Aquaponics is ideal for growing a wide variety of plants, both indoors and outdoors. Some varieties adapt particularly well to this soilless growing method, with a constant supply of nutrient-rich water.
By combining aquaculture and hydroponics, aquaponics offers a perfectly balanced ecosystem, ideal for growing a wide variety of plants. Choosing the right plants is essential to ensure system stability, water quality, and satisfactory plant production. Some plants adapt better than others to this humid, nutrient-rich environment, which can sometimes fluctuate in temperature. Here's an overview of the plants best suited to growing in your aquaponic system, whether for home or professional use.
For beginners, it's advisable to start with easy-to-grow plants. The goal is to facilitate the system's establishment while ensuring an encouraging first harvest.
Leafy green vegetables are undoubtedly the undisputed stars of aquaponic systems. Their rapid growth, moderate nutrient requirements, adaptability, and ability to stabilize the nitrogen cycle make them perfect allies for both beginners and experienced aquaponic growers. Furthermore, they offer excellent yields with minimal effort.
Lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, chard, mustard greens…
All these leafy vegetables have vigorous growth and are often harvested continuously, which maximizes their profitability. They are also essential to the balance of the system, as they efficiently absorb nitrates produced by the fish, thus reducing nitrogen spikes and helping to maintain healthy water.
Herbs are among the most popular plants in aquaponics. Their high culinary value, rapid growth, and modest nutritional requirements make them ideal candidates.
Like leafy vegetables, they can be grown with few nutrients and adapt well to a young system that is still stabilising. Another significant advantage: most of these plants can be harvested progressively, leaf by leaf, without compromising their development. This allows continuous production over several weeks, or even several months. Highly valued for their culinary usefulness, they also bring an aesthetic and aromatic dimension to the system. Their rapid development and tolerance for constant moisture make them high-value crops, whether for personal consumption or local resale.
Basil, mint, parsley, coriander, chives, dill…
All these herbs grow particularly well in well-oxygenated grow beds, benefiting from the directly absorbable nutrients in the water.
Fruiting vegetables are more demanding in terms of light, nutrients, and heat, but growing them in a mature aquaponic system can be extremely rewarding. They often require physical support (a hydroponic growing block or coconut fiber) and good climate control, but in return offer abundant and colorful harvests.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, chili peppers, eggplants…
All these plants belong to the Solanaceae or Cucurbitaceae family, two large families that adapt very well to aquaponics provided that the system is well established.
Aquaponics isn't limited to traditional leaves and fruits ! Many "secondary" or complementary plants can also enrich your system. These crops often allow you to play with crop rotations, optimize space, or add sweet and unique touches to your harvests.
Aquaponics allows for the cultivation of a wide range of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and aromatic plants, but it is not universally suitable for all plant species. Some plants are particularly ill-suited to this type of environment due to their specific substrate requirements, their sensitivity to humidity, or their growth patterns being unsuitable for aquaponic systems.
At the top of the list are root and bulb vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, onions, turnips, radishes, and beets. In a constantly irrigated bed, roots and tubers are at risk of becoming deformed, rotting, or remaining stunted. Indeed, constant moisture is not conducive to their development, as it prevents the natural aeration of the soil.
Other slow-growing plants, or those with invasive root systems, should also be avoided. Fruit trees, shrubs, or large plants are not suitable for a home aquaponics system, as their anchorage requires deep, stable soil, often incompatible with the lightweight substrates used, such as expanded clay pebbles. Their longevity and size make them difficult to manage in a tank or aquaponic tower.
Some species require conditions that aquaponics cannot provide. This is the case for plants that prefer dry or acidic soils , such as certain heather plants (e.g., blueberries , rhododendrons , azaleas ), or cacti , which will not thrive in a continuously humid environment.
To get the most from your aquaponic growing, it pays to think through your choices against several key criteria:
Sources
Tsoumalakou et al., Precise Monitoring of Lettuce Functional Responses to Minimal Nutrient Supplementation, Agriculture, 2022, Measured yields on lettuce and identification of iron and potassium as limiting nutrients.
Yang and Kim, Characterizing Nutrient Composition and Concentration in Tomato-, Basil-, and Lettuce-Based Aquaponic and Hydroponic Systems, Water, 2020, Comparison of nitrogen concentrations and conductivity between aquaponics and hydroponics.
University of Latvia et projet TransFarm, Plants in Aquaponics : Selection, Requirements and Limitations, Comparative light requirements of crop groups and recommended photoperiods.
New Mexico State University, Aquaponics, Circular 680, Typical nitrate range and water parameters in aquaponic growing.
University of Florida IFAS, A Practical Guide for Aquaponics as an Alternative Enterprise, HS1252, Ratio between feed rate and sustainable growing area.
SMIDAP, Rapport du programme OPRA 2 sur l'aquaponie, French grower feedback on crop management and batch succession.
It is possible with larger seeds, but germination rates remain low. Germinate separately in rockwool or a sponge, then transplant at the three true-leaf stage.
Published figures give an honest order of magnitude. A Greek trial published in the journal Agriculture in 2022 measured, for lettuce in aquaponics, around 1.2 kg per square metre with no nutritional supplements, 1.5 kg with chelated iron alone, and 2.6 kg when both iron and potassium were supplied together. The same tank, the same variety, and more than double the harvest depending solely on nutritional management.
This gap is explained by water composition. Analyses published in the journal Water in 2020 recorded around 75 mg per litre of potassium in an aquaponic solution, against 333 mg in the reference hydroponic solution. A tank's yield therefore depends less on the variety chosen than on whichever nutrient runs short first. A well-stocked system that is never supplemented can plateau at half of what it could produce, with nothing appearing visibly wrong.
For a domestic kitchen garden, keep two benchmarks in mind. A growing area only makes sense when related to the ration fed to the fish, since that is what determines the quantity of nutrients available. And a disappointing harvest should be diagnosed first on the nutrients side, rarely on the seed side.
Mixed planting works if you follow three principles:
One bed for leaves and herbs, one bed for fruiting crops: the split is less dramatic, but noticeably more productive.
Outdoors, insects take care of pollination. In a closed greenhouse or indoors, they don't: flowers drop without setting fruit. Gently shake tomato stems each day during the warmest hours, or use a soft brush from flower to flower for cucumbers and courgettes. A simple fan circulating air for a few hours a day is often enough for solanaceous plants.
Sow a small batch every two to three weeks rather than one large batch all at once. This avoids the production gap that follows a heavy harvest, and gradually removing plants prevents the sudden drop in nitrate uptake caused by clearing an entire bed in one go.
Nothing suggests it does, and the comparison actually favours aquaponics. Analyses published in the journal Water in 2020 recorded approximately 110 mg per litre of nitrate nitrogen in aquaponics versus 200 mg in the reference hydroponic solution, with an electrical conductivity two to three times lower. Extension publications place the typical operating range between 5 and 150 ppm of nitrates.
The nitrate content of a lettuce depends above all on the light it receives in the days before harvest. Harvest at the end of the day and in clear weather rather than in the morning after a dull week.
Soil-free and fed by fish water, strawberries grow clean, fragrant and within easy reach. With the right varieties and a few key conditions, it's one of the most rewarding crops you can grow in
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