Global warming is on us. Different forms of hydroponics are now available and we know that urban indoor gardening and improved outdoor patio or home gardens can be one of the top 5 tools in changing this. See our other articles on global warming and stopping the multi-million tons of co2 dump into the air and oceans that is causing an acidic and hot world……killing plants, microbes, and animals by thousands of varieties a day!!
We also know that urban indoor farms will provide most of our produce because they:
provide more nutritious foods than many soils
don’t use natural lands (such as the thousands of acres a day taken for new coconut oil plantations)
don’t cause super insects, plant diseases and weeds to take over as land chemicals speed up evolution and the development of super invasive species (while palm plantations are being planted without end, the palm insect also is destroying coconut palms worldwide). This process of super species running amok is the same process that has developed our super bacteria that is killing humans.
I predict for 2016 that changes will come about:
Home Aeroponics units predictions
http://noodleponics.blogspot.com/
1. the pool noodle and the inflatable toy will likely be the greatest source of ideas for fogponics / hydroponics / ultraponics / aeroponics
2. ideas will have to be developed that could be readily and cheaply used by the homeowner. They will have to be attractive enough to fit in a living room and small enough to fit into next to a bedroom window. They also could be placed on a kitchen counter, raised on a pulley over the dining table, or tucked into a closet with a light system
3. pool noodle ideas will be helped by the last 2 decades of ideas on building with PVC pipes. New connectors, new cutters, and glues will become known and available
4. they will be colorful, fun, and incredibly innovative. It will draw other’s attention
5. cities and businesses will help promote aeroponics by public displays and educational centers
6. children and teens will innovate beyond imagination. In fact, many schools will adopt “aeroponics home indoor garden initiatives”, and out of that, ideas to help the world will come about. These children will be influenced to develop their imagination and creative abilities: many will become creative business people solving world problems and going on to be scientists, inventors, and engineers. They will become leaders in a new “culture of aeroponics” and home indoor gardens, and problem solving. Their abilities to solve problems, and that mental capacity to think rationally and utilize any resource next to them will help solve global warming, but also help solve global crisis of all sorts….including war and conflict.
7. many will help create aerponics ideas to be taken to the poor, troubled in inner cities, and the starving in poor nations. (This will help lessen global tensions, because wars we now face are initiated by those who do not have full access to a quality life and were disenfranchised). The fogponics units, at this time, are costly. So, the units to be taken to the poor likely will include:
The fog unit with a spray backup is the most effective method to grow. But, if we step down just 5%, a fountain type spray unit can work. We can create inexpensive units for ALL. They too, can have access to nutritious foods!
- the fountain type spray pump will be used in used plastic containers or our prepared structure
- low water levels in a tank as we describe in our blogs and sites
- sidewalls on a pool noodle, pvc pipe, or inflatable toy frame (like the inflatable pool goal post). The sidewall could be simply a UV protected vinyl or tarp that could last several years. It would be dark or black on the inside to cut algae growth in and white (not shiny silver) on the outside to reflect light to the plants
- the low cost timer must be used as the fountain spray pump is on a half hour then off a half hour. But, could you invent a non mechanical method?
And, could you invent a simple half hour on half hour off sequence for the solar fountain pump? Here is a solar pump that runs directly from the sun. It does not have a storage battery to fun at night. Could you invent the timer and batter to run this and have costs of that under 50 cents so it could help millions starving, poor, and without access to electricity????
Why areoponics for all? It utilizes a small amount of liquid, it’s easy, and since it doesn’t use full buckets or drums of water it is portable. So, If you move, you take your units with you, or you move them from room to room!
http://ultraponicssolve.blogspot.com/
8. The panels also could be a favorite material of mine: polycarbonate double walled paneling (corrugated plastics seen in some school and office folders and boxes). This is lightweight, and following links at our Preventing Problems site, it can be cut, folded, and boxed, as well as shipped without problems because it is almost without any weight. Structurally, it is incredibly strong and would hold many large plants or a whole garden of super greens.
9. People will stop seeing hydroponics stores as vital to visit often and not in some judgemental way. Not all customers going into these stores are growing “substances”. This blog has no view on that either way, but……your expert is found at that store and they know how to help you with your dying aeroponics geraniums. I don’t care what you’re growing hydropnically, even if you’re a survivalist homesteader (which I’m pretty urban myself). But I want to help and I want you, even if you’re growing fodder for your chickens in trays, that you also grow your Bibb lettuce at HOME! Solving plant growth problems: there are answers not yet to be found on the web, and online forums are filled with bad and wrong information: find an expert, make them a friend, and because of their help, do buy from your local store to help them pay their costs! (It’s a karma sort of thing)
Btw:
You’ll be adding chemicals back into plain water for your plants. We’ll have to provide nutrients that exist in typical soil environments, or if you have a rare tropical plant we have to duplicate the nutrients one would find in that place, the plant’s own environment biotope where it evolved to grow well.
You can pick: organic or non organic dry or liquid additives. Some wanting to go very organic will make their own nutrient “teas”. But, most of us will settle for known forms of fertilizers that have been used for decades. You study this and decide what is best for you. Added to the filtered, distilled, or reverse osmosis water, you’ll add:
All will add:
macro nutrients, what we find in lawn and garden fertilizers, NPK
micro nutrients: iron, magnesium, etc (this makes your red leaf lettuce red, and give you the nutrients you need!)
All should add:
beneficial bacteria that are not harmful to humans (these ward off plant diseases and some are found in your yogurt). These can stop insects, but also counter bad bacteria that can rot seedlings or clone cuttings. They also can eat harmful chemicals in the soil, literally, and can eat and remove decaying plant matter in the bottom of your containers.
beneficial fungus needed by plant roots to function rapidly (mycorrhizae)
(these are low cost, and come in powders and liquids ready formulated to add to solutions)
The macro and micro nutrients are essential to grow your lettuce, but adding the bacteria and fungus makes a real “eco system” for the plants to live in. It becomes “real” and not just chemical with these items added. And, the bacteria and naturally occurring fungus cause the plant to produce more rapidly. In fact, some plants will not grow with out the root fungus……they evolved to function with the aid of fungus. And, at it’s greatest use: this healthy “ecosystem” teaches us how those function, helps us to see we can destroy certain things in our environment or a whole chain of other plants and animals may die off. And, this teaches us and brings forth the technology of sustainable urban home and even third world survival…….we are developing our own little environments that “sustain themselves” are healthy and could keep on growing (such as in a interstellar voyage).
Most will add rooting hormones because they are miraculous. That is one growing agent that pushes plant growth from months of growing to 4 weeks for harvesting Bibb lettuce. This one solution is so profound because it creates more durable plants and helps them weather poor conditions, transplanting shock, or a failed system for a day that drys out. It doubles root and plant growth. When cut, the Bibb lettuce or cut Orchid flower has twice the “shelf life” before it wilts.
This and the above items causes
- Profound and shocking rapid plant growth, 5 time faster than soil outdoor growing
- Vegetables are more nutritious and cleaner
- One or two family aeroponics systems can feed a family
- Trees, rare plants, flowers, and ornamental plants have mostly never been tried, would work with this, and you might be the one…
- It can be duplicated easily by all others
- It’s fun
- It’s Cheap!!!!!!!!!! After any initial start up cost, you’ll no longer grimace when paying 4.99 for that organic rooted head of Bib Lettuce at the Organic Foods. You’ll no longer frown when eating your organic baby kale cuttings from BigMartt that smells odd and chews like wood. Tomatoes will not longer cost you 3.99 a pound at LocaMart and a single bell pepper will never cost you 1.49 each!
Rarely, some may have specialized crops or plants and add other proteins, acids. sugars, specialized minerals, and more. But, that’s for the advanced folks.
http://fogponicseducation.blogspot.com/
10. Solutions on handling the fertilizers and chemicals will become simpler and perhaps you’ll develop some simple Splenda size packet for people in Ethiopia to use? But, 2016 will see an explosion of information, solutions, ideas, books, Youtube videos and more…..and this aeroponics urban home garden culture will spread. It will spread to other countries, but it will also spread to our patios, apartments, plazas, and offices. Instead of patio planters filled with slow growing petunias, aeroponics towers will be mountains of color. It would be possible that packets could be prepared for third world countries that counter ph, hard water, or other water chemistry problems (“buffering agents” easily found, could be ready added to nutrient packets for water solutions
11. New light bulbs will be developed for the home urban indoor grower. Likely, the newest light bulb form is the Corn LED Bulb (or called corn cob LED Bulb) will be the answer because it can fit in standard light sockets, uses little electricity, is not hot and dangerous around pets and kids or starting a fire from tipping over, and has high output of light. These seem new and I was not able to find one yet in Lowes or Home Depot this week. New lamps and holders will be developed. Costs will reduce for all in time.
12. The first indoor urban orchards with trees or bushes will be started. Old warehouses and vacant buildings may replace outdoor urban gardens as abandoned buildings are used for indoor urban farming or indoor home urban gardening.
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Innovative U 