Using aquaponics. First time grow. All my plants are doing fine besides this one.
Your pH is way too high! That’s your problem here. Also, try to get your humidity up, but keep that rapid rooter from being too wet. But that’s not a problem, fix the pH and you’ll be fine. What do you mean by aquaponic? Can you show your system or describe it better? Because I believe your target pH should be 5.8, never going lower than 5.5 and never higher than 6.1
Treez
I’m receiving a humdidffer tomorrow so that problem should be fixed
I can tell you right now that your pH is too high. Even in soil your target pH is 6.5, and in hydro it’s 5.8
I’m not sure where you’re getting 7-8 pH from, I’ve never heard of that Being good to be that high in any medium
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Okay thank you for your knowledge. I am organic farmer and will not use any chemicals. My fertilizer comes from worms in the buckets and fish. What would you recommend for lowering ph
I’m not sure honestly. Maybe try a quick Google search on organic pH down lol?
I just use the pH up and down, but I’m curious what the organic form of pH up and down is now!
I’ll do some research and if I find out I’ll let you know
the reason many don’t use aquaponics is ph control though ironic since fish need a certain ph to be happy and so far as nutrients it comes in the form of fish shit not saying in theory it isn’t a very cool way to grow just that you won’t see the monster plants or growth rates of other systems. Simply since you have to keep your fish happy and what’s good for them isn’t always good for your plants Honestly fish tanks have ph up and down often used in them to keep fish from croaking nitrogen is what your plants are needing too much N equals dead fish.
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Are you saying you think it’s a nitrogen deficiency
Light yellowing leafs is a lack of nitrogen
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If you could take a pic with some regular light we could see leaf discoloration a little better.
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I wouldn’t recommend aquaponics for a first timer. It’s not the easiest method to master. You have to play a balancing act between what’s good for the fish and what’s good for the plants.
In this type of system you need to run an aquarium style canister filter with media to culture your beneficial bacteria. If you’re not using the bennies you’re plants will not get the nutrients it needs.
In this type of system the bacteria convert the organic waste into usable elements for the plant to consume.
If you want to go organic, and it’s your first grow, I would go with soil.
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Now I’m curious, what made you pick his growing method?
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I wish I’d seen this post earlier…
I don’t see you posting your current pH, and don’t know if you post has been edited, but…
A pH of 6.4-7.2 is ok. Any higher then that is too high, and any lower will kill your fish. pH should be changed very slow for your fishs sake.
You’ll might want to start learning about how to make high quality organic teas, to add to your system, for your nutrient levels. True organic aquaponics is difficult in the fact that you’ll have to get very good at mixing your teas.
Your probably want to get a journal to keep your records in. Keep in mind, there’s still bottled/dry, nutrients, sold in stores, that are 100% organic.
Without adding chemicals, the only way, and the best way, is using RO Water (reverse osmosis), or Distilled Water.
When starting a system with hard water (tap water), it’s very difficult to control pH organicly. Most use some form of Acid. You’ll want to build you nutrients up slow, for acclimating the fish.
Acid Ive used are:
Muriatic Acid-
Muriatic Acid work well and can be found in anywhere for auto stores to hardware stores, but is very concentrated, so be careful. It also releases poisonous fumes.
Phosphoric Acid-
Phosphoric Acid might not be the best for you, if you’re using tap water. Ive used tap water and using this Acid increased my Phosphates beyond my target PPM’s.
Now that I see you’re plant, and understand you have not introduced anything. I’d say your plant is starving, and begging to be feed.
I hight recommend you buy a “Freshwater Maters Kit” from your local fish store. I also recommend you start feeding you fish high quality organic fish feed. This will also help with “organic nutrients”.
This brings us to not having enough info. 4 things, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrates, and pH, should always be in any post you are asking about.
Target range for the three are:
NH-4 (Ammonia) 0.0ppm’s (very toxic to fish)
NO-2 (Nitrites) 0.0ppm’s (very toxic to fish)
NO-3 (Nitrates) 20.0ppm’s (mildly toxic to fish)
Secondly, you’ll definitely, definitely, need iron.
This can be done with tea’s and worm castings, but I use Iron Chelate. There are a few types of chelated Iron (Fe). The type I use is FeEDDHA, which is great for new systems as its chelated upto ~9.0pH.
My target ppm’s for Iron is 2.5ppm’s