Alert Reader MR sent me a link to something called foodrising.org, which appears to be pushing a simple and small-scale hydroponic gardening system that looks like it would be very interesting if only one were willing to subscribe, give the proprietor enough personal information to hound one to the ends of the earth, and spend one’s limited bandwidth listening to lengthy Castroesque eco-activism sermons. This, alas, does not include me.
What’s puzzling here is that construction of these simple-seeming devices requires access to 3-D printers, which few Americans and (I would guess) no third-worlders possess. But what I can see of them looks like they could be built from stuff easily available in any dollar store. So maybe there are levels of complexity hidden to me but revealed in the no-doubt enlightening videos. Which I did not and will not watch.
But enjoy, if that’s your thing.
Doesn’t sound promising there, but container gardening is not rocket science. And yes, you can get most of what you need from a dollar store and any nursery or home improvement store. The key is still good soil, water, sun and a range of growing conditions that will allow plants to grow. Insect and disease control are generally trickier in containers.
I don’t know anything much about hydroponics. Never had any desire to get into it, though some of the fish and plant combinations are interesting. Requires considerable time and investment in equipment and maintenance, from what I can see. Not practical outdoors in my climate.
Just remembered… had a friend once in the desert who owned six big hydroponic greenhouses. He grew mostly those long, fancy Japanese cucumbers. Shipped out tons of them. They were pretty, but mostly tasteless – but expensive. Don’t see how that’s any answer to home gardening myself. 🙂
Kratky Method of hydroponics might be of more interest to you because the hydroponic solution is non-circulating. One you-tube-r said the foods he grew this way tasted the same as the stuff he was growing in the ground. https://www.youtube.com/user/mhpgardener/videos
Sorry foiks I’m the MR that Joel was writing about.
I first saw this site on Gizmag http://www.gizmag.com/food-rising-min-farm-grow-box/36259/ this morning.
I clicked on the link and went to see the way one would grow things hydroponically without all the bells and whistles. First I was forced to subscribe. Note that all they want is an email address, so I used an email address generator that will forward the emails to me without using my real email address that will expire in a few days. Then I sat down and watched some movies where the inventor explains how to do this. I have to say that I fast forwarded quiet a bit to reduce this guy’s drivel. Then I found out that one of the parts has to be made with the use of a 3D printer. That was when I decided to forward the link to Joel in the hope that he or one of you would think of a workaround idea because I want to try and make one of these but I don’t want to buy a 3D printer.
The sad thing is that there looks to be a lot of potential for this to work but the inventor is not in touch with reality and is an environmental Nazi.
Nothing to apologize for, MJR. I was making fun of the site, not you. 🙂
Back in my ‘rebel’ days I worked with a lot of wanna-be cannabis growers that swore by hydroponics. It seemed like they spent most of their time fiddling with pH, adding this and that, constantly sanitizing equipment etc. I would always joke that hydro would work really well if you were an astronaut stuck on the moon with nothing else to do.
That being said, I see a similar situation with this device. Yes, it is cool that you *could* in theory grow food out of it. The 3d printing aspect is definitely neato too but, as has been pointed out, this tech isn’t quite available in the developed world let alone anywhere else.
The one part that @MJR is referring to is probably some sort of spray head for the submersible pump. There are several different hydro techniques — flood, thin film, spray — from the look of it I would say this is probably a spray type as the other two require large external holding tanks for the water/nutrient mix.
Maybe I’m missing the point here, but wouldn’t a bucket of dirt work pretty good? Y’know, like: put dirt in pot, put seed in dirt, water ‘n light. Eat results. We grew a bunch of tomato plants and the only “hydro” involved came outta the garden hose. I can’t afford a 1-D printer let alone something involving higher dimensions.