Gordon's Crater

Gunagulla

Hot February weather kept the water temp up, and it's warming up again now, so I'll wait a bit longer before transferring some trout from the big system into this one.

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The bananas are getting huge, but still no fruit. I'm amazed at how well they are growing with only 1 Murray Cod in the system, plus an occasional bucket of filter water from the big system.

The removal of all the mint was successful, with only a couple of shoots needing removal in the past few weeks.

Turmeric and Ginger are going well, and we're getting a few strawberries each week from 2 plants.

Gunagulla

Some photos of what is growing in this system

Turmeric is filling one end of this GB

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The passionfruit are really late, only recently finished flowing, where normally they'd be flowering in summer and picked in Feb.

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Climbing spinach- it's slightly slimy, but tastes ok

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The bananas are huge, and we've been removing pups to pot up and sell at the market

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I've been putting rat baits in the GH fairly regularly, but if I forget for a day or 2, bad things happen. Yesterday they cleaned up a few nice big strawberries ;( I'll have to be sure to add new baits every day or 2 to make sure they don't get the crop of big fat passionfruit.

joblow

All looking fantastic Gordon, I just love those banana trees, and are the passionfruit in a wicking bed?, they look great.

I didn't think I had a rat or mice problem here, they haven't been touching any of the veggies, and no sign of any activity at all. I left a 25kg bag of blood & bone sitting on top of one of the wicking beds and they chewed through the plastic overnight.

There were a couple of quite large holes so the had a decent feed of the stuff, I set traps all over the wicking beds and grow beds for over a week and never caught a thing. I even baited some of the traps with blood & bone, maybe the big feed they had could of killed them. :dontknow:

Gunagulla

Thanks Joe, the passionfruit are in a gravel filled GB, right next to the banana in the photo. We removed some of the pups yesterday, which was a big job as we let them get a bit large. They'll be potted up today. I just hope the rats don't get to the passionfruit before we pick them!

The rats have attacked my wife's bags of B&B too. We've gone through nearly a whole bucket of 50 baits in the past few months... I think there is a continuous stream of new rodents arriving from the surrounding bush.
Bastards!

joblow

Time for a moat :think:

boss

That's a gorgeous garden, wow you and your wife are an amazing team of gardeners. Sorry about the rodents of course, but dang with those beautiful and healthy plants in your outstanding gardens I can see the attraction. I'm certain they can smell the flavor.

Gunagulla

Thanks Brian, I hope they smell the baits and go for them, rather than the fruit and veg!

Gunagulla

A long run of temperature records from 12th March to 4th May, and it's finally cooling down from a near record warm April

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Gunagulla

Winter has arrived with the water getting down to 5C today. I can only assume the MC is still alive in there and survived the kicking of the kangaroo that drowned in the FT a few weeks ago. The water is so dark it is impossible to see. I'd remove some and use it to water some fruit trees if we had any water to replace it with. I don't really want to add trout from the large system until I can see to the bottom of the FT. Another wallaby drowned in the ST after crashing through the poly sheets and not being able to get out a couple of weeks ago. I've now put a steel reo mesh fence around the ST, but am not concerned about algae growth at this time of year, and the nitrates are not going to be high anyway. They will no doubt jump over the fence if they get thirsty enough, but we have 2 bathtubs full of water for them next to the house, and we can hear them drinking for most of the night. There is regular roo shooting across the road, so our place is a haven for them.

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Gunagulla

Water temps since mid June. Fortunately there have been no more roos stuck in the ST or FT.

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The very late passionfruit are slowly ripening, and they have been delicious. We harvested some ginger and termeric, some of which my wife sold at the market last week. I've planted some more peas, but they are only growing fairly slowly, but they do have a few pods on them.

boss

Bummer about the Kangaroos and the drought. How much do those Roos weigh? That must be a nightmare to deal with in your beautiful aquaponics systems. Recently I worked in an area where ranchers have installed 12 foot (3.6 meter) deer fence around their fields. It's difficult for those of us who don't have to deal with wild animals around our gardens to fathom just how high a thirsty hungry creature can jump and straight up at that.

Gunagulla

Hard to say what the big males weigh, but you certainly don't want to mess with them! They can easily jump over our 1m fence, but building a higher fence would be quite expensive, and not what we want to be looking at in front of the house.

boss

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not what we want to be looking at in front of the house.

I hear that. Living in beautiful country settings like we do fences detract from the feel of freedom. Those 12 foot tall fences were well built and neat looking, but I'd have to wonder if we were keeping the creatures out or they were keeping us in.

Gunagulla

At long last we have a banana about to flower!

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I climbed up onto the GB less than a week ago, as I could see something different was going on, and checking today, noticed a flower spike had emerged

Another one in a different GB might be about to flower too, so I'll be keeping a close eye on it.

boss

Oh wow, so cool. I'm green with envy again and again.
Brian

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Gordon's Crater

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Gordon's Crater

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Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics