain plants that are more suitable in this sort of environment.
- A variety of crops can be grown from lettuce, spinach, chard etc to tomatoes, cucumbers, and strawberries. In Australia they have even grown fruit trees.
- When starting a new system it is better to grow a variety of salad crops until your system is more mature. crops such as; Lettuce, Kale, Spinach, Rocket, Watercress etc
- Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Basil, and Peppers can all be grown in a mature Aquaponics system but are much heavier users of nutrients.
- It is important to balance the number of fish and types of plants well so that both are thriving.
Using compost in the system
- Traditional Aquaponics growing without soil, relies on fish waste alone to fertilize the crops. The problem is, you can only grow crops with lower nutritional needs such as basil. For example, in most traditional Aquaponic systems, Boron is found in very low quantities.
- Boron is essential for flower development in crops – tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers etc – which means that production for these kinds of crops is very low in ordinary Aquaponic systems.
- This could be solved by adding nutrient rich compost to the pots in the system along with some worms.
- Some growers are experimenting by filling the growing pots with a mixture of coir and compost with worms. The coir is made from discarded coconut husks and helps wick water to the plant’s root system. The compost provides extra nutrients to grow an abundance of crops within the system.