There are a lot of aphids on the growbed and on top of the plants. The taro plants have grown really tall and the leaves are partially brown and shriveled. Some leaves are extremely tall and green.

Our Aquaponics systems are not doing very well. Although our plants are continuing to grow, the plants in grow bed 2 are dying and have lots of aphids. Grow bed 1 is doing much better than grow bed 2 and there are not as much aphids. The plants in grow bed 2 are much smaller & more of them are a yellow/brown color. For making laulau, I think that at this time it would be impossible to make anything out of the leaves that are in grow bed 2 because of the aphids. There is also a lot of moss around the roots of the taro plants and that is probably not helping with the aphids or the healthy growth of the plants. Over all, our system is still dying and we need to think of a new solution to the aphid infestation and decay of our leaves.

11/5/10

Most of our taro plants looked doomed. Their leaves have turned brown and they seem to be rotting. However, the taro seems to keep growing and getting taller. The leaves that survived are also growing larger.

Plant 1 is 52 cm with 4 leaves

Plant 2 is 45 cm with 3 leaves

Plant 3 is 37 cm with 1 leaf

Plant 4 is 40 cm with 4 leaves

Plant 5 is 42 cm with 2 leaves

11/3/10

The number of aphids is increasing and the plants look like theyre dying. Also many of the leaves are turning brown and yellow. There arent many new leaves spouting. Parts of the leaves are also breaking up creating holes.

Leaves

1- Height-50 cm Leaves-4

2- Height-38 cm Leaves-3

3- Height-36 cm Leaves-1

4- Height-37 cm Leaves-4

5- Height-40 cm Leaves-2

The plants are infested with aphids. Right now we are trying to get rid of all the aphids because they are killing the taro. We decided to introduce ladybugs in to our system in order to fight off the aphid infestation but right now it is still in the early stages and our taro is covered with them. It's not as bad as it use to be but the taro is still covered in the aphids.

So our Taro is infested by aphids and they are starting to kill the plants. As you can see the plants are covered in them and its starting become a problem. One way we can help this problem is by getting lady bugs since our spray doesn't seem to be helping.

Current progress: Leaves been growing more and more each update. More leaves were grown, it grew taller, but more leaves are starting to die.