Sunless Farming

[IndianaResident]

Future farm: a sunless, rainless room indoors - Yahoo! News

Put that in your bunker and grow it.

 

[nate1865]

Um, without the sun the earth would lose its source of heat and become a dead frozen wasteland.

Besides, pot farmers have mastered indoor growing for years.

 

[grimor]

this may be the answer to the worlds food problem, but then where do we get the energy to run the lights.....

 

[Plinker]

I'm thinking business idea! How cool would it be to run a 'farmer market' in the middle of winter with fresh produce, rather than the nasty, old produce at the grocery store? LEDs shouldn't use that much electricity.

 

[cbseniour]

Mushrooms.

 

[cosermann]

Just sounds like hydroponics with more efficient lighting (i.e. LED).
Lighting has been the big expense and energy hog of sunless growing in the past.

 

[Hoosier49er]

How many LED's would it take to keep a garden going? Sounds like a heck of an expensive initial cost...

 

[Gdogs]

Pretty interesting. I've been looking around the various forums for survival info and started thinking about growing food. It has to be a big part of "End of Days" or just a good plan to keep your costs down. I've talked to a lot of people about growing your own food, canning/freezing and a lot of people use old surplus windows and make little houses, like the size of dog houses, to start and extend their seasons. I thought about getting one of those Harbor Freight greenhouses and using LED's run from a battery and an inverter (lights run in series) with a solar panel to charge the batteries. Don't know how many LED's, I just thought I'd throw some money at it and see what it does.

 

[ATOMonkey]

Mushrooms.

Bingo

 

[FWShooter]

Just sounds like hydroponics with more efficient lighting (i.e. LED).
Lighting has been the big expense and energy hog of sunless growing in the past.

That and the constant knocks on the door from LEO because the helicopter noticed a large heat signature coming from your back bedroom.

 

[IndianaResident]

That and the constant knocks on the door from LEO because the helicopter noticed a large heat signature coming from your back bedroom.

Don't you know?
They can't do that anymore.

 

[FWShooter]

Don't you know?
They can't do that anymore.

I just remember a couple years ago I use to start my tomatoes and peppers in the dining room since it had an awesome rack for hanging the lights from. Of course this rack is right by a window that faces the street.

One day I am walking by the room and there is a cop staring at them from outside the window. Scared the crap out of me and apparently one of the nosy neighbors said I was growing drugs in my dining room. I busted out laughing and the only response I could think of is do you think I would be dumb enough to grow drugs right here? Thankfully he laughed and I stepped outside and we had about a 30 minute conversation about vegetable gardening.

I promptly moved my "grow room" into the back bedroom closet.

 

[cosermann]

How many LED's would it take to keep a garden going? Sounds like a heck of an expensive initial cost...

Depends what you want to grow. Different plants have different lighting requirements. Things like lettuce - low. Things like tomatoes - high.

I've fiddled around with it for some years and for the avg person, the cost to raise a significant amount of food this way is pretty high.

 

[Leadeye]

Depends what you want to grow. Different plants have different lighting requirements. Things like lettuce - low. Things like tomatoes - high.

I've fiddled around with it for some years and for the avg person, the cost to raise a significant amount of food this way is pretty high.

I have done the same thing and come to the same conclusion. It's really expensive compared to buying the vegies, I may try bell peppers as I really like them but costs are high these days.

 

[cosermann]

It's really expensive compared to buying the vegies . . .

Yeah, but it's fun to grow lettuce in the dead of winter just because you can. I had a setup in my office one year too. It was a great conversation starter.

 

[exelh]

I read an article on the Drudge Report that said 1 percent of the electricity used in the US is for indoor pot growing. The majority of that use is states where it is legal to grow, like Califorina.

 

[tTotalProvidence]

You guys have got some terms mixed up:

Hydroponics: growing whatever plants in whatever lighting, but instead of using soil you use water that has natural fertilizers and chemicals the plant needs. You change the water often and change what you feed the plant. This is like life support for a plant, and you can give it just want it wants more effectively than soil can.

LEDs are the new light system, but they are expensive and IMO overpriced. If you're seriously considering indoor growing of vegetables, spices, or whatever plants you're into I would go with a fluorescent light system. Fluorescent tubes are cheap, the fixtures are cheap, and they don't heat up. They're comparable to LED light systems but at a fraction of the cost. With both LED or Fluorescent, you'll need a red spectrum light if you are taking advantage of a plant's flowering. This is important with flowers, and I don't think you need a red spectrum light for veggies, but it helps.

I highly suggest growing your own veggies all year round, if not just in the summer. As a Chicago resident, we don't have access to fresh produce as readily as some IN residents. Oh who am I kidding the vegetables at Kroger suck just as much as they do at Dominicks. The only thing that sucks about growing your own delicious veggies is that you often grow far too much, and your friends don't want any more plastic bags full of zucchinis.

 

[cosermann]

The LED's lights I've seen are cheaper than just the bulbs for my fluorescent system, cheaper to run, cooler to run, and the LED's have an insanely long life. This is for leafy greens.

Flowers and fruiting veges are a different deal. The light necessary for those is expensive whichever way you slice the current technology; LED or HID.

 

[briand212]

LED light panels

A quick ebay search turned up these
I have not personnaly tried them but they are pretty cheap might be fun to try one
225 LED Hydroponic Plant Grow Light Panel 14w Red/Blue | eBay