Aquaponics and Peppers

AJ Drew

AJ Drew

I am fascinated by aquaponics.  Thing is, I can find very little information on which plants grow best with nutrients provided only by fish.  Has anyone tried hot peppers in an aquaponic system?  I have goofed around with not so good results, but I am not convinced it was a nutrient problem.  I think I was always too wet.
 
I've seen peppers grown in various aquaponic systems, and thrived. I've seen this online and in person.
 
Only by a purist standpoint does aquaponics = fish. More specifically, eating fish. Aquaponics can be done with turtles if you want ;) Some have recently switched to Vermiponics which utilizes worms in conjunction with aquaponics.
 
There is actually a good amount of resources available. If you're willing to dish out pay then I can share books and How-To dvds. Other than that just scour Youtube, man.
 
I'm going to be building a small indoor aquaponic system with goldfish in a bit. After I feel I have that down then i'm going to scale it up for outdoors. I will probably still use goldfish as they are cheap, resilient, and I don't need it for eating. 
 
Everything I have read so far has led me to believe aquaponics is more of a cool way to keep your aquarium running with the added benefit of having the peppers do okay rather than the other way around. Most accounts I see seem to have issues with fruiting and yield using aquaponics.
 
milsman2 said:
Most accounts I see seem to have issues with fruiting and yield using aquaponics.
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Can you share those accounts? It would be pertinent to this discussion :) I'm especially interested as that has not been what i've seen so far. Quick Youtube searches does show people fruiting their peppers and tomatoes on aquaponic systems. Not sure about yield. 
 
My guess is that just like soil growing, you have to do things a bit differently because peppers do not like being wet.  Maybe a longer dry cycle between flooding?  Goofing around with aquaponics, I had troubles with leaves turning light or even white.
 
 
Spicy Mushroom said:
I'm going to be building a small indoor aquaponic system with goldfish in a bit.
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If I goof around again, I am thinking koi.  I love growing just about anything, but gotta make my loves profitable or my spending will get out of hand.  You can get good money for koi.
 
I had great, I mean really great, results with hydroponics outside in my shade tent. But never tried (though always wanted to) aquaponics specifically.
 
FiresOfNil said:
My hydro peppers are in LOVE with being wet, funny that, over watering causes so many problems in soil, stick em submerged in hydro or aqua and they love it.

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What kind of hydroponics?  I wonder if maybe it had a bubbler so that the roots got constant air too.  I did horribly with a flood n fill setup, but thinking the flood was too often.
 
HA, I was just randomly looking through Amazon for nothing in particular (dangerous) and came across this. Not sure what oiptions are out there, but...
 
 
http://www.amazon.com/Back-Roots-31000-Water-Garden/dp/B00CN52TRM/ref=lp_12034488011_1_35?s=boost&srs=12034488011&ie=UTF8&qid=1463594703&sr=1-35
 
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Apparently there are a few of these type of prefab setups on there
 
 
http://www.amazon.com/AquaSprouts-Garden/dp/B01B4ZRVR4/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1463595126&sr=8-14&keywords=aquaponics
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http://www.amazon.com/ECO-Cycle-Aquaponics-Dual-Grow-Light/dp/B00LMMNVWO/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1463595204&sr=8-18&keywords=aquaponics
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http://www.amazon.com/Fin-Flower-Aquaponics-Large-System/dp/B0199FREBO/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1463595204&sr=8-22&keywords=aquaponics
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Yeah with hydro aeration is key. Even for flood & drain type systems it doesn't hurt to aerate the water in the res. Without dissolved oxygen in the water the roots rot. 
 
And with rotting roots, the PH goes off the charts.
 
I had this happen to me once in a DWC system where I pinched the air tube and didn't notice for 2 days. It was a downhill battle...
 
 
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ajdrew said:
What kind of hydroponics?  I wonder if maybe it had a bubbler so that the roots got constant air too.  I did horribly with a flood n fill setup, but thinking the flood was too often.
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DWC 5 gallons with air stones in each bucket, I've heard flood n fill is tough especially with peppers.
 
ajdrew said:
What kind of hydroponics?  I wonder if maybe it had a bubbler so that the roots got constant air too.  I did horribly with a flood n fill setup, but thinking the flood was too often.
Click to expand...
 
 
 
I did mine in a 7-gallon DWC with 3 plants in the same tote (two air stones). I do not recommend this. In this case, my gardeners killed off the jalapeno plants and those roots rotted which in turned eventually killed the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion and the Carolina Reaper off that were sharing the res.
 
 
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This just shows where I started each plant.
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Trying to get pics of the roots from early on and later on. Got the early on pic, but having a problem with photobucket right now and can't see my library... Anyways, I can't see for certain, but in my old glog from 2014, I'm sure it's all there. I gave up - here is the link: http://thehotpepper.com/topic/45694-mrgrowguys-2014-dwc-hydro-and-soil-comparison/page-3?hl=%20mrgrowguy%20%20dwc
 
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edit: it's working for me now
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A big problem I was having was keeping the res filled. Those three plants were always THIRSTY! The survived on just hose water and nutes thrown in there (not measured at all) for months like that.
 
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Mrgrowguy, your level of organization is noteworthy and I love the way your back door opens to a shade house.  I would love to do something like that but my door options are front to the porch or side to the carport. 
 
Thank you, sir!
 
Yeah, it's really nice. Sometimes I just wander out of the bedroom and sit down and kick it. It's really relaxing :)Though, this year, I really need to clean it up. I have a new set of plants going in there sometime this month.
 
 
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I've been creating and engineering aquaponics systems for 7 or more years now. Have grown everything from tomatoes to squash to okra. This is such an incredible way to grow food. I hope that it starts to become more viable in agriculture. There are plenty of University types in the fields of agriculture and aquaculture that remain unconvinced that this is a viable form of growing food as fish and plants generally have opposing PH preferences. However, through my experience I've found that many, not all, plants are able to adapt and thrive.
 
Being that my love for hot peppers has become much more than a passion, I started growing gourmet super hots and WOW! I have plants that are literally six feet tall and 4 maybe 5 feet in girth. The the pepper production is out of this world. They basically just grow hot peppers consistently. So there are always hot peppers in various stages of growth. You never run out. At least 8 months a year here in Florida we have huge, juicy, delicious super hot peppers.
 
My current garden is 2500 square feet. And we can produce so many hot peppers that I've actually gone through the process to produce and FDA approved hot sauce. We recently launched the sauce. It is comprised of various trinidad, 7 pot and staple peppers. So basically it is safe to say that I live in hot pepper heaven.
 
The garden is https://easyponix.com/
 
The hot sauce is https://captaincaliente.com/
 
Look forward to more discussion about this topic. As both aqauponics and hot peppers are massive passions of mine.
 
I have read several books on aquaponics. Aquaponic Gardening by Sylvia Bernstein is a great resource. Unfortunately I live in an apartment but I am planning a greenhouse aquaponics setup when I buy a house.

Peppers need a lot of nutrients so they would grow better in a mature system. It is all about ratio between the fish poop and the size of the plants to effectively clean the water.

Too many/too large of fish with small immature plants? The system will get dirty.

Small/not enough fish with plants? Slow growth because there are not enough nutrients.

The second situation is easier to maintain. Your plant growth will not be optimal but less risk of a dirty system.

Fish poop contains ammonia which is converted by (good) bacteria to nitrates and nitrites, which can be absorbed by the plants.

Murray Hallam out of Australia is also a good resource. Practical Aquaponics.

Sorry I did not see this earlier. This is a great topic.
 
For grow medium I recommend river rock. I can't stand the clay pebbles. One of the most important things you can do is add worms. Red wigglers love this system. They will eat fish poop solids and other nasty debris lurking under the rocks. They clean the system of possible pathogens that would otherwise thrive in an aquaponic environment. I add 3000 lady bugs a month to control aphids and mites. Once your system matures it will create a very stable growing situation. The optimal PH level should settle in at just under 7. Six months will create a decent culture. One year and your system is fully mature. 5 years and you will be growing over a hundred pounds of peppers per plant per year.

In Florida the weather is fairly temperate. My peppers continuously produce roughly 7 to 8 months a year. There is simply no faster or better way to produce hot peppers than an aquaponic garden.

The only mineral a system cannot produce is iron. Which is essential for beautiful plants and peppers. You'll need to add iron chelate every quarter.
 
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