Ever heard of it? I haven't, but this guy has been on the Colbert Report talking about his ideas of Vertical Farming. I'm all about new and innovative ways to grow and provide food to the population. With the rising cost of oil also comes the rising cost of food prices and that's because our food is trucked in each and every day to a local store near you. Not only that, but there is also the concerns of GMO foods, which most of us try our best to stay away from. Some of us are lucky enough to have local farms that we can support, but not everyone is so lucky, especially those in 3rd world countries or countries where the land will not produce food using traditional farming methods. But new ideas and technologies are being thought up and produced everyday making the impossible now possible, and Dickson (some name huh) Despommier has a great idea, Vertical Farming. But who is this guy? Wikipedia says... What are the benefits of Vertical Farming? So lets hear from Dickson ( ) himself about this new idea of his... [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1clRcxZS52s]BIG IDEAS: Dickson Despommier's Vertical Farming - YouTube[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIXYHk0A0gM]The Vertical Farm - YouTube[/ame] Click the link, Comedy Central doesn't let us view videos from here, only on their site. [ame="http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/173624/june-12-2008/dickson-despommier"]The 2008 Colbert Report Interview[/ame] I'd like to see a Vertical Farm in NYC powered by underwater turbines because indoor plant lighting can be expensive, especially multiple floors of lighting [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-qxin0HvMM]Underwater Turbines Pump Out Energy - YouTube[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6lt3MNVq6w]Rivers Provide "Next Wave" of Energy - YouTube[/ame] I wish I had Oprah money, I'd build me a food tower, in fact, Oprah would love a food tower
Well, the best vertical farming uses completely glassed in skyscrapers so little supplemental lighting is required. These would mesh well with a Paolo Soleri designed city. I think there area few vertical grows in our grow journal forums.
I don't see how that's possible being that there's always ceilings to be dealt with, and too boot not everyday is a sunny day, so an efficient vertical farm I would imagine will have indoor lighting.
S K Y S C R A P E R. It has far more wall surface area than roof surface area. Make it all glass, use some mirrors and light ducts on your roof and you are good to go. You could even build a curved, reflective wall on the outside of the north face of the skyscraper to help reflect light back in. The architectural possibilities are immense! Not everyday is sunny on a farm either, but they seem to do okay without lights.
My old aquaponic system, flowering was done in 21 3"-4" ABS WYSE with 3" net cups in a foot print of 12sqft. I would put clones in at 12" and end up with a 30" cola a little over a zip each. Air cooled 860 watts hps mounted on the wall. Harvest 7 sites every 30days. If you flipped the system to a horizontal the foot print it would be 24sqft. That was about 15-20 yrs ago.
[quote name='"Swills"']Do you have pix of that old set up? Sounds bad ass[/quote] I think I have a picture of the first pathetic bud produced. Ill have to dig for it. It was on a hdd that died. After that one it took a few months to get it dialed in. There where 3 tubes 7 sites per tube all spliced together with 4" ABS the tubes were about 6.5 ft each. Water spray rained down the tubes from the top. Plants grew an intertwined root system. The roots would grow into the sump so they had some capillary action going on also. 2 430w fixtures mounted vertically on the wall so that there was 3' of canopy between sites and air cooled fixtures. That was the basic plan. Almost everything was purchased from Home Gropot (Depot). They thought I was a plumbing contractor walking out with their whole inventory of 3"-4" WYSE every time they re-upped. That went on for a few weeks.
^^^ maybe the idea is more suitable for other types of crops like trailing plants? strawberries? nice thread BTW Swills. your brainstorm must have been effective, you got WD spelling in caps lock.
I have nervous twitches from time to time. I think the big factor inhibiting large scale vertical farming (S K Y S C R A P E R S) is sheer cost. The food produced would probably be very very expensive. Not only does it cost a lot of money to build, set up and maintain such systems (just look at our indoor grows compared to an outdoor grower) but also real estate in cities is ultra expensive.
it would hurt if one day you were walking underneath the skyscraper and than BAM an unripened tomato drops 600 ft. and hits you right on the cranium. my stoned thoughts -OSUB
[quote name='"OSUB"']it would hurt if one day you were walking underneath the skyscraper and than BAM an unripened tomato drops 600 ft. and hits you right on the cranium. my stoned thoughts -OSUB[/quote] Killer Tomatoes..
I wonder what the costs would be if you just renovated a modern skyscraper that wasn't in use. There are plenty of those around where I live. kush
How else would one do vertical farming (enough to feed a large population) in a city? Skyscrapers, or at least multi story buildings, are what vertical farming on a large scale is talking about. The heart of vertical farming, along with city designs by Paolo Soleri, is to reduce horizontal sprawl. This will free up more open spaces. To me that seems pretty critical to maintain diverse ecologies.
I would think still expensive, but probably the direction we will go if oil becomes in critically short supply. Organic farmers may be in vogue again.
WD, It won't be the oil that is in short supply, it will be your dollar that can't buy the oil because it's worthless. There is enough oil. I want to do this with weed, mini scale. Must. Grow. Weed. Kush
^ true that, but good lord, could you imagine how much weed you could constantly be harvesting? Jesus! If I had me own vertical farm you damn right I would grow some of the finest herbs
