Saturday, March 04, 2006
The New-Farms: Urban Growing Project
Urban Growing Project
To test the practical applications of hydroponics systems in an urban environment we began The New-Farms: Urban Growing Project. The goal would be not only to test the growing capabilities of the system but also to provide a model for similar small scale or private urban hydroponic projects. Using a growing system purchased through www.earthbox.com, a limited number of tools and space the Urban Growing Project will function as both a case study and a kind of instructional manual for urban hydroponics where space, time and access to tools is limited. Our process and progress will be photographed in order to providing our documentation with illustrations. However, these photographs will not simply add color to our text, they will demonstrate the steps and tools necessary and the amount of physical space being used for growing.
The Growing System
When starting off it is important to select a growing system that fits your growing needs and desires. Fortunately, there are many companies world-wide that manufacture hydroponic systems that cater to different farming needs. There is a great deal of variation in the complexity’s of the systems that are available. Systems that use more complicated watering techniques are often more difficult to set-up or more expensive. Different plants fare better under different conditions, so before purchasing any system it is important to decide what you want to plant and then read about the systems that are available for that particular crop. As a first, or trial project, we were interested in growing a tomato plant. The Urban Growing Project decided that tomatoes would be an ideal plant for our initial test because of the rapid rate at which they grow. This would allow us to examine the productivity of the system and of this farming technique within the shortest framework of time. We choose a to order a system online from earthbox (at www.earthbox.com) because they had systems available that were large enough to house a cherry tomato plant, but small enough to fit in our dorm room. Additionally, because this was our first planting project we chouse a system that was very simple and easy to setup.
To test the practical applications of hydroponics systems in an urban environment we began The New-Farms: Urban Growing Project. The goal would be not only to test the growing capabilities of the system but also to provide a model for similar small scale or private urban hydroponic projects. Using a growing system purchased through www.earthbox.com, a limited number of tools and space the Urban Growing Project will function as both a case study and a kind of instructional manual for urban hydroponics where space, time and access to tools is limited. Our process and progress will be photographed in order to providing our documentation with illustrations. However, these photographs will not simply add color to our text, they will demonstrate the steps and tools necessary and the amount of physical space being used for growing.
The Growing System
When starting off it is important to select a growing system that fits your growing needs and desires. Fortunately, there are many companies world-wide that manufacture hydroponic systems that cater to different farming needs. There is a great deal of variation in the complexity’s of the systems that are available. Systems that use more complicated watering techniques are often more difficult to set-up or more expensive. Different plants fare better under different conditions, so before purchasing any system it is important to decide what you want to plant and then read about the systems that are available for that particular crop. As a first, or trial project, we were interested in growing a tomato plant. The Urban Growing Project decided that tomatoes would be an ideal plant for our initial test because of the rapid rate at which they grow. This would allow us to examine the productivity of the system and of this farming technique within the shortest framework of time. We choose a to order a system online from earthbox (at www.earthbox.com) because they had systems available that were large enough to house a cherry tomato plant, but small enough to fit in our dorm room. Additionally, because this was our first planting project we chouse a system that was very simple and easy to setup.
posted by Cora Weiss at 2:14 PM
<< Home