zaterdag 29 maart 2014
Five Methods of Hydroponic Gardening
http://hydroponicsfarming.com/Hydroponics-Systems.html
Aeroponics, Drip Method, Ebb and Flow, NFT (Nutrient Film Technique), Aeration MethodAeroponics
The plants are grown in containers or nets which allow the roots to dangle in air above the nutrient solution. An aeroponics mister pump forces a spray of nutrients through the roots at very frequent intervals. For example, one minute of spray followed by 4 minutes of drainage. The act of spraying ensures that additional oxygen is mixed with the nutrient solution providing an enriched oxygen, nutrient solution that is very beneficial to the plant and results in rapid growth.Plants achieve an increase in water and nutrient uptake over conventional soil gardening methods. Soil tends to bind crucial minerals and therefore plants tend to expend a lot of energy pulling the minerals away from the positive ions such as clay in the soil.
This method also eliminates the potential of water logging the root system or exposing the root system to a depleted oxygen supply resulting from constantly recirculating the nutrient solution without using an air pump to replenish the oxygen supply in the water.
The aeroponic cloning systems are also good for starting new cloned plants.
Drip Method
In a Drip system, the nutrient solution is delivered to the plants through drip emitters on a timed system usually scheduled to run for approximately 5-10 minutes of every hour. The timed cycle flushes the growing medium, providing the plants with fresh nutrients, water and oxygen as the emitter is dripping.The plant roots are most commonly grown in a medium of perlite, grow rocks or rockwool. This system is often used to grow long term crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.
Ebb and Flow: (also known as flood and drain)
The Ebb and Flow method periodically floods the plant growth medium and roots with water and nutrient solution and then allows the water to drain off exposing the growth medium and roots to air. This procedure can be compared to high tide and low tide at an ocean beach. At high tide the beach sand is flooded with seawater. Then at low tide the water drains back into the ocean exposing the sand to the air. The sand remains moist for a period of time and then becomes flooded again at high tide.In Hydroponics, the flow pattern of water and nutrient solution must be timed so that the growth medium remains moist during the Ebb period and does not allow the plant roots to dry out before the next flow of water. The growth medium used varies in moisture holding ability which must be taken into consideration when setting the timing cycle.
Most Ebb and Flow systems will flood the grow bed for 10 or 15 minutes of every hour or two. In an Ebb and Flow system, the plant roots are most commonly grown in a medium of perlite, rockwool or expanded clay pebbles. During the Flow period the plant roots and growth medium are flooded with water and nutrient solutions. Then during the Ebb period the roots are exposed to air enabling them to acquire the necessary oxygen. The growth medium retains moisture for a considerable period of time, ensuring that the plant roots do not dry out between the scheduled nutrient solution flows.
Nutrient Film Technique (NFT)
In the Nutrient Film Technique, the plants are normally contained in plastic pots with slitted bottoms that permit the roots to dangle through to the water and nutrient solution in the channel below. The bottom of the root system dangles in the water while the upper part of the roots remain in air at all times ensuring that the roots have access to the necessary oxygen.The only purpose of using a growth medium would be to hold the plant roots in place or to enable the seed or seedling to sprout.
Aeration Method
The Aeration method uses an aquarium air pump to bubble oxygen to the roots of plants immersed in the nutrient solution. Plants are suspended 1 inch above the solution by a 2-inch-deep mesh tray that is set into the container by placing the lip of the tray over the container's edge. A layer of inert material, such as gravel, clay pebbles, or vermiculite, is placed in the tray to provide stability for the plants while allowing the roots to grow down into the nutrient solution.
Urban Gardening Sites
iGardening
http://igardening.info/hydroponic-lettuce/
Hydroponics Farming . com
http://hydroponicsfarming.com/Home.html
zondag 23 maart 2014
Gardman dripsysteem
Gardman Uitbreiding set bewatering
http://www.bol.com/nl/p/gardman-bewatering-starterset/9200000010487116/?bltg=itm_event%3dclick%26pg_nm%3dpdp%26slt_id%3dprd_reco%26slt_nm%3dproduct_recommendations%26slt_pos%3dC1%26slt_owner%3dccs%26itm_type%3dproduct%26itm_lp%3d1%26itm_id%3d9200000010487116%26itm_role%3din
Vertical Garden System
Flora Grubb Gardens
http://floragrubb.com/florasblog/?p=894
Outdoor Vertical Gardens
Everything You Need to Know About the DIY Panel for Vertical Succulent Gardens
Our vertical succulent gardens bring
visitors to the nursery a sense of wonder, and many people are inspired
to build and grow their own at home.
We offer for sale here in the store and in our Web Shop
the same type of panel we use to create our own vertical succulent
gardens. It’s a gratifying project to do it yourself, but you might want
instructions, which we offer below.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Hang the panels outdoors
While some succulents are capable of
growing indoors, they do much better when they enjoy the sun and air
circulation of the outdoors. The panels are built with slotted cells
that allow the water to trickle from cell to cell and drain out the
bottom, making them unsuitable for placing against sheetrock or other
indoor wall surfaces. Drainage out the bottom poses a problem for indoor
flooring as well.
How they are made
The DIY Vertical Panels
are made of a combination of all-natural coconut powder and coconut
fiber, and food-safe HDPE, which is the same plastic used to make milk
jugs. The combination makes the plastic flexible yet firm and reduces
its impact on the environment. Each panel will weigh approximately 50-70
pounds when planted. The walls of the planting compartments are slanted
to keep soil from falling out. Each compartment has slots that allow
water to drain through from one cell to the next. The image below shows
the structure of the panels but when you see them here in the nursery or
buy them in our Web Shop they will be a toasted-coconut brown color.
How to plant the panels
The panels can be planted in two ways: plug-in planting and homegrown.
1) Plug-in planting
Each compartment will hold two succulents
from 2-inch containers. One panel takes 90 plants to fill, and gives you
speedy (but not instant) gratification. Allow the succulents to grow
into the panel by maintaining it on a flat surface for a month (spring
through fall) or longer (winter). In winter, take care to protect the
garden panel from periods of freezing temperatures. Anytime the panel is
being cultivated horizontally, protect from rain and hail.
After a month or so, you can mount the panel in its permanent, vertical position.2) Homegrown
For a more economical and do-it-yourself
approach, the panels can be filled with loose potting soil while they
are lying flat. You can insert cuttings of succulents from your own
collection in a pattern of your choosing. Be sure to keep the panels
flat (and out of the rain!) for three to five months, in order to allow
them to root in. You don’t want all your hard work to pour out when you
hang it up! Most succulents grow more actively in the warmer part of the
year.
Here at our nursery, we can offer
pre-planted, established vertical succulent panels by special order
only. Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate requests for custom designs,
and we cannot ship. Orders for pre-planted panels require a wait of
between one and three weeks if they are available; availability is
limited to pre-planted panels on hand at our growers.
Hanging them up
The panels measure 20” x 20” and extend 2
½” from the wall. They come with a metal mounting bracket that screws
into the wall horizontally. The panel can be hung from this bracket and
is easily removable for watering and maintenance. Alternately, each
panel has a pair of slots allowing you to insert screws through the
panel and directly onto the backing. This can be useful for a more
permanent mounting. The panels can weigh anywhere from 50 to 70 pounds
when fully planted and watered. It is important to mount the panels to
structural beams capable of holding the considerable weight of
water-saturated soil and plants.
Watering and maintaining the panels
The panels can be watered by hand or by a
drip system. The top of each tray has a little channel that perfectly
fits a 1/4″ drip irrigation line. The slotted cells allow the water to
flow from cell to cell and drain out the bottom. At Flora Grubb Gardens
we water by hand since we can so easily reach them. We use a
low-pressure spray and slowly wet the garden for a few minutes. Then we
wait five minutes and repeat. We’ll do it one more time if it’s been
particularly warm for a couple of weeks. We don’t water it at all if
there’s been rain within the previous week.
How to create an installation with the panels
Flora Grubb Gardens does not create custom
installations using the DIY Vertical Panel. Our installation here at the
nursery was done by a contractor who started with a panel of MDO
(marine plywood) as backing. He then mounted it with French cleats
(included with each vertical panel) – a common construction method to
“float” the garden off the wall with an air space behind it for
ventilation. The frame on our own vertical garden was created by
mounting the wood frame (redwood, driftwood, etc.) directly to the back
panel of plywood after the panels were mounted. Use your imagination!
Customizing & modifying
The panel can be cut with a proper saw
blade, but should be cut before planting along the lines of the
little compartments to make sure all the soil will stay contained.
Panels can be configured to create displays of any size, though it is
important to consider the feasibility of care and maintenance for such a
non-traditional garden.
zondag 9 maart 2014
Milan Design Gardens
The Best of Milan Design Week 2011
http://www.gardendesign.com/the-best-of-milan?pnid=125383#gallery-content
zondag 2 maart 2014
Urban Farming
urban farming
Also check out : http://www.urbanfarming.org/welcome.html
Bad Seed Farm in Kansas City Brings Urban Farming to the Next Level: Legislation
Urban farming is not new -- its been a way to feed cities for thousands of years. But in the US, it was purposely planned out of our cities, even as they grew bigger and, as a result, hungrier. Now many of our cities contain massive sprawl, which have created new opportunities in the form of abandoned lots, a consequence of the economic downturn. But we also have a mobilized movement of individuals interested in feeding people, especially those without access to healthy fruits and vegetables (many of whom reside in cities). But connecting these dots is sometimes more complicated than it seems.
As urban farming takes hold across the nation, reviving old school ways of supporting communities with homegrown food, it will inevitably bump into resistance in the form of outdated laws and legislative confusion around this up and coming issue, in addition to complaints by neighbors who don't see the value in having a farm nearby when there are still packed shelves at the supermarket. These neighbors worry about their views, are disturbed by farm animal noises and deposits, and fear property value declines, which have more to do with economics than kale.
These anticipated problems now have a face -- Bad Seed Farm is at the center of a neighborhood zoning debate in Kansas City, Missouri. The farm is run by two forward thinking young agriculturalists, Brooke Salvaggio and her husband Dan Heryer, both age 27, who pulled up a half acre of her grandfather's lawn (with his blessing) to plant their urban farm. The two provide local organic produce to city residents via their storefront farmer's market and run a popular CSA. But the farm is located in a more affluent section of the city, where it could be viewed as "rubbing up against the suburban ideal" of perfectly manicured lawns, said Katherine Kelly, Executive Director of the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture. "As more people get into urban agriculture, it becomes more visible to the neighbors," said Kelly. "As [urban farming] becomes a business... people start having opinions about it."
Bad Seed is one of around fifty urban farms in greater Kansas City, where almost 22% of inhabitants were living below the poverty line in 2007, and unemployment jumped around 5 points (to 13.1% in Kansas City, KS, and 10.4% in Kansas City, MO) in the last year. This particular case has brought to the fore an issue which is bound to come up again and again as growing food changes the cityscape: how do we value urban land, and what are the existing laws on the books that keep urban agriculture from flourishing and feeding locals?
Kelly took part in a meeting with some of the legislators and the Bad Seed farmers this morning. Prior to the meeting, the urban farmers had been warned that they could be in violation of a zoning law that states that no business can be conducted in a residential zone. Technically, Salvaggio and Heryer should be exempt as they only sell produce through their storefront farm stand nearby. But the law is not nuanced enough and so is open for interpretation in the case of growing produce. The house on the property serves as the primary use of the land, a residence. Today, the legislators clarified that as long as Salvaggio and Heryer are the only two farming on their land, their urban farm will be considered an accessory use, instead of a competing primary use. Though restrictive (no volunteers, specific delivery hours to follow, etc) this is great news.
The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture is working on re-writing the code with city council members to more clearly accommodate urban farming, in an era when more and more unemployed people, hunger advocates and beginning farmers are looking for just these kinds of opportunities to grow in urban settings.
"I think this is a sign of the maturing of the urban agriculture movement," Kelly said. "Urban farming is part of a a new emerging definition of the city... We are eager to work with planning and development officials to develop new codes addressing urban agriculture."
Follow Paula Crossfield on Twitter: www.twitter.com/civileater
Views: 7158
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Permalink Reply by Charles on - Here are a few urban farming pics for those who would like them. There possible future urban farms.
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And a link to more beautiful concepts.
http://www.tuvie.com/dragonfly-a-metabolic-farm-for-new-york-city-i...
zaterdag 1 maart 2014
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