I love the view out the window. I actually like your shelves too. I am really glad you posted that, because I was going to get some of those totes for my misting set up, and I just realized the tops may not work well because you need to drill out the holes for the net cups.
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I line these 27 gallon totes with aluminum foil and put a heat mat in the bottom. There are 2 -2 foot grow light fastened to the lid. You grow a lot of starts in cells in one of these. I am using them to maintain my tomatoes until I can move them to greenhouse. They are kind of a perfect seed starting system IMO if you don’t have room for a shelf setup or a warm place to start seeds.
Last picture is just a set up I stuck into one of my tool rooms to take some of the over flow. Took about 20 minutes to set this up
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Link I used for the 2 foot grow lights I used in these set ups. Same brand 4 footers in the last picture.
https://www.amazon.com/Barrina-Lights-Spectrum-Equivalent-Greenhouse/dp/B07VD1884R/ref=asc_df_B07VD1884R/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=642221662034&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5149363464797148168&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1019250&hvtargid=pla-1016999849461&psc=1&mcid=a2afc78d9b343148b72d78155e29e8e9
I have enough of the four foot lights to blanket my 10 by 20 greenhouse and feel like they were a reasonable priced investment, but I also stocked up on a bunch of 5000W 6000K 46 inch LED shop lights I got on sale at a box store for 10 bucks a piece. They work just as well as long as the Kelvins are above 4500. I recommend getting everything you can right now especially if you live on the East side of the Mississippi. That bridge collapse in Baltimore is a major deal. Those container ships from China won’t have anyplace to unload for quite a while on the east coast.
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Oh! I wondered what you were doing with them. That is very clever, I might borrow that idea. Actually you can consider it stolen. I technically don’t need the aeroponics, for the cloning but I do need the mist and humidity control, and space is an issue, and I can use the water proof led strip lights and have more control over the light intensity.
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You have no doubt seen this video Sean but for people that don’t know what aeroponics is, this is a build of a system. Different from other hydro systems in that the plant roots are not submerged in water. I have seen videos of potatoes grown aeroponically but I don’t think that’s doable for the home grower. For the past couple of years I have been planting much less in my traditional garden and experimenting more with hydro but this year I’ve had to reconsider just because of the volume of food I expect to grow do to the poisoning of all commercially grown foods. You all may think I’m exaggerating, but nutz is better than weak and sick. Anyway, the only downside to Hydro is despite a lot of research I have found no self made or organic nutrient solutions to give really good results. I have stocked up on enough Masterblend components to probably last me til I’m planted myself. Soil or solution, people need to be aware that they need to find an alternative to getting food from the grocery stores because by this time next year it probably will be iffy.
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An overview of some grow systems from down under where the song sez that “Women glow and men plunder” Shame on you Dave.
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I think it is usually anywhere between 5-30minutes per hour. It depends on the plant. You typically are just trying to keep the roots wet, and then you want air to reach them. I don’t know if it matters as much with the pump system as the ultrasonic foggers but you have to be careful it doesn’t heat up too much like 85F is the cutoff as well.
I was going to build a similar system, but the ultrasonic foggers were cheaper then the pvc. BUT the ultrasonic foggers ceramic disks can break so I got two sets. I am trying to figure out how I am going to measure much water they disperse. (i looked up some similar ones. the 108khz 16mm disks output 50 ml/hr.)
Just to give you an idea of the foggers i have…
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Apparently, on my ultrasonic driver board, they have a PLC or microcontroller. It shuts off after 4 hours. It isn’t going to work for me like that. they also have a program on it, that cycles through them, which is kind of cool, for say a halloween display, but doesn’t help me much either. So I guess I have to fudge around with these a bit more then I was hoping.
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Anybody here tried growing upside down tomatoes or cukes? I tried it a while back when they were selling these topsy turvy grow bags and then again last year. Didn’t get much out of it, a few cukes and tomatoes per vine but I can’t see why it shouldn’t work.
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I did, looks atractive but thats about it. Not much practical value in my opinion
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We tried two of them as well about 15 years ago, no great harvest but a harvest nonetheless. So if space in a greenhouse is a problem they have their spot but I am not sure other than that and a fun thing that I would recommend them.
However when we used those, it was more a fun thing on the porch before we moved to the farm so there was no serious attempt.
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We tried two hanging bags systems also about 12 years ago. Mail-order bought.
Up in the air suspended no blight, and fewer bugs.
But the small retained moisture capacity, and with hand watering; really hurt the end yield.
By the second year the bought fabrics in these bought systems had UV deteriorated too weak to reuse a second year.
So too expensive to pursue.
This system needs auto water misting imho.
S.U.
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They have special varieties are more optimized to grow like that and the yields are fairly low relative to other varieties.
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I tried everything over the years but nothing for me works as good as the old fashioned in the ground method that has been done for centuries. “In the sweat of my brow shall I eat bread”.
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we have tried all sorts of things to be more self sufficient. planted avocado and raspberries, citrus and sweet potato. lastest push has been mushrooms. Late last year I purchased spores for wine cap mushrooms, Phoenix oyster,and Tawaka. Im now selling $300 worth of oyster mushrooms each saturday at the farmers market and because Im emptying spent growbags into our bark gardens, now that autumn has arrived we have delicious gourmet mushrooms popping up all over the garden http/sporaddicmushrooms.com
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Do you just buy spores or do you make the spore media as well? I was looking at it, and it was a lot of sterilization, and needed a sterile hood.
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Its constant work!- I buy in syringes of sterile liquid spores each week, make 16 sawdust blocks each week, sterilise and inoculate them, grow them out for two weeks then transfer to fruiting room, harvest and farmers market.
But so much better than a real job!
Ive faffed about with petri dishes and cultures- but its so easy to contaminate and lose the lot. - I got really good at losing the lot 
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I was wondering if anyone does mushrooms here. Nice. I too am geting my feet wet. Had mixed sucsess, and almost gave up then this monster popped out of a forgoten bag in the cellar. I got interested again 
Almost a full pound
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I tried turkeytail mushrooms by plugs in logs but it took a few years before they completly took over the log but as it turned out we did not like turkeytails 
So we moved on to oyster mushrooms which we already knew we liked plus the fact that they are very suitable to grow indoors as that is in their preferred temperature growth span.
Could not find pictures of how I grew them, only when they were finished
This first pic is the yield of the first harvest of oysters on one three foot (1 m) grow bag. We usually took three harvests of each bag.
We bought already inoculated mycel on wheat from
and we grew them on pelletized lucern for horses as that was the cheapest suitable and sterilized growth media I could find, wetted it down to the right moisture level and layered it in ziptied plastic bag tubing (that you buy in a roll) and made cuts in the bag at the layers and hung them up to grow, first dark and then light for them to fruit.
I don’t know if this is how others do it but it worked very well but it was abandoned as a selling thing we had issues with predicting harvests as we only had markets every other thursday. But I guess we could have stuck with it a bit longer to dial it in properly for predictability.
For house needs it works flawlessly, minimal work and high yield.
Edit: we then looked into selling dried mushrooms but then laws and regulations came in to the picture so that would have taken a chunk of the profit plus the hassle with government.
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