Last June we finished up our 30 X 50' Conley greenhouse. Why so big? Well the kit was only $6200 and a 12 X 18 hobby type greenhouse was almost $12,000 in kit form. So anyhow I more or less built the greenhouse for my girlfriend who suffers from the winter blahs! Thought it might be a good place to hang out in winter and get a little sun and humidity while growing some plants.
Well in the earlier winter months, we tried to keep the temperature at 55 F just to save heating costs. Nothing really was growing much - just kind of static and it was't a really comfortable place to hang out. Looked at the whole picture and decided that heck - we weren't enjoying the greenhouse for what we wanted it for. Soooo Up went the thermostat!
We now keep the thermostat at 68F and with the sun's help it is always 72 to 85F during the daytime. Anyhow the plants perked up and we have all kinds of things blooming and enjoying... So as one thing lead to another I got hooked on hydroponics!
I bought a drip type grower on eBay for $30 and that was the start of it all. Right now I have 4 tomato plants in this unit that were started 12/30/02. This plants are now about 5/8" diameter at the base and about 3' high and loaded with blooms. Along with this initial expenditure - I found a used 400W HID (Hi Intensity Discharge) - Metal Halide grow light on good old eBay and we were off and running.
Next I added a 4 tray aeroponics unit that holds 24 lettuce plants. In less than a month the lettuce is in the salad bowl. Aeroponic units have little sprayers that spray the nutrient on the roots of the plants give a very high level of oxygen on the roots and extreme fast growth. The dang lettuce looked soooo good I added an 8 tray unit with another 48 places for plants. Originally we had 32 lettuce plants in it and 12 basil plants. Hah here is how an addiction goes: By mistake the aeroponics unit came in three boxes and one box was the wrong one. It was a smaller ebb and flow unit. I called the dealer and he agreed to pay the shipping cost back to him and send out the correct box with the rest of the parts for the aero unit. Well... I looked at that box for about 10 days and finally decided to put the dang thing together.
We put pole green beans in it and in 5 weeks the darn beans have climbed to the overhead supports in the greenhouse at the 10' height and are just loaded with baby beans and more blooms. It looks like 6 plants will fill the freezer! The growth is just incredible! Never a week passes that we don't have to help with the training of the vines. In addition, we put 4 French Melon plants in this unit and they are blooming and half way to the overhead supports now.
Anyhow I was running out of room again! Ended up buying a second Ebb & Flow unit and now have that filled with 18" high basil. My gosh it is good in salads!
You might wonder what I'm going to do with all that lettuce and basil... Well, I wondered the same until I saw the plants! They are so beautiful that they are irresistable! We took the first crop of lettuce (that which we didn't eat) and put the heads in nice little crispers and just went down our street and gave everyone a sample. Well, now we have to ad more units and soon another greenhouse!
Attended commercial growers training at CropKing that makes commercial greenhouses and hydroponics units and we are now considering putting up a 1/4 acre 4 bay unit that will crank out about 6000 heads of lettuce a month. Gheesh so that's what I did with my summer vacation and haven't been around here lately.
It is wonderful fun and I love seeing things grow so well. It seems that one taste is all it takes and people love it! I used to be a dairy farmer in Iowa and I guess farming stays in the blood. Mkes one feel really good offering a product to people and hearing comments like, "It is too pretty to eat"! In fact with the Bibb Lettuce and Basil combo with some green pepper, cucumber and tomato cut in I have reduced the amount of salad dressing I use. Don't want to mask any of these good flavors.
If you all want to have some fun and try growing some nutritious clean food - try hydroponics - you'll be amazed and probably hopelessly addicted!
Oh yes we use no pesticides - we use beneficial insects to destroy the bad bugs. A week ago we released 2000 LadyBugs. Boy did they have fun eating aphids!
More later...
DrDan /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
One of our "Green Kids" - Bibb Lettuce
Well in the earlier winter months, we tried to keep the temperature at 55 F just to save heating costs. Nothing really was growing much - just kind of static and it was't a really comfortable place to hang out. Looked at the whole picture and decided that heck - we weren't enjoying the greenhouse for what we wanted it for. Soooo Up went the thermostat!
We now keep the thermostat at 68F and with the sun's help it is always 72 to 85F during the daytime. Anyhow the plants perked up and we have all kinds of things blooming and enjoying... So as one thing lead to another I got hooked on hydroponics!
I bought a drip type grower on eBay for $30 and that was the start of it all. Right now I have 4 tomato plants in this unit that were started 12/30/02. This plants are now about 5/8" diameter at the base and about 3' high and loaded with blooms. Along with this initial expenditure - I found a used 400W HID (Hi Intensity Discharge) - Metal Halide grow light on good old eBay and we were off and running.
Next I added a 4 tray aeroponics unit that holds 24 lettuce plants. In less than a month the lettuce is in the salad bowl. Aeroponic units have little sprayers that spray the nutrient on the roots of the plants give a very high level of oxygen on the roots and extreme fast growth. The dang lettuce looked soooo good I added an 8 tray unit with another 48 places for plants. Originally we had 32 lettuce plants in it and 12 basil plants. Hah here is how an addiction goes: By mistake the aeroponics unit came in three boxes and one box was the wrong one. It was a smaller ebb and flow unit. I called the dealer and he agreed to pay the shipping cost back to him and send out the correct box with the rest of the parts for the aero unit. Well... I looked at that box for about 10 days and finally decided to put the dang thing together.
We put pole green beans in it and in 5 weeks the darn beans have climbed to the overhead supports in the greenhouse at the 10' height and are just loaded with baby beans and more blooms. It looks like 6 plants will fill the freezer! The growth is just incredible! Never a week passes that we don't have to help with the training of the vines. In addition, we put 4 French Melon plants in this unit and they are blooming and half way to the overhead supports now.
Anyhow I was running out of room again! Ended up buying a second Ebb & Flow unit and now have that filled with 18" high basil. My gosh it is good in salads!
You might wonder what I'm going to do with all that lettuce and basil... Well, I wondered the same until I saw the plants! They are so beautiful that they are irresistable! We took the first crop of lettuce (that which we didn't eat) and put the heads in nice little crispers and just went down our street and gave everyone a sample. Well, now we have to ad more units and soon another greenhouse!
Attended commercial growers training at CropKing that makes commercial greenhouses and hydroponics units and we are now considering putting up a 1/4 acre 4 bay unit that will crank out about 6000 heads of lettuce a month. Gheesh so that's what I did with my summer vacation and haven't been around here lately.
It is wonderful fun and I love seeing things grow so well. It seems that one taste is all it takes and people love it! I used to be a dairy farmer in Iowa and I guess farming stays in the blood. Mkes one feel really good offering a product to people and hearing comments like, "It is too pretty to eat"! In fact with the Bibb Lettuce and Basil combo with some green pepper, cucumber and tomato cut in I have reduced the amount of salad dressing I use. Don't want to mask any of these good flavors.
If you all want to have some fun and try growing some nutritious clean food - try hydroponics - you'll be amazed and probably hopelessly addicted!
Oh yes we use no pesticides - we use beneficial insects to destroy the bad bugs. A week ago we released 2000 LadyBugs. Boy did they have fun eating aphids!
More later...
DrDan /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
One of our "Green Kids" - Bibb Lettuce
