Backyard Aquaponics

The purpose of this topic is to document the specific varieties of fruit and vegetables that have been proven to do well in Aquaponics.

The thread has been prompted by my recent experience with my cucumber plants. The stems of the plants have split because the general speed of growth of the plant could not be matched by the regeneration of the outer cells of the stem. Apparently a similar problem can also occur with fruit - resulting in the fruit splitting. Some varieties of specific plants are able to cope better with rapid growth than others - so it will be useful for everyone if we can identify which.

The type of cucumber that I have had this problem with is Lebanese. Although we should not immediately rule this variety out altogether - should others experience the same problem with this variety, it would be wise to steer clear of it in AP and go a different variety. Hopefully people will post to this thread which varieties work best and then I will compile a list - and continue to update it - at the start of this thread. I will also include details of which part of the world the plant has been grown.

For the information to be useful it is important that:

- details are only provided once you have grown the plant to a stage where you are confident it has performed well (e.g it has fruited as desired in terms of quantity and quality).
- you provide the specifics of the variety (e.g. Cucumber - Lebanese or Cucumber - Green Gem). The necessary details should be provided on the packet of seeds or on the seedling label.

If people could ass what they already have grown successfully to give this a kick start - that would be great.

This of course is not a perfect science in that what works for one may not work for another. In relation to this particular problem, there will be significant variation in growth speed in different systems dependant on such factors as light, temperature and nutrients - but the information will be useful all the same.

Running list from thread
Simpson's Curled (Lettuce)
Oregon Sugar Pod (Peas)
Bloomsdale Savoy (Spinach)
White Bunching (Onion)
Tomato (Grosse Lisse)
Tomato (Beefsteak) The best...
Cucumber (Lebanese)
Silver Beet (Giant Fordhook)
Lettuce (Cos)
Lettuce (all seasons)
Basil - Sweet green and purple, curly leaf, Thai
Rainbow Chard
Parsley - Flat leaf and curly leaf
Numerous tomato varieties (the only tomato variety that hasn't grown well was pineapple)
Watercress
Yugoslavian watercress ( also known as Lebanese watercress or Bulgarian
watercress)
Chives, both normal and garlic variety
Chillis, many varieties, haven't found a variety that hasn't grown well yet.
Celery (sorry unsure of variety, planted once now selfseeds in beds and grows very well)
Kohl Rabi - purple vienna
Cicoria Variegata
Snow peas
Egg plant - black beauty
Capsicum - Californian wonder, Yolo wonder, Long sweet yellow
Bok Choy
Broccoli (no variety name given)
Cabbage both red and green (no variety given)
Lettuce - cos verdi, oak leaf, lollo rosso, (and other frilly ones)
Silver Beet - Giant Fordhook
Cucumber - Burpless (only information on punnet), Armenian (neither had splitting problems that I noticed)
Mizuna
Rocket
Coriander - slow bolt
Garlic (unsure of variety, purple skin)
Burpless cucumers
Golden sunrise tommies
basil, including, thai lemon, and purple and sweet
dwarf beans (butter beans)
loose leaf lettuce varieties, ie salad mix (yates seeds) sown straight into bed.
Cherry toms are just starting now.
roma tommies (great yield from 3 plants)
bok choi
sage
lemongrass
yarrow
comfrey
Rockmelon

My Italian Large Leaf Basil and Heirloom Lemon Basil are doing well, as are bok choy (unsure of the specific cultivar) and Masai Green Beans. The Masai Bush Green Beans are smallish, but very nice. Not sure if that's normal since I have not grown them in dirt.

I have had success with beans and cucumbers too - (will edit and add verieties when I find packets )

1. Simpson's Curled (Lettuce)
2. Oregon Sugar Pod (Peas)
3. Bloomsdale Savoy (Spinach)
4. White Bunching (Onion)

Tomato (Grosse Lisse)
Tomato (Beefsteak) The best...
Cucumber (Lebanese)
Silver Beet (Giant Fordhook)
Lettuce (Cos)
Lettuce (all seasons)

Murray - did you have any stem spliting problems with your lebanese cucumbers? Did they grow super quick at the start?

VB, The only problem I have with the cucumbers is the rotten little grubs. I do not have a problem with insects on any other plants except the cucumbers.
Murray

Have you used dipel yet Murray - if not I would strongly recommend it for grubs.

I will give the lebanese cucumbers another go sometime. Maybe my problem has been a once off - mind you every one of the platns has the same stem splitting problem.

Basil - Sweet green and purple, curly leaf, Thai
Rainbow Chard
Parsley - Flat leaf and curly leaf
Numerous tomato varieties (the only tomato variety that hasn't grown well was pineapple)
Watercress
Yugoslavian watercress ( also known as Lebanese watercress or Bulgarian
watercress)
Chives, both normal and garlic variety
Chillis, many varieties, haven't found a variety that hasn't grown well yet.
Celery (sorry unsure of variety, planted once now selfseeds in beds and grows very well)
Kohl Rabi - purple vienna
Cicoria Variegata
Snow peas
Egg plant - black beauty
Capsicum - Californian wonder, Yolo wonder, Long sweet yellow
Bok Choy
Broccoli (no variety name given)
Cabbage both red and green (no variety given)
Lettuce - cos verdi, oak leaf, lollo rosso, (and other frilly ones)
Silver Beet - Giant Fordhook
Cucumber - Burpless (only information on punnet), Armenian (neither had splitting problems that I noticed)
Mizuna
Rocket
Coriander - slow bolt
Garlic (unsure of variety, purple skin)

There are definately more that I can't recall at the moment... Some plants I had troubles growing were

Corn - Early Gem
English spinach

Burpless cucumers
Golden sunrise tommies
basil, including, thai lemon, and purple and sweet
dwarf beans (butter beans)
loose leaf lettuce varieties, ie salad mix (yates seeds) sown straight into bed.
Cherry toms are just starting now.

roma tommies (great yield from 3 plants)

basil (not sure of variety)
bok choi

chillies (not sure of variety)

lebanese watercress

sage
lemongrass
yarrow
comfrey
no luck with rosemary or oregano (tried twice)

what an excellent thread and a great resource for the AP beginner. Thanks. When I've done a bit of growing, I'll add my twopence worth.

no luck here with oregano or coriander, but I suspect the coriander was due to poor light.

regarding fruits spliting, im no great gardener and i dont have an AP setup yet, but i always thought that fruits of plants split when they had a dryer spell folowed by a weter spell

as if they suddenly cant cope with the influx of water after starvign for it, however i dont see this being an issue with AP [schild=8 fontcolor=000000 shadowcolor=C0C0C0 shieldshadow=1]?[/schild]

Were the cucumbers that split grown from seedlings or seeds? that might support the splitting with wet after dry spell.

We recently had a watermelon in our soil garden split for this reason.