Aquaponic Potatoes

[GaryD]

I'm attempting to grow some potatoes aquaponically.

While I've grown them hydroponically in the past, this is my first attempt to use fish waste as the nutrient source.

I've cut 2 x 100 litre drums down for use as grow beds. Each is fitted with a small tub outlet - about 75mm from the base.

One tub containes course coco peat while the other tub contains perlite. Each tub is half-filled because at a particular stage of growth, the potato plants have to be covered with more media.

I fill the tubs with fish water until it begins to drain from the tub outlets. Every few days (currently every four or five days) I top up the water until it just begins to drip from the drain.

That's it!

[Ulatawa]

Potatoes have very different nutrient requirements to leafy vegetables. Definitely not, for example, high nitrogen content.

Horses for courses. Investigate what each plant needs before trials.

M'

[GaryD]

Hi Max,

I agree. The good thing about "open loop" (non-recirculating) systems is that you can manipulate the nutrient mix to suit the specific needs of particular plants.

Gary

[RupertofOZ]

Looking good so far Gary, keep us informed.....

Hope to try various "satellite" ideas/plants my self in the near future.

[GaryD]

Hi,

Within the past few days, I've fed my potato tubs with fish water laced with a little potash.

I'm still researching the nutritional needs of potatoes but this should hold them in the meantime.

GaryD

[GaryD]

Hi,

Today, I pulled up one of my potato tub experiments. This one comprised half a 100 litre drum with a drain about 75mm from the bottom. The media was coco peat.

The plants had died back so I decided that they weren't going to grow anymore.

I harvested about two litres of chat potatoes in total. While this wasn't a lot, I was satisfied with the outcome because we only fed the plants fish water for most of the time that we grew them. It was only once the plants were full grown that we had begun to add some potash, etc.

We ate some of the potatoes for dinner tonight.....with a pot-roasted home-grown chicken.

Chat potatoes in butter are fare fit for a king.

I still have the other half of the 100 litre drum going with another potato experiment.....filled with perlite. The plants are still green so we're going to wait until they die back. And then we'll be eating more chat potatoes.

We still have to fine tune our aquaponic potato growing.....but the results are looking promising.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

I emptied out the second of our potato tubs today.

It yielded a nice little parcel of potatoes.

I am going to set the potato experiments up again.....with some new seed potatoes......both in coco-peat.

These potatoes are tonight's dinner.

Gary

[anniefish]

Yumm, lucky you.

[GaryD]

Hi,

Today, I set up two more Aquaponic potato experiments.

This time, I've used coarse coco peat in both tubs. One has been planted out with certified Kiffler potatoes and the other with the Prince Edward variety.

The focus, this time, will be on maximising the quantity of potatoes that we achieve from this system.

Gary

[DuncanC]

Hi Gary,

How's the returns from the second potato experiment?
The second harvest of the first round looked fantastic!

Duncan

[SunCoaster]

Hi Gary. How goes the progress on the potato experiment?
Phil.

[GaryD]

Hi Phil,

Nothing happening in the 'tater' department at the moment.

Gary

[wildnickels]

How did this second time around fare? I dont see any more information on it. Wish you had pictures to show what you have done also. Is there any certain way to do this effectively now?

[GaryD]

Hi WildNickels,

These are old posts. I haven't grown any aquaponics potatoes for quite a while.

These days, I grow them in raised bed gardens.

Gary

[Nelson]

I was hoping to give potatoes a go in my setup but it looks like i'd be wasting my time. Anyone else have any info on aquaponinc potatoes..?

[GaryD]

Hi Nelson,

If you were planning to grow potatoes in your little balcony system, you would almost certainly be wasting your time.

You could, however, set up a pot (like a half a blue barrel) filled with coco-peat and feed it with nutrient-rich water from your system. I've done this successfully several times.

Gary

[SwampCreek]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq4ct22rvBo&feature=player_embedded

just started this plant about 3 or 4 weeks ago, seems its doing alright

[GaryD]

Hi Swampcreek,

I love the way you scoop your hand under that tater plant and lift it out of the media. I'd like to try a grow bed full of potatoes like that.....but it may be a bit wet (long term) for potatoes.

Gary

[SwampCreek]

I figure i might move it over to a deeper GB, maybe a barrel cut in half (not long ways) and reduce the water to it. Figure it should work great. Or just move the plant over to the wicking bed. I had two of them, the fish got hold to the other one and ate the leaves. Never knew catfish liked plants.

[ColinW]

Back in 2009 I tried Potatoes in Aquaponics... and Dirt. I actually harvested them too early - before the leaves dried off.
My AP System was only about 8 months new at the time. I'll let the comparison pic tell the story...

[GaryD]

Hi Colin,

This was our most successful AP potato setup to date. We used coco-peat and watered the potatoes once or twice a day (depending on whether we remembered). I usually start bandicooting the chap potatoes long before they get to being mature so our harvests are generally less than they could be. Having said that, we did well out of these tubes with 1/2 to 3/4 of a bucket of little potatoes out of each one.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

When I planted out the clay pebble grow bed, a few weeks ago, I planted a potato plant that had taken root in one of our wicking beds.

I'm not the sort of person who'll die for the want of knowing so today I pulled the potato bush up to see what was happening.

As the photos illustrate, tiny potatoes have formed and I'm satisfied that, left to their own devices, they would have grown into chat potatoes. Most of the potatoes that I grow seem to die once they reach chat size.....from being boiled and smothered in butter.

This is the first time I've grown potatoes in a clay pebble bed - and, based on the results of this little experiment, I'd like to give them a more comprehensive test.

Gary