From: Adam Scriven (scurvy_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 10/02/02
Message-ID: <20021003033231.27045.qmail@web9908.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 20:32:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Adam Scriven <scurvy_at_yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Omega Garden - High-density gardening for small spaces/urban farming
--- c.knight_at_juno.com wrote:
> > > 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.
That was ideally how we'd build one too, but drums of that size don't
seem to be as easy to come to around here (Rural Ontario, Canada).
At least from what the two of us noticed in our searches.
> 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.
That's exactly how the unit works, AFAIK. That's how I've always
figured it would work, and from what I can tell from the pictures
that's what it is.
It really would be helpful to SEE one of these things in person!
8-)
> > 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.
Not necessarily florescent. With proper cooling (like an air-cooled
tube), you could put as much light in there as you could supply the
power for. The productive system I heard about had 2 air-cooled (or
water cooled for that matter) 600W bulbs IIRC. (I still haven't found
that link, but I'll continue to search.)
Granted it would be more expensive than growing outdoors under the
natural sun, but you would have more control over the environment (and
all the other indoor growing vs. outdoor growing arguments too)...
Adam
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