Days for Gardening

[Marianne]

We live in central Kansas. We're zone 6 here, official frost free date is May 15. Most of the gardeners plant earlier than that. Some years you get to plant tomatoes twice. A lot of the gardening is over by August because of the heat. 110F or more is not uncommon in July. Some years it's not too bad and if you water faithfully and have a lot of mulch, some things will make a comeback when it cools down a bit.

Our winters get down to -10. It's the wind that makes it so nasty. I would love to have a greenhouse, too. I have hopes that one day we can convert a small, southern exposure room in our shop to a greenhouse to extend the growing period. Clear panels on the roof, painting the back concrete block wall black, etc, etc. I do have a little cast iron wood stove in that room already, but I don't want another wood burner to deal with! I was going to try planting in straw bales to see if I could have fresh tomatoes as late as December.

This year is weird. Hit 90 a while back, freeze warning a couple nights ago, blizzard out west. I hate the wind.

 

[brandylorton]

Apply hydroponics and see you will not have to wait for any season to change as it is indoor and completely in your hands what to change and which kind of changes needed. So that is why i say hydroponics is the best.

 

[Icu4dzs]

Apply hydroponics and see you will not have to wait for any season to change as it is indoor and completely in your hands what to change and which kind of changes needed. So that is why i say hydroponics is the best.

Clearly, hydroponics is a desirable and very technically impressive science. The question that remains "how can people adapt it to the environments that we have, being self-sufficient?

Most of us will be able to go out and buy some PVC piping, and other items like plastic containers and tubes but the idea is that if we want to become more self-sufficient rather than dependent on somebody who is making a product we need to know exactly what kind of designs are available?

I examined the website that you listed at the bottom of your post but all I saw were things like grow tents which are basically insulated reflective room liners for growing things indoors. It did not look to me like there was any kind of hydroponic equipment available on your website... at least none that I recognize. Did I miss something?

Additionally, all of the prices on your website were in "pounds sterling" which leads me to believe that the shipping of anything we would want to buy there might be extraordinarily expensive.

Personally, I am at the point where I am ready to start building a hydroponic garden, probably in the cellar of my house because of the extreme cold which comprise the majority of my seasons. I have a very short growing cycle and I have to maximize the best I can. certainly, hydroponics would be the answer to that but then the problem becomes getting enough sunlight. Getting the sunlight or artificial light then is the real difference because light has to be available in order to make things grow. I would however be very interested in knowing a great deal more about different colored LEDs providing adequate light to plants to make them grow. I know I saw some literature about experiments with different colored lights in Europe but I did not get any more information about it as yet. Perhaps you could share some of your knowledge on the subject of various color light for various different product in the garden.

Perhaps you can also share some design concepts of a hydroponic garden on a small scale in the individual home. My guess, is that the majority of people could raise maybe 5 to 10 plants inside the home which would each produce enough vegetables to carry them through the winter assuming they could maximize their growth potential. Given the fact that tomatoes are a perennial actually it seems reasonable to grow tomatoes all year round as long as the hydroponic garden will allow that. Peppers and some of the other vegetables while being extremely important because of their vitamin content maybe a little more difficult to raise indoors but I know it can be done because I saw it when I went to the Epcot Center in Disney World many years ago.
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[SSDreamin]

A while back, I saw a clever system for sale on CL. I showed it to DH, who said he could easily build that (which is code for 'No, you can't buy it but, sometime in the distant future I MAY have the time to make you one' ) The guy took two totes - looked to be maybe 13 gallon size - must've used a hole saw to drill hole's up high on one side of each. Rigged up some PVC, that he'd drilled holes in, between them. Our best guess was, an elbow and a straight pipe down to the bottom of the tote, and an aquarium pump in each for circulation. Seemed easy and cheap to put together, and he was asking $175!

 

[brandylorton]

Yes you are right and thanks for such an informative post here. It has got so much information in it . I am glad to see you.

 

[Icu4dzs]

Apparently, AQUAponics has become very viable. You get fish to eat and fresh vegetables from a basically "closed system". The fluids circulate between the fish giving them fresh water that has been filtered through the garden and the garden gets the fertilizing benefits of the waste produced by the fish.
There is a very interesting article in a magazine called "Farm Show" which sells a complete system for $3000. As SSDreamin' says, it is easy to build if you have the inclination and the skill so I just thought it might be an interesting subject. There is a group on Yahoo for this subject if any one really wants to know more about it.
Just sayin'
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[rhoda_bruce]

I used to know the exact # of growing days. I can only tell you its over 300. Last winter we had grass until spring started up again. I can pretty much have a garden going all year. But the bad news is my summer electric bills are over 400 and we see 100F several days. And a lot of times the plants need protection from the sun. You can have too much of a good thing.

 

[Denim Deb]

One of these days I might look into it, but as of right now, I just don't have the time.

 

[Denim Deb]

Brandylorton, what all do you grow in your system? Can you tell us more about it? And, do you have any other methods of raising plants? Where are you located?

 

[brandylorton]

I am located at usa georgia. so location is not a problem at all but the thing is that i am just a beginner and i don not have a big setup there. I grow potato and tomato in my indoor hp garden and i am quite happy with results.