For the past 2 decades I've been growing small gardens with manual watering & weed control with focus on understanding requirements per vegtable (fertilizer, side dressing, grouping, ect), so that when it comes time to expand into a larger year round heated Greenhouse we'll have the knowledge required to succeed.
In 2021 I built a small Proof of Concept heated year round greenhouse to learn how to grow vegetables in the Winter, so that when it comes time to expand into a larger year round heated Greenhouse we'll have the knowledge required to succeed. Below are some pictures of Lettuce and Kale grown in the Winter & Spring of 2023.
Proof of Concept Heated Greenhouse
In 2023 for a large outdoor garden I set up rain water collection and irrigation system at our farm in Hammond NY. Water is collected off of the barn roof as shown below and then pumped to a water tower at the garden, where it gravity feeds thru a drip irrigation system to the rows of plants & seeldlings. Pictures of the irrigation system and vegetables grown in 2023 are below:
Rain Water Collection
In 2023 also started a large copmpost pile - this to be used to provide fertile compost to use around plans for nutrients & weed control, and also to serve as a source of Trichoderma Reesie fungus to use to grow Cellulase enzymes in an incubator for the Cellolosic Ethanol production process.
Next Steps for 2024 and beyond are:
• Continue large outdoor garden with irrigation system and mulch to manage weed growth.
• Continue growing in the Proof of Concept heated year round Greenhouse and start 2024 large garden seedlings in the Proof of Concept heated greenhouse.
• Chop hay early in May before the hay develops seeds to use for weed control around the plants in the large outdoor garden.
• I Like growing own our food so we can know what is and isn't added/sprayed on it.
• I believe society is going to need year round greenhouses to feed the growing world population.
• Eventually, as part of the Cellulosic Ethanol process, inside of a large heated year round green house I'll need an incubator inside to grow enzymes for the Cellulosic Ethanol process.
• In an energy farm set up where Cellulosic Ethanol is made on site - CO2 from the distilaltion process could be fed into the Green house to enhance plant & vegtable growth.
• In an energy farm set up, grass pellets could be used to heat the green house along with resulting hear from a CHP (Combined Heat & Power) from a syngas generator could also heat the greenhouse.
• In an energy farm set up, power from solar, wind, CHP (Combined Heat & Power) from a syngas generator could be used to power the greenhouse.
• The diagram below shows how all of these technologies above and be used together to provide heat, power, fertilizer, and food for use on the farm and for sale to the grid and to the public: