With this natural sugar vs aspartame debate going on, chickens with IV's of hormones, cows eating recycled cows, GMO corn...

What's left? What can I eat?


--Steve

beer!! there's a loaf of bread in every pint

I got something in the works for you, JoG.
Give me 'til the end of October.


--Steve

Ok. I'm posting this from my phone so forgive me if pictures are 99 degrees or upside down.
My idea? A grow box.
The idea is not new. I'm sure some of you that survived the 70s know what these are. Probably had one of your own.
But for veggies.
Disclaimer: I don't know anything about gardening. I barely know enough about computers.


My prototype is very cheap just to prove it out.
I took an old shipping crate. I made it a little bigger and sided it with a piece of OSB I had laying around.




I've been reading about plants and they actually grow best with red and blue lights. A NASA study says 80/20.
The red stimulates chlorophyll production and flowering while the blue promotes internode production and stem strength.

I'll be using LEDs for lighting, which means I'll need a heater.
I could do this all with simple controls but that's no fun.
There was some record cabbage in Alaska. IIRC it was ~127 lbs. They only had 4 months of summer but 16 hours of sunlight in the day.
I'd like to manipulate these parameters.


So I'm using an Arduino. A small computer that runs C/C++.


Coupled with temperature, humidity, and soil moisture sensors.









if this works I can upscale and diversify.
Imagine 5 or 6 of these babies, each one with an ecosystem tailored to the crop.
No pests, no pesticides, no chemicals.
And the water pumps, LEDs, and all components (except for a heater. I haven't sourced a heater yet) are 12 volt so I can run them off a battery and charge them with a solar panel.

I have a PWM and some ni-chrome wire. I might make a heater or buy a ceramic aquarium heater.


--Steve

How about we share some recipes ?

I'm bed-ridden with the flu (ordinary kind)  

What's going on in the box? I don't know.
If I attach a serial monitor the device resets itself.
So I added an OLED screen.


It's not inside the box yet. It's just sitting on my kitchen counter top.
It's in a chive. I had the chive and it's consistently grown back year after year on my porch even though I never watered it so I figured this guy is a good candidate.




--Steve

darn quart talk about over engineered...
compost enriched soil kept moist and light walaw yous got veggies

Like I said, I'm not the first to have this idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wWTadsBDA

This guy is a little long winded but he has some nifty ideas.
He melted some PVC to make a portable, upright garden. It's somewhere in the middle. Initial investment is ~$350 and after 2 months he thinks he can make it pay for itself. Although it helps, in his case, to have an entire hydroponic water filtration setup and be in a warm, sunny climate.
I couldn't stand listening to him repeat himself so I skipped around. Like I said, good ideas.

Connecticut is the problem. Sunny and 70's last week. Frost warning on Monday. Rain and mid 50's for the rest of the week. Not conducive to growing.


--Steve