Aquaponics and Iron

When I very first started learning about aquaponics I was under the misconception that if you kept the fish alive and happy the plants would automatically be happy.

How many of you have fallen for the mis-information touted by some who only want to sell you their aquaponics-related product?  They will tell you that an aquaponic garden is a totally closed system that only needs the addition of food for the fish.  I also read that aquaponic gardens require little to no care.  Pfffftttt.

My aquaponic gardens are in many ways more easier when it comes to care but they are not care-free.  One thing that is common to both aquaponic gardens and soil gardens is chlorosis, or a need for iron.  Because the deficiency interferes with chlorophyll it is fairly easy to spot.  The leaves will become light yellow but stay dark around the veins.

 Iron in Aquaponics Explained by Nate Storey is a great place to learn exactly how iron acts in an aquaponic situation.  In a nutshell iron may be unavailable in aerobic situations.  Since growing with aquaponics is aerobic, you need to dose with iron on a regular basis.

Here is a picture of one of my sweet basils that needed a dose of iron.  As you can see, other than the color of the leaves the plant looks "normal".  Tthis is not healthy for the plant but it is common in aquaponic gardens, especially if your pH gets on the high side of the scale.

I use Fe EDTA because it is available to the plants even in a high pH situation.  This isn't true if you use something like seaweed fertilizer.  I read lots of folks raving about seaweed fertilizer for their aquaponic systems but I don't see iron (either present or in a form available to the plants) ever listed on the label.

The Fe EDTA I use is just the iron in a 6% strength.  It works.  It is not terribly expensive.

Just look at how this basil responds in just a few days.  Hard to believe that is the same plant isn't it?  Looks much more tasty to me! 

Basil After Iron

The "experts" say to dose your aquaponic system on a regular basis with iron.  I only dose my system at home when it shows signs of chlorosis.  At the Together We Stand gardens, we dose about once a month because the pH of the water stays high.

Aquaponic gardens can be easier than gardening with soil, but it still requires your attention.  You just don't have to weed and water!  Instead you have to do things like feed the fish and monitor water quality for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. 

Natural Pest Control

If you have ever gardened in any way you know that munching insects and caterpillars are inevitable.  In the case of butterfly gardens, those caterpillars aren't pests but butterflies to be.  But you don't want caterpillars in your vegetable garden. You don't want aphids and white flies in any garden. Squash bugs are a problem as well. Pests can be pesky

I've written before about the challenges of the tomato horn worm in my aquaponic gardens.  If you missed it, you can read it here There Will Be Pests.   Aquaponics gardening presents pest control challenges similar to that faced by organic gardeners.  You can't use conventional or toxic pest control because you will kill your fish.  Without the fish, your aquaponics garden is merely hydroponic.  So like any gardener first I asked around other gardeners I knew were growing with success (that is to say I've actually see their gardens) and then I hit the interwebs to see what I could see.

In both instances I found one common ingredient to an all natural pest control spray.....hot peppers!  I just love hot peppers and hot any spicy food.  I guess I would make a terrible insect because it turns out many insects don't care for the oils in peppers.  So, I decided to cook up my very own all natural pest spray.  I started with hot peppers and then I figured if garlic would keep vampires away maybe it would work on common garden pests as well.  In my thinking it couldn't hurt and at the least I would not be infested with vampires. After a little more digging around, I discovered that garlic is also used to repel mosquitoesand fleas.  I don't have a problem with fleas.  Because I live in South Florida where the mosquito is the state bird, I figured this was just a bonus.  I took some ideas from both Dr. Dirt and a local master gardener to come up with my all natural pest spray.

First, I tossed some jalepeno peppers in my little food processor along with a few cloves of garlic, thusly:

After I alternately used the chop and grind features I had a fairly coarse puree with an extremely pungent aroma.  It is a good thing I like the smell of peppers and garlic because this lingered for days. 

Next I put the puree in a clean glass quart jar that had a tight fitting lid.  I added enough water to bring it up to the top and then placed it outside in the sun to make "tea".

Because we have such mild weather in February, the temperature was 84°F the day I put the jar out.  I set it out in the morning and left it until the afternoon of the following day.  The water was a bit cloudy.  When I opened the jar you could absolutely smell the garlic and peppers.  I wish I could give you a link to the smell because it was certainly strong.

I brought the "tea" back inside and strained it using my tea strainer.  Because I didn't have any more clean quart bottles I strained it into some smaller bottles for storage.  I applied it undiluted to the collards that had the worst aphid infestation.  I just poured the "tea" into a clean spray bottle, added a drop of soap (as a surfactant and additional anti-insecticidal) and sprayed away.  As a preventative measure, I sprayed the beds next to the bed that was already infested with a diluted solution of the tea. I emptied the small bottle into a quart spray bottle, added two drops of soap, and topped it off with water. 

I used this with success on tomatoes for white fly, collards and broccoli for aphids, and kale seedlings and cilantro seedlings as a preventative measure.  I applied early in the day to avoid any risk of leaf burn.  I felt pretty confident that the pepper/garlic mixture wouldn't burn the leaves but I was concerned about the soap I had added as a surfactant.

The good news is that the pests were controlled and the fish in the aquaponic systems were not harmed.  I am thinking that I will use this tea alternately with neem as a preventative.

What do you use for all natural pest control?  I'd love to hear if anyone else uses peppers and garlic or neem.