I'd love to have a good book or instruction manuals on how to do this stuff - I'd jump on it right away, although I already have a pretty decent garden, producing food for a family of 4 every year - salads and radishes galore at the moment, lots of great stuff (20 types of vegetables and fruits) on its way. Gardening is a lot of work - its true - but its also very rewarding work, and one thing I've noticed over the years is that the more you do it, the less you have to do. We have a full cycle going - kitchen scraps to the compost, new healthy soil from the compost into our beds, seedlings (heritage at this point) started at the start of season, beds in process and daily maintained, and so on.
But the point is: the more work you do, the less you end up having to do .. and this is where it pays to work smarter, not harder. So I really think this is a growth industry (pun!) for the near future: having the computer keep an eye on things, providing data and feedback, and eventually control over the key inputs into this complex system.
Anyone know where this gentleman in the video is getting his knowledge? I'd love to have some references to start getting our garden automated.
I live in the Netherlands and around my corner is a growshop - basically selling all sorts of technology for growing plants indoors, with the main intended audience being marihuana growers. The demo setup they have, contains chili peppers though, for legal reasons. Anyway, their book sales section has 3-4 meters of books on the subject (not marihuana specifically, just all sorts of automated/high-yield/indoor plant growing). Spending, say, 100$ on books from this result page http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=hydrophonic... will get you 50 cms of reading, yourself (I see there's even a book called 'Chemical Gardening for the Amateur' from 1939 on there - I'm tempted to buy that one myself...)
"hydrophonics"? "aquaphonics"? might you not want "-ponics"? as opposed to something associated with sound? [shrug]
i was curious what the distinction was between hydroponics and aquaponics and here's what one source had to say on the matter: "Aquaponic and hydroponic systems both use water and share a few common parts, but that's where the similarities end. Hydroponic systems focus solely on plant growth, while aquaponic systems attempt to achieve a healthy life balance between both plants and fish." http://homeguides.sfgate.com/aquaponic-vs-hydroponic-31311.h...
But the point is: the more work you do, the less you end up having to do .. and this is where it pays to work smarter, not harder. So I really think this is a growth industry (pun!) for the near future: having the computer keep an eye on things, providing data and feedback, and eventually control over the key inputs into this complex system.
Anyone know where this gentleman in the video is getting his knowledge? I'd love to have some references to start getting our garden automated.