Planting the seeds in your aquaponic garden is much
easier than putting them in the ground. You just have to put them on a netting
pot and … this is it! Then you just have to wait for them to start vegetating
and grow. However, there is one little aspect you must know before placing the
seeds and that is – the ideal moment when the seeds should be planted.
Many people purchase the fish, place them in the
tank and in the same day they also place the seeds in the pots. This is by far
the worst way of approaching aquaponics as the seeds, even though will grow and
develop up to a certain point, they will die in a matter of days after they
finish their own supplies if there are no nutrients in the water on which they
can feed.
Thus, the perfect moment to place the seeds in the
pots is when the fish excrements have turned into nutrients. The process
through which you can obtain nutrients for your plants is quite simple. After
you place the fish into the tanks, they will start freeing excrements into the
water. Because the excrements contain ammonia, they are highly toxic for the
fish. However, do not worry about that, as this issue is solved by nature
itself. There are bacteria which transform the ammonia into nitrites and then
into nitrates. In order for your plants to grow you need nitrates, so once the
process of decomposing and transforming ammonia is over, the water will be
ready to support the plant seeds.
The entire process can take up to 3 months, time in
which you should not place any type of seeds in the pots as they will certainly
die.
There are also ways to speed up the process by inserting nitrates into the
water before the fish excrements can transform. However, many people do not
like to interfere in nature’s way. However, no matter what way you choose, it
is recommended to monitor the amount of ammonia, nitrites and nitrates from the
water, so that you can always know the quality of your water for both your fish
and your vegetables.
Planting the seeds at the right time is essential if
you want good crops and healthy fish, so monitor the quality of your water
permanently, before and after planting. It is the only way through which you
can obtain good crops.
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