Re: Omega Garden - High-density gardening for small spaces/urban farming

From: c.knight_at_juno.com
Date: 10/02/02


Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 17:15:35 -0500
Subject: Re: Omega Garden - High-density gardening for small spaces/urban farming
Message-ID: <20021002.171843.1124.0.c.knight@juno.com>
From: c.knight_at_juno.com


> Not that we don't have nice sunny days, but the number of crude
> hours of
> sunlight are usually insufficient to produce vigorous "sunlight
> loving"
> greenhouse crops without supplementing the ambient light.

True, but even a "cloudy day" in the Ozarks will bathe an
exposed Omega garden with FAR more light than almost any
artificial source, no matter how close to the plant it's located.

That's my point. It looks like the plants are supposed to grow
towards the light source, which is fixed at the center of the drum.
If we introduce another variable, the overhead sun, what will
that do to the growth of the plants?

I'm predicting all the growth will still face towards the center of
rotation, but try to grow out the ends of the drum -- towards
the point where natural sunlight would enter the system.

Might make for an interesting experiment...

On a related note -- artificial light is expensive, and of inferior
quality to natural light. Even assuming a "tube of light" is
required for this system, I wonder if a light pipe system
funneling in natural light for the daylight hours, would serve the
needs of the Omega garden?

Light pipes are relatively easy to design.

     -- Chuck Knight

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