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Easygrow_Aquaponics

Brisbane based Aquaponics business. Specialising in a compact system that is enjoyable for everyone. Produce healthy and organic fruits and vegetables.

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29/03/2022

Patience is a virtue is a good saying that comes to mind when gardening and watching your plants grow.
I've found enjoyment in waiting for my plants to grow and to produce food and I am particularly loving this 'green wall' they have created.🌿

Our grow beds are 55cm in diameter, so naturally we need to utilise the space effectively and growing vertically ⬆️ is one of many ways to accomplish this.
We have made the most of our vertical space by planting beans, tomatoes, cucamelon and mini cucumber.

19/03/2022

I found this mini cucumber hiding away amongst the leaves. 🥒

It's a touch over-grown, but according to my 3 year old it still tasted pretty good. 😄

15/03/2022

Happy Tomato Tuesday. 🍅🍅🍅

This would have to be one of my favourite photos of our aquaponics-grown tomatoes.

The fruits have been knocked around a bit recently, after the heavy and consistent rain, but thankfully I have a quite a few flowers and greens tomatoes ripening on the vine.

One thing I enjoy about living in Brisbane is that tomatos can be grown throughout the year -although in the cooler months they can take a little longer to ripen.

12/03/2022

I'd like to share with you a few of my favourite photos from this past week.💚

We have had a few breaks in the rain and had the occasional bit of sunshine here in Brisbane 🌤 which the aquaponics plants have been loving. In a sense, it almost has a spring feel for me when I walk outside and the flowers are starting to bloom again. 🌸

How beautiful are the kongkong flowers?
I'm really pleased with how the stringless celery variety is going, and it looks like we are due to make another pesto!
We have been a bit unlucky with our cucamelons, as whenever they start to get small fruits we get heavy rain and they get knocked off! We now have a few that have passed this delicate stage so fingers crossed in a few weeks I can put some in a salad.

08/03/2022

One thing I love about our neat aquaponics systems is that there is very little maintenance involved.

Just like the rest of us, I find at times I am rather time poor and I find our systems very rarely need too much attention.⏰

Every now and then I'll need to clean out the pump parts, attach tomato plants to the mesh and for the first time since owning our system 4 years ago, I've had to remove some plant roots from our grow bed.🌿

I've mentioned in a previous post that the roots of our kangkong grew fiercely under and around the water inlet to the grow bed.
Not all the water being pumped up was making it into the grow bed, meaning the syphon process was not starting.
So I got my hands dirty and cleared out a large portion of roots around the problem area.

I've never had problems previously with planting anything this close to the water inlet as I tend to plant things with a smaller root ball in that area, but the kangkong clearly caught me by surprise.

02/03/2022

If you haven't tried growing kangkong in your aquaponics systems yet I highly recommend doing so. 🌿

This is one vege in particular that seems to grow a lot healthier in aquaponics rather than the dirt. And in our case, we have unfortunately been plagued by aphids in our dirt garden, but our aquaponics have been completely untouched by these pests - another reason why I love aquaponics.

In the photos you can see the massive difference between my two plants - as usual they were planted at the same (9 weeks ago).

✅ Kangkong (also known as water spinach) requires deep and regular watering - Our systems flood and drain in approx 3 -5 mins (when grow beds are filled with rock as media)
✅ Kangkong grows well in pH 6-7
✅ Full sun to part shade
✅ Enjoys high nitrogen levels - so if grown in a standard container you would need to add fertiliser high in nitrogen, (We haven't needed to add anything to our aquaponics system to help the kangkong)

If I had to do anything different, I would plant it further away from the pumps inlet. The roots have gone absolutely bizerk and need to be trimmed back. The overgrowth of roots is not allowing water from the pump to enter the grow bed, ultimately effecting the syphon.

Is there anything you particularly enjoy growing?
I'm currently cycling a system with clayballs and brainstorming if I should grow my usual favourites or something different 😉

01/03/2022

It is nice to see some sunshine after all this heavy rain we’ve received here in Brissy.

With the rain came some pesty visitor 🐛🦗, so they got moved along from our aquaponics systems. I didn’t know catepillars ate tomatoes, but there you go – I caught one red handed!

A few of the veges look a bit sad, the tomatoes, beans and cucumbers are an odd colour, cucamelons got knocked off and the shallots are drooping at the moment. On the plus side we have some fresh flowers coming through.

I tested the water as the systems were overflowing with rain water.
We have a pH of 6.6, and there is still a good amount of nitrates available. Over the coming days I'll be keeping an eye on any nutrient deficiencies as there is a good chance other macro and mirco nutrients could have been diluted.

24/02/2022

📸 Today we have a medley of photos from the 3 aquaponics systems we have, to show you how we are tracking along over here.

🥒 The mini-cucumber vine is producing well, and is one of the kids favourite plants in the system at the moment.

🥒 The cucamelons are fruiting again, at 11 weeks since planting. All the fruit fell off a couple weeks ago in one of the QLD stroms we get, so it is great to see it fruiting again.

🍅 More and more cherry tomatoes are ripening up.

🌿 The kangkong is looking rather monsterous, lol - planted 8 weeks ago.
I often use kangkong in our salads, so I have been harvesting small amounts almost daily. It looks like I need to really trim it back otherwise I think it will takeover the whole courtyard the way it is creeping along the ground. If I had to choose a favourite plant I'm growing right now, it'll have to be the kangkong.

🌱 And in the final photo you will see the new addition to our aquaponics system. I have planted a variety of beans that I originally grew from seed. Another great vege for the kids to pick off when they join me outside.

💚 Do you have a favourite plant to grow at the moment? My favourite seems to change depending on what I use most in the kitchen at the time.

🙂 Happy growing everyone.

22/02/2022

The cherry tomato plant is producing a healthy amount of tomatoes. 🍅

The kids are loving homegrown tomatoes in their lunch boxes, and I am enjoying not having to purchase tomatoes from the grocery shop.💲

And what better way to celebrate than to jump on the 'Tomato Tuesday' bandwagon, with a slightly different twist.

Here we have an 'aquaponics harvest' vs 'dirt garden' harvest.

I've mentioned in previous posts I do enjoy growing the same plants in aquaponics and traditional gardens as I like to see the difference in quality and quantity produced.

A good friend of mine asked me if my aquaponics tomato plant was on steroids, so I am having a bit of a giggle looking at these photos and writing this post.
Now I can see why she asked.

21/02/2022

I must admit, we have been having pesto at least once a fortnight, since the basil in our aquaponics system has been going so well.

But on this particular evening I needed a bit of *crunch* to compliment the meal.

I thought I'd just quickly nip outside to the aquaponics systems to see what I can rustle up.
I was so pleased to be able to put together a whole salad 🥗 all homegrown straight from the aquaponics. It couldn't get more fresh than this.

I am finding now, the majority of our vege intake is made up of what we are growing ourselves. I'm sure a lot of you can relate to this, it is such a satisfying feeling to be able to do this and literally enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Homegrown, fresh, organic, chemical/pesticide free. It can't get much better than this.

Here we have cherry tomatoes, mini cucumbers, red lettuce, sorrel, kangkong and shallots.
The addition of sorrel made a light sour taste to the salad, no need for lemon dressing 😉

What's your favourite addition to a salad to give it a flavourful kick? Let me know in the comments below.

20/02/2022

I've just planted something green and healthy 🌿
I'll give you three guesses what it could be - and here's another clue 🧐 it's not parsley.

🌱 This plant can be a great addition to an aquaponics garden, as it loves plenty of water.
🌱 It grows well in a low pH environment - (5.8 - 6.8) Our systems tend to run on a low pH.
🌱 Lets hope this Brissy temp cools down every so slightly as this vege doesn't enjoy temps over approx. 25 degrees (maybe I'm a bit too optimistic at times, lol)
🌱 All going well, we should be able to harvest in 3-4 months.

Do you think you know what it is?
Comment below:

18/02/2022

This is my favourite way how to cook eggplant.

I've always been a big chicken parmy fan, but since becoming vegetarian this meal has really hit the spot. It is even better knowing that the eggplant and tomatoes are homegrown straight from the aquaponics system.

Now I don't have an actual recipe with proper measured units, but you can't really go wrong here.

- 1 eggplant
- handful of cheese
- handful of red kidney beans
- handful of tomatoes (homegrown is best 😉 )
- garlic, onion, chilli (the usual culprits)

Halve the eggplant and scoop out a cavity.
Panfry the garlic, chilli, onion, tomatoes and beans, and place filling in the eggplant.
Pop in the oven and cook until your liking.
and Enjoy 😋

Please feel free to comment with your own favourite eggplant recipes 👍
I would really appreciate a couple different ideas for when I have a few more eggplants come on.

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