Suburban Aquaponics Replacing River Rock and Transplanting Crops

I went through the process of removing, bucket by bucket, the river rock that has caused me much trouble over the past several months. I am replacing it with something called beechwood pebbles that I am getting from a local landscape supply for $90 per yard. My system took almost one full yard to fill but the good news is that this new stone is much lighter! I will be adjusting my system pH in the coming weeks and planting out some new crops.

The river rock that has been in my system keeps the pH locked at 8.2 and there is nothing I could do to bring it down lower than that. The limestone and other fossils mixed in with the rock I purchased at Home Depot were the cause. I later learned that this was a source or calcium carbonate and that it would constantly bring the system pH up and out of the preferred range of 6.5-7.

Over the past several months, I have been slowly switching out the four grow beds and it has been quite a process. All of the new rock has to be washed and sorted (to get out the smallest pieces) and then hauled downstairs to our basement in a bucket. Prior to that, the old rock has to be hauled up and out of the basement bucket by bucket and then the grow beds cleaned up.

I am excited for the upcoming winter growing season and look forward to bring you all along, thanks for stopping by and watching!

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Suburban Aquaponics Transplanting and Root Development

Ever wonder how easy it is to move plants around in an aquaponics grow bed?  Ever wonder what the roots look like in plants that do not grow in dirt, but in rocks and water?  This video shows the process of transplanting and moving plants around the aquaponics system and also what the roots look like with aquaponics plants.


I have had pretty good luck moving things around in the system thus far and have learned a few tricks to ensuring the plants survival when moving. The kale and celery plants have fairly small root systems and since the plants do not have to work very hard to find water or nutrients they do not normally grow extensive roots with most varieties. I have heard that mint however will quickly take over an entire grow bed with extensive root systems even in aquaponics.

I added the new grow media to our fourth grow bed and its now ready for plants, so I thought it would be the perfect time to show how easy it is to transplant them.  Since it does take time for the rocks to build up the necessary nitrifying bacteria, I will be slowly changing out the rock in the other three grow beds over the next couple of months.

I have found that gently scooping as far under the plants as possible and slowly lifting up from underneath will preserve the most roots when moving the plants around. You are bound to break some of the finer roots especially with the larger river rock that I am dealing with. Once transplanted however they seem to recover fairly quickly with about a week of daze or stunted growth.

Thanks for watching and if you have any questions or comments please let me know!

This post has been shared at:  The HomeAcre Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, The Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Simple Saturdays Blog Hop, Homestead Barn Hop, Natural Living Monday

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