Being Self Sustainable in an Urban Setting
So many web sites out there talking about going green and reducing your carbon foot print. I have scoured the net for years and only run into bits and pieces of what it takes for a person to create some self sustainability for them and there family.
This what I am going to do and how I'm going to do it. I'll show what did and did not work here and try and explain why I made such choices on design and materials.
Have question ask me please, I'm still building this page and know there is much more to put on it. Email is watercatwn6535nd@yahoo.com
Goals
Funny or maybe sad I have been growing hydroponically for years and when I asked myself how big a green house I needed to grow in for all four seasons I didn't have a clue. There are many factors in how much you can produce for actual food volume.
To keep the goal of food volume up It will be necessary to grow in hydroponics as it grows plants at a much faster rate than soil. I have bought 55 gallon drums as net pot holders for my plants. This does two things for me. The first is to raise the plant off the ground by 3 ft or so. I don't want to work on my hands and knees gardening. The second is it allows each net pot holder to be a large reservoir for my hydroponic nutrients. Assuming I run the barrels at half full it will give me 25 gallons times about 45 barrels or 1125 gallons of nutrient.
So what I have decided on is about forty varieties of what I'm calling my large plants. I will be using plants that are self pollinators so that I do not need two of the same plants unless I just want more volume. I'm a giant fan of vine plants such as tomato, cucumber, watermelon etc. In a growing room environment of four seasons were not talking about actually having four seasons but one season of summer all year around or as close to it as you can afford for heating.
Plants will flower and produce fruit until they see frost or light reduction signaling to them that winter is approaching. This is why at the equator they grow year around with the same light virtually year around and warm temps. Think of your grow room as your own personal farm property in BRAZIL. In studies by ivy league colleges funded by some large AG company's out to save all of us came up with a green house producing tomatoes with a heated floor or root base at 70f would still produce full volume fruiting and growth with air temps around the leaves at 48f with a roof temp of a 55f. I find this amazing because it means you barley have to heat a green house and that your heating needs to be in piping under your rows.
The taller your green house the easier it is to heat it? WHAT! In the canopy/roof of the grow room is where you store your energy
This what I am going to do and how I'm going to do it. I'll show what did and did not work here and try and explain why I made such choices on design and materials.
Have question ask me please, I'm still building this page and know there is much more to put on it. Email is watercatwn6535nd@yahoo.com
Goals
- Produce the over whelming majority of fresh meat/fish
- Produce the over whelming majority of fresh vegetables
- Produce the over whelming majority of fresh fruit
- Pass these skills off to the kids for there future
- Construct a fully climate controlled Grow or green house
- Construct a Fish or aquaponic's house
- Construct a hen house for eggs
- Minimize trash through buying practices as well as recycling and composting
Funny or maybe sad I have been growing hydroponically for years and when I asked myself how big a green house I needed to grow in for all four seasons I didn't have a clue. There are many factors in how much you can produce for actual food volume.
- Actual square footage of your grow house
- Lowest temp your grow room will fall to on it's coldest outside day of the year
- How close your crop rows are
- soil or soil-less media
- heated soil or nutrient's in winter and chilled hydro nutrient in summer
- CO2 enrichment in soil or air
- quality of nutrients
- delivery of nutrient as well as testing for nutrient levels
- Type of air circulation
- type of heat, air conditioning & venting
To keep the goal of food volume up It will be necessary to grow in hydroponics as it grows plants at a much faster rate than soil. I have bought 55 gallon drums as net pot holders for my plants. This does two things for me. The first is to raise the plant off the ground by 3 ft or so. I don't want to work on my hands and knees gardening. The second is it allows each net pot holder to be a large reservoir for my hydroponic nutrients. Assuming I run the barrels at half full it will give me 25 gallons times about 45 barrels or 1125 gallons of nutrient.
So what I have decided on is about forty varieties of what I'm calling my large plants. I will be using plants that are self pollinators so that I do not need two of the same plants unless I just want more volume. I'm a giant fan of vine plants such as tomato, cucumber, watermelon etc. In a growing room environment of four seasons were not talking about actually having four seasons but one season of summer all year around or as close to it as you can afford for heating.
Plants will flower and produce fruit until they see frost or light reduction signaling to them that winter is approaching. This is why at the equator they grow year around with the same light virtually year around and warm temps. Think of your grow room as your own personal farm property in BRAZIL. In studies by ivy league colleges funded by some large AG company's out to save all of us came up with a green house producing tomatoes with a heated floor or root base at 70f would still produce full volume fruiting and growth with air temps around the leaves at 48f with a roof temp of a 55f. I find this amazing because it means you barley have to heat a green house and that your heating needs to be in piping under your rows.
The taller your green house the easier it is to heat it? WHAT! In the canopy/roof of the grow room is where you store your energy