Here is a good trick to harvest your aquaponics vegetables without losing the whole plant.
The classic way
In agriculture the plants such as lettuce are picked when they reach their “adult size”. In aquaponics we have access to our garden whenever we want so we can allow ourselves a special vegetables harvest technique. Leafy plants such as spinach, lettuce, silver-beet, cabbage, etc… are constantly growing new leaves from the center while the old leaves on the side are slowly wilting.
The vegetables harvest technique adapted to aquaponics
vegetables harvest aquaponics
As we grow our plants in our backyard, we can easily harvest the oldest leaves every day before they wilt and preserve the young leaves. This technique allows you to extend the life of your plants. As a result, it significantly increase the production per plant. It will decrease the need of planting new seedlings and ensure a continuous sustainable production. By picking the oldest leaves you make your whole system more self-sufficient.
Not for all plants
Some other plants such as mint are more “Invasive”. Hence, they will colonize your whole growbed if you use this same technique. For the strong invasive plants you will have to harvest the whole plant with the roots and leave only a very small part. You want to manage those and avoid them to take over the other species.
Apply the most adapted technique in function of the particularity of the species you are growing 🙂
You will probably be interested to discover Jonathan’s six steps to build and manage an Aquaponics system. Click here to access for free! Thanks and good reading 🙂
