Yes Dan it be interesting to note what your grandfather wrote. Most folks don't realize just what great yields plants can produce with the right applications of fertilizer, N,P &K and some micro nutrients. And of course using hybridized varieties does also help. (especially with uniformity and size variation) I've said it before here with tomatoes 20lb per plant is an optimum yield to strive for with determinate cropping. That be 40 half pound tomatoes on every plant. Most folks be proud to get 10...tomatoes that is. :laughing: This summer I forgot I had hose running in a barrel of water with soluble fert I was mixing up, it overflowed for awhile into the garden there were two tomato plants nearby. It's unbelievable how much bigger and greener and productive those two were over the rest of the garden!
But of course the weeds got that much bigger too!
There was a story in either Progressive Farmer, or maybe one of the farming "magazines" JD sends me, about fertilizing equipment that looked at a plant and then applied the correct amount of nutrients for that one single plant. The equipment minimizes the amount of fertilizer the farmer has to use which minimizes his expenses and maximized profits. The equipment should also greatly reduce if not eliminate nutrient runoff which affects water sources and wastes the farmers money.
I think it was in these same farming magazines where they were talking about how GPS controlled tractors allow very precise row placement which maximizes yield as well.
Disney World has an attraction at EPOCT in the Land Pavilion and there is a Behind the Seeds tour that shows what is going on behind the attraction. We have done this tour twice and will do it again in the future. Disney grows a variety of plants and veggies with several hydroponic techniques as well as has some aquaculture in several green houses that are part of, and behind, the attraction. This is really small scale in that it is not really feeding many people though they do use the produce in Disney restaurants. The last tour we took had a couple from Asheville, NC that owned a small produce operation and they were looking at what Disney was doing to use in their business. They asked quite a few questions and obviously had been doing research. I don't know the ECONOMICS of hydroponics but it sure is interesting.
I bought a text book on the hydroponics 20 years ago and we would love to have a green house providing fresh veggies in the winter. We had some land cleared two summers back and I have finally had some time to start cleaning up the mess. I have been cutting up the trees into firewood and got to a point where I could start building a burn pile over the holidays. Unfortunately, the winter rain has arrived the ground is a soggy, swampy mess. I was able to build a small pile but had to quit when I was making a mess with the tractor and it was becoming more and more likely I might actually get the tractor stuck.
Anywho, once the mess is cleaned up, we will expand the garden so that we have two garden spaces so we can rotate growing seasons as well as have a proper chicken run for the hens. We want to have a few fruit trees and build a green house as well which I think will use at least some hydroponics.
The store I buy my home brew supplies is also a garden supply. They have conventional yuppie garden supplies for people who live in the city but also have a huge selection of hydroponic supplies. About a third of the store is hydroponics. :confused3: I doubt the people buying the hydroponics are growing tomatoes. :laughing::laughing::laughing: They have equipment that will convert a closet into a grow room which seems like a pretty big expense to just grow tomatoes in a closet. What COULD people be growing in closets. :confused3::laughing::laughing::laughing: The store is in a university town. In fact, the store is part of a small chain of stores that in a few university towns. I wonder if that has anything to do with their target demographic for hydroponics?
Later,
Dan
