User avatar
Gary350
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7396
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Worlds Largest Green House Farming

If you have not seen this video yet take a look. It speaks for itself. The United States is a lot smaller and less populated than we realize compared to other countries. The town where I live is booming again like it was before the economy crashed they are building 200 new houses in this county every week. This town was 40,000. population when I moved here 40 yes ago now it is close to 300,000. Farm land keeps turning into subdivisions. The land across the road from us sold to a developer city code sent us notice 240 houses are going to be built across the road from us and several 10 story building retirement complexes on the 30 acres to the south of us. Some day there will be a shortage of farm land in this country. The whole world will depend on green house food some day. If I could grow food like this video my tiny garden would probably produce 20 times more food. I though I was doing good but after watching this I don't think so. My college room mate works in a 100 acre green house in Chicago he keeps telling me how they grow 20 times more food than farmers, now I see why.

https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicf ... 761986479/

pepperhead212
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2851
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:52 pm
Location: Woodbury NJ Zone 7a/7b

Gary,

I've seen amazing things about the food production in Holland in many of my hydroponics articles. Incredible what they have done in such a small area!


Your area sounds like NJ many years ago. Farms were being sold off because none of the next generation wanted to deal with it, and they could make much more selling land than growing on it! This is how NJ became the most densely populated state. Many of the townships that used to be all farmland, had no zip codes, they had so little population, and they were simply delivered by neighboring towns, and now they are some of most densely populated, yet still have to use the zip codes from before, and they are pi**ed that they don't have "their own" zip code, and have to use that old one, that used to be a farm region! Cracks me up when I hear these things! And another good one is a town I deliver in, that I grew up near, was known as a pig town, and when the wind was coming from that direction you knew it! Yet, there are still some of those farms out there, but mostly housing developments, and in the summer (especially) I think to myself that those people must have bought their homes in the winter, when they wouldn't have realized what they are in for! They are still building, but it has fizzled out, at least in this area. And they (politicians, if you can imagine that) have finally wised up, realizing that all of those houses aren't what they were cracked up to be for income, with all that property tax, as they also have to increase their infrastructure, schools, trash pickup, etc. etc., and it ended up costing them more! Not to mention, what to do with all that trash!!! (the reason for those Superfund sites - places that were severely polluted landfills). So now, they are actually paying for some of that area to be left as open space, with farmland preservation programs, and other programs.

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13961
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

The Dutch have always been innovative, reclaiming the land from the sea and they have a sea wall that was built to protect them from storm surges that was just amazing.

Hydroponics can grow more food faster in a small space, but there has to be very good controls to keep the bugs out, temperature and light control. Robots have been designed to grow plants from seed and even to cull plants that don't measure up.

User avatar
ID jit
Green Thumb
Posts: 339
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 10:00 am
Location: SE New England: zone twilight or 5b... hard for me to tell some days.

What about growing bananas and strawberries north of the arctic circle?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_pr ... in_Iceland
https://icelandmag.visir.is/article/icel ... ma-disease

User avatar
Gary350
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7396
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

pepperhead212 wrote:Gary,

I've seen amazing things about the food production in Holland in many of my hydroponics articles. Incredible what they have done in such a small area!


Your area sounds like NJ many years ago. Farms were being sold off because none of the next generation wanted to deal with it, and they could make much more selling land than growing on it! This is how NJ became the most densely populated state. Many of the townships that used to be all farmland, had no zip codes, they had so little population, and they were simply delivered by neighboring towns, and now they are some of most densely populated, yet still have to use the zip codes from before, and they are pi**ed that they don't have "their own" zip code, and have to use that old one, that used to be a farm region! Cracks me up when I hear these things! And another good one is a town I deliver in, that I grew up near, was known as a pig town, and when the wind was coming from that direction you knew it! Yet, there are still some of those farms out there, but mostly housing developments, and in the summer (especially) I think to myself that those people must have bought their homes in the winter, when they wouldn't have realized what they are in for! They are still building, but it has fizzled out, at least in this area. And they (politicians, if you can imagine that) have finally wised up, realizing that all of those houses aren't what they were cracked up to be for income, with all that property tax, as they also have to increase their infrastructure, schools, trash pickup, etc. etc., and it ended up costing them more! Not to mention, what to do with all that trash!!! (the reason for those Superfund sites - places that were severely polluted landfills). So now, they are actually paying for some of that area to be left as open space, with farmland preservation programs, and other programs.
There use to be a BIG chicken farmer several miles from town. Town grew larger soon his farm was in the city limits. Contractors built houses all around his 9 large chicken buildings where chickens layed all the eggs. People bought all the houses then the community took him to court and WON. Like you says, they must have bought their house in winter or when wind was blowing the other direction. Chicken mans land was worth many times more as building lots of houses so he sold out now his farm is gone and it is all houses. I hope chicken man got rich.

My college roommate that worked at the green house in Chicago said, they plant all the seeds in a cotton ball. Water runs though PVC pipe with holes in it for cotton balls. You put a seed in a cotton ball then push it into the hole. Roots grow down inside the pipe where the water is and the plant grows up out the top of the pipe. Holes are spaced according to what is being grown. When a plant like lettuce or cabbage is ready to harvest pull it out and replace it with another cotton ball. Water is tested all the time to make sure it has fertilizer and minerals the plants need.



Return to “Vegetable Gardening Forum”