Plants With Wet Feet

An Aquaponics Papaya or Pawpaw tree heavily laden with fruit.

I want to be able to grow fruit trees as well vegetables. As you can see, I am having wonderful success with the Paw Paw (papaya) trees.

I’ve got a good friend who is a retired Paw Paw (papaya) grower from way up in North Queensland and he came and told me that we simply could not grow Paw Paws (papaya) in this environment because, evidently, Paw Paws (papaya) don’t like wet feet.

Have you heard that expression, “you can’t grow that plant in those conditions as it doesn’t like wet feet”?

It would be more correct to say that the plant does not like lack of oxygen around its roots!

If we are running a flood and drain system, where we flood the bed and then drain the bed, we flood the bed, we drain the bed, over and over, continuously.

Look at these beauties. Yes...grown in Aquaponics media beds 300mm (1') deep.
Amazing.

What we are actually doing is delivering water and nutrients every time we flood the bed, and loads of fresh oxygen is being delivered every time we drain the bed. The plants that just should not grow in a very moist environment actually grow extremely well, why? Because they are getting all the nutrients that they want, all the water they want, and they are actually getting all the oxygen they want around their roots. That’s how we have been able to grow Paw Paws (papaya) so successfully.

Posted By Murray Hallam on 11th August 2014

Updated : 26th June 2019 | Words : 256 | Views : 4141

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