Hydroponic and/or solar-powered container gardening?

allterrainbrain — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 01:26:04 -0800

Solar-powered and/or hydroponic apartment gardening: have you done it or something like it? Do you like or dislike any commercial solar kits or hydroponics kits, or suppliers of seeds & equipment for container gardening? I'm good with plants, but I haven't gardened with a focus on producing food since I was a kid. I've started doing research on container gardening, minimal solar systems, and hydroponics -- both on mefi & elsewhere. I'm looking to set up a system that will pay for itself within a couple of years (cost of all the gear vs. what I'd pay for the amount of organic produce it produces), so we're probably talking under $1000.

So this question is about putting those three elements together with budget as a big factor, and about specific crops to try. I'm thinking cherry tomatoes, strawberries, basil, mint -- generally, any stuff I like that's both expensive to buy organic and decently efficient to grow in a container.

Have you done this or anything like it?? What were your successes & failures? Do you recommend any particular suppliers of hydroponic kits, solar kits, or seeds?

For reference: I'm in NYC, facing south-by-southwest with sun all day; I pay for my own electricity; and I have only a fire escape (no balcony), so I can only put very minimal amounts of stuff outside -- we're talking shallow windowboxes plus hydroponic containers just inside the windows with additional (artificial) lighting. Thanks for all thoughts!

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anapestic — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 14:41:34 -0800

Why do the seeds of a green bean behave the way they do when the been is halved? May contain more information than dedicated carnivores can handle. Last night, while waiting for the turkey to be done, we were starting on the green beans, and, because I was bored, I was splitting my green beans in half, lengthwise, by pulling so that they opened along the seams. I ate perhaps fifteen beans this way, and in every case, the seeds would adhere to the fleshy part of the pod in such a way that if the first seed went left, all odd-numbered seeds went left, and all even-numbered seeds went right. If the first bean went right, the opposite happened. I can think of no mechanism to cause this behavior. I would expect either all of the seeds to adhere to one side of the pod or for the seeds to adhere randomly to one side or the other. Anyone got a clue?

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Hydroponic and/or solar-powered container gardening?

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