From: c.knight_at_juno.com
Date: 10/02/02
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 12:53:34 -0500 Subject: Re: Omega Garden - High-density gardening for small spaces/urban farming Message-ID: <20021002.125351.1112.1.c.knight@juno.com> From: c.knight_at_juno.com
> > I heard about this little device a while ago (me and a buddy are
> trying
> > to design one that doesn't cost $5000 CDN), and from what I've
> heard
> > it's not lying.
It seems like a cheap version could be easily cobbled together from
a plastic 55 gallon drum (sold for around $5 where I live, rural Texas,
north of Dallas) and a framework on which to allow it to rotate. A
flood and drain hydroponic system would be simple to implement,
too, by simply rotating the crop, and keeping the nutrients in a "puddle"
in the bottom of the structure.
I helped a friend assemble one of those drum-compost-bins, and it
used the same basic construction. Simplicity itself.
> Additionally, when looking at redesign issues, I'd like to know how
> one
> "plants and harvests". That is, is there some way to unfurl the
> bedding
> drum? Otherwise, it seems like getting to those center rows would be
> a stretch.
It depends on how wide (deep?) the drum is.
> And then, I'd like for this whole thing to be set-up beneath a
> "greenhouse
> dome" which could be assembled by two people and operational within
> 24 hours
> of deliver.
One of its basic principles is that all light comes from a fluorescent
tube located in the center of the drum. I wonder how natural light
would influence the growth, since it WILL overpower, by many
orders of magnitude, the artificial source...even given its close
proximity to the plants.
-- Chuck Knight
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