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