Plants, Green Houses, and Solarpunk aesthetic

[Oasisboi]

Well well well, you all have asked for a greenhouse thread and I have delivered. Mind you this isn't MY greenhouse I just refer to it as such because I manage it. It's a part of a high school program where students learn about plants and how to care/propagate, I just stop in after-hours to save/water any plants that the kids forgot. I also care for the aquaponics and hydroponics systems that are in it. Don't get paid much but I love stopping in to clear my head. Usually, I play some lofi that's between 115Hz and 250Hz.so the plants have something to vibe to while I work.

Here is my tour video I made attempting to explain the layout.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC9jz0TJYRc

 

[punishedgnome]

That's a sweet greenhouse.

I always wanted a small greenhouse. I'd like to grow tomatoes, but our last frost is too late in the year to grow them outside, so you need a greenhouse. I've just never invested the time/money into one because I'm worried the high winds/snowload would destroy it. It's clearly possible to have one because I see them around the area, but still I have this lingering doubt. A hurricane took out a maple and a golden chain in my yard last year. If a greenhouse had been under either it would have been obliterated.

 

[Oasisboi]

That's a sweet greenhouse.

I always wanted a small greenhouse. I'd like to grow tomatoes, but our last frost is too late in the year to grow them outside, so you need a greenhouse. I've just never invested the time/money into one because I'm worried the high winds/snowload would destroy it. It's clearly possible to have one because I see them around the area, but still I have this lingering doubt. A hurricane took out a maple and a golden chain in my yard last year. If a greenhouse had been under either it would have been obliterated.

We live far north and inland so no threat of that happening to us, fortunately. Im sorry about your predicament, If you could ensure that it would not collapse by attaching it to your house or something Im sure it could work. If you want to grow specifically tomatoes I think you could make a smaller structure specifically for tomatoes, https://www.allotment-garden.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Tomato-Grow-House.jpg but bigger

 

[punishedgnome]

We live far north and inland so no threat of that happening to us, fortunately. Im sorry about your predicament, If you could ensure that it would not collapse by attaching it to your house or something Im sure it could work. If you want to grow specifically tomatoes I think you could make a smaller structure specifically for tomatoes, https://www.allotment-garden.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Tomato-Grow-House.jpg but bigger

Yeah, maybe. I'll try something like that eventually. I tried growing some tiny tim tomatoes under these little domes from the dollar store one year, but they didn't ripen fast enough and were orange when I took them in and I couldn't get them to ripen completely.

Part of the problem to is I have too many trees and it's difficult to get full sun. I was looking at reconfiguring my yard. It's a quarter acre and the back half (the southern half) is kind of for my bullshit and the front half is for the kids. Right now I have kind of a ring of trees around perimeter of the yard. I have a self fertile apple, plum, and cherry tree toward the middle of the east side. I have have some strawberry beds on the south west side and the middle is kind of the main bed where I grown my potatoes and carrots and stuff. Those trees are nice but they make a lot of shade. I already cut down a beech tree and a horse chestnut and pulled up the stumps from the southeast corner for more light for the potatoes and carrots. I was thinking cutting down a few maples and dogberry trees that are still in the southeast corner, then planting some more apple trees to the west where the strawberries and main vegetable bed currently are, and moving the main vegetable bed and strawberries over the the south east side where the maple and dogberry trees currently are so they'll get more sun. Kind of like a layered effect, you know? Maybe that south eastern area would be a good spot for a small greenhouse to grow tomatoes too. I was thinking of something the shape of a lobster pot. I just hate cutting down the trees because they're nice for privacy, but at this point we're talking about an area 150 feet from the house anyway. The other thing is the ground is really rocky in the southeast corner, I tried to expand my main vegetable bed eastward and hit shale that was coming up in sheets, so I'm going to have to build raised beds and lug in bought soil regardless.

 

[Oasisboi]

Yeah, maybe. I'll try something like that eventually. I tried growing some tiny tim tomatoes under these little domes from the dollar store one year, but they didn't ripen fast enough and were orange when I took them in and I couldn't get them to ripen completely.

Part of the problem to is I have too many trees and it's difficult to get full sun. I was looking at reconfiguring my yard. It's a quarter acre and the back half (the southern half) is kind of for my bullshit and the front half is for the kids. Right now I have kind of a ring of trees around perimeter of the yard. I have a self fertile apple, plum, and cherry tree toward the middle of the east side. I have have some strawberry beds on the south west side and the middle is kind of the main bed where I grown my potatoes and carrots and stuff. Those trees are nice but they make a lot of shade. I already cut down a beech tree and a horse chestnut and pulled up the stumps from the southeast corner for more light for the potatoes and carrots. I was thinking cutting down a few maples and dogberry trees that are still in the southeast corner, then planting some more apple trees to the west where the strawberries and main vegetable bed currently are, and moving the main vegetable bed and strawberries over the the south east side where the maple and dogberry trees currently are so they'll get more sun. Kind of like a layered effect, you know? Maybe that south eastern area would be a good spot for a small greenhouse to grow tomatoes too. I was thinking of something the shape of a lobster pot. I just hate cutting down the trees because they're nice for privacy, but at this point we're talking about an area 150 feet from the house anyway. The other thing is the ground is really rocky in the southeast corner, I tried to expand my main vegetable bed eastward and hit shale that was coming up in sheets, so I'm going to have to build raised beds and lug in bought soil regardless.

Lots of hard work but it would pay off, I also struggle to get full sun so I have to rent plots of land or find greenhouses that I can use. Seems like your doing a great job tho!

 

[Friend]

my nan's house had a greenhouse in the garden but it is getting sold because she went to a care home. FUCK

 

[LincolnJames]

Very cool. Unfortunately I don't have greenhouse at this time so I focused on something I could grow inside my home: coffee plant. It's sitting at about 8 ft and produced beans last year. I roasted them on the stove and had myself a cup of coffee at Christmas with my family. It wasn't the greatest coffee I've had but were I served it at a restaurant, I'd not complain. It 's been a fun process.

 

[Oasisboi]

Very cool. Unfortunately I don't have greenhouse at this time so I focused on something I could grow inside my home: coffee plant. It's sitting at about 8 ft and produced beans last year. I roasted them on the stove and had myself a cup of coffee at Christmas with my family. It wasn't the greatest coffee I've had but were I served it at a restaurant, I'd not complain. It 's been a fun process.

Sounds super epic fren. Any plant life is good life.

 

[LincolnJames]

Hello all,

I thought I'd do a little write-up, if only for my own amusement, on my coffee plant.

I bought this three inch, five dollar plant on a whim at the garden store while I was purchasing other supplies. I didn't know much about the plant, transplanted it into a pot, and stuck it in the window. At the time, I was busy with many other plants and didn't pay much mind to the coffee plant. During the first year, the plant grew to about a foot, half it's allowable size for the pot it was in. It struggled due to neglect. I ended up moving to an entirely different part of the country with entirely different climate. I again neglected the coffee plant but it thrived, doubled in size, reaching it's maximum size for the pot, and I didn't know why.

Eighteen months later, I returned to my previous place of residence, two foot coffee plant in hand. I decided that it was time to learn about coffee plants and why it struggled in one place and thrived in another. It's now two years after having returned home and my coffee plant is over eight feet tall, having produced beans last year which I roasted myself. I'm expecting a much higher yield this year.

Attached are some photos for your enjoyment:

Flower buds: (Unfortunately, I cannot find any photos I took of the flowers. They smell similar to jasmine flowers but half as strongly.)


Coffee cherries:



Beans extracted from the cherries:


Dried beans on the right (with husk). Green beans (term when husk is removed) on the left. Typically beans are never stored green however coffee beans are roasted only after removing the husk:


Roasted beans (gas stove):


A couple of good, though slightly boring, cups of coffee from a five dollar coffee plant that put up with years of neglect followed by a lot of love and attention:

 

[Oasisboi]

Hello all,

I thought I'd do a little write-up, if only for my own amusement, on my coffee plant.

I bought this three inch, five dollar plant on a whim at the garden store while I was purchasing other supplies. I didn't know much about the plant, transplanted it into a pot, and stuck it in the window. At the time, I was busy with many other plants and didn't pay much mind to the coffee plant. During the first year, the plant grew to about a foot, half it's allowable size for the pot it was in. It struggled due to neglect. I ended up moving to an entirely different part of the country with entirely different climate. I again neglected the coffee plant but it thrived, doubled in size, reaching it's maximum size for the pot, and I didn't know why.

Eighteen months later, I returned to my previous place of residence, two foot coffee plant in hand. I decided that it was time to learn about coffee plants and why it struggled in one place and thrived in another. It's now two years after having returned home and my coffee plant is over eight feet tall, having produced beans last year which I roasted myself. I'm expecting a much higher yield this year.

Attached are some photos for your enjoyment:

Flower buds: (Unfortunately, I cannot find any photos I took of the flowers. They smell similar to jasmine flowers but half as strongly.)
View attachment 23420

Coffee cherries:
View attachment 23421
View attachment 23422

Beans extracted from the cherries:
View attachment 23423

Dried beans on the right (with husk). Green beans (term when husk is removed) on the left. Typically beans are never stored green however coffee beans are roasted only after removing the husk:
View attachment 23424

Roasted beans (gas stove):
View attachment 23425

A couple of good, though slightly boring, cups of coffee from a five dollar coffee plant that put up with years of neglect followed by a lot of love and attention:
View attachment 23426

Absolutely fascinating, well done! Your plant is definitely a fighter. Atleast when the world ends you may still enjoy a cup of coffee.

 

[LincolnJames]

Absolutely fascinating, well done! Your plant is definitely a fighter. Atleast when the world ends you may still enjoy a cup of coffee.

Thanks fren. Not to hijack your thread but I'd love to see this become Plant General.

 

[Oasisboi]

Thanks fren. Not to hijack your thread but I'd love to see this become Plant General.

I labeled it green houses for a reason

 

[Altghost]

Now build another greenhouse, but entirely for strawberries!!

 

[Oasisboi]

Now build another greenhouse, but entirely for strawberries!!

I will but for verticle farming, Im trying to buy/make a bunch of these verticle aeroponic towers to sell strawberries and other produce

 

[Jared]

My mom and I have taken up the hobby of growing some plants , We're currently growing cucumbers. Sadly though , through some misdirection , some plants have died. Pretty neat though.

 

[Oasisboi]

My mom and I have taken up the hobby of growing some plants , We're currently growing cucumbers. Sadly though , through some misdirection , some plants have died. Pretty neat though.

Growing plants is so therapeutic. Keep up the pickle growing, perhaps you can make some pickles!

 

[Jared]

Growing plants is so therapeutic. Keep up the pickle growing, perhaps you can make some pickles!

I agree , always liked the surrounding of green , if that wasn't obvious enough.

 

[Altghost]

If anyone is making pickles Include jalapenos in the jar.

Btw also put some carrots in there.

 

[vale-aroma]

I will but for verticle farming, Im trying to buy/make a bunch of these verticle aeroponic towers to I could sell strawberries and other produce

Controlled Environment Agriculture is the future, but not in the way a lot of people expect. For staple crops, it's simply not profitable nor is profitability on the horizon. Staple crops require such incredible volume to achieve profitability, that you would need to spend tenfold per unit, requiring either unprecedented subsidies or dramatic decreases in construction, electricity, fertilizer, and real estate costs. A second "green revolution" could certainly help this, as it did in the 20th century, but there's a very heavy limit on how much modifying the plants can help, when the true problem is at the scale at which you grow a crop like Corn or Soybean, it would require inhuman amounts of resources to replicate what the sun, soil, roundup ready, and chemical fertilizers already do for 1/10th of the cost & effort.

I say all this to draw your attention to more unappreciated sources of use this will have. A lot of the urban ag experiments have been for crops like strawberries, boutique items like fruits or salad greens, but where I see true potential is in aquaculture. Algae is one the most efficient plant in the world by a lot, able to generate enormous quantities of biomass - meaning that when earthen petroleum begins to run dry, the world won't have to go without naphtha, bitumen, kerosene, or any of the other parts of the distillation column can't be replicated by a nuclear power plant & fancy batteries. This is also important, because in aquaculture you can replicate the entire supply chain. The oceans are going to run fallow much faster than the soil will, and when it does, the hunger for fish will not be sated. Enter in, experiments in controlled environment aquaculture. There's a meme on /biz/ of someone discussing indoor shrimp farming. I can assure you, that this is not a meme, but will be the new wave of farming in this century. As oceans run barren and ecological problems raise the price of feedstock, putting a damper on affordable meat (unheard of for most of human history), aquaculture will suddenly find itself a much more available source of protein.

So tl;dr - if you want to feed the 21st century, start buying up big warehouses full of swimming pools & grow something from the ocean. That's going to be the biggest thing in food production since corn subsidies or dwarf wheat.

 

[Oasisboi]

Controlled Environment Agriculture is the future, but not in the way a lot of people expect. For staple crops, it's simply not profitable nor is profitability on the horizon. Staple crops require such incredible volume to achieve profitability, that you would need to spend tenfold per unit, requiring either unprecedented subsidies or dramatic decreases in construction, electricity, fertilizer, and real estate costs. A second "green revolution" could certainly help this, as it did in the 20th century, but there's a very heavy limit on how much modifying the plants can help, when the true problem is at the scale at which you grow a crop like Corn or Soybean, it would require inhuman amounts of resources to replicate what the sun, soil, roundup ready, and chemical fertilizers already do for 1/10th of the cost & effort.

I say all this to draw your attention to more unappreciated sources of use this will have. A lot of the urban ag experiments have been for crops like strawberries, boutique items like fruits or salad greens, but where I see true potential is in aquaculture. Algae is one the most efficient plant in the world by a lot, able to generate enormous quantities of biomass - meaning that when earthen petroleum begins to run dry, the world won't have to go without naphtha, bitumen, kerosene, or any of the other parts of the distillation column can't be replicated by a nuclear power plant & fancy batteries. This is also important, because in aquaculture you can replicate the entire supply chain. The oceans are going to run fallow much faster than the soil will, and when it does, the hunger for fish will not be sated. Enter in, experiments in controlled environment aquaculture. There's a meme on /biz/ of someone discussing indoor shrimp farming. I can assure you, that this is not a meme, but will be the new wave of farming in this century. As oceans run barren and ecological problems raise the price of feedstock, putting a damper on affordable meat (unheard of for most of human history), aquaculture will suddenly find itself a much more available source of protein.

So tl;dr - if you want to feed the 21st century, start buying up big warehouses full of swimming pools & grow something from the ocean. That's going to be the biggest thing in food production since corn subsidies or dwarf wheat.

This is true. Aquaculture is on the rise it's super effective and efficient. My uncle is a seaweed farmer and he got pretty rich from it. I see hydroponic/aquaponic systems as a way to sustain people in dry climates where they have little water but plenty of other resources. It's even applicable in space lol. But your right, it does take a shit ton of resources to run, For now all my projects focus on making my hydroponics systems as efficient as possible to the point where my goal is too loose maximum 30% of resources inputted. Excluding electricity bcz I'm too lazy to figure out a way to maximize the efficiency of what my solar panels give me. Some examples could be me composting extra bits of plants in order to add to the nutrient solution. Or in aquaponics I mix in some of the plant matter with the food so I can mix up their diet and hopefully make their poo poo more nutritious. I do also try to save some power by using gravity to some work and power my pumps but I had to mod it a lot. May we combine all future forms of farming and maximize their efficiency to feed humanity! Skål