Grow your own — Food Self-sufficiency for you

[nearing]

Posted by Strat (here)
This may be offtopic, but I don't want to start a new thread for this. Here is my second broccoli harvest so far (maybe the last, I'll know in a week or so):

2nd Harvest

Here is what a broccoli looks like when it is getting ready to flower. See the bulbs/heads separating? Maybe next week it will flower. I purposely left it so that I could show this to you folks.

Gorgeous! You are lucky to be in an area where you can get broccoli in February!

[Strat]

Thanks! That was my first try at broccoli and they definitely exceeded my expectations.

In about a month I'll start tomatoes, they grow really well in FL. The vines can exceed 8' in length. It's actually a bit of an issue finding ways to keep them off the ground.

[Arrowwind]

Posted by Flash (here)
AnThank you for reminding us. Everytimes I see a thread like this one, I have a tendency not to read it because most of the suggestions are for warm or temperate climates and are not relevant in a very cold climate.

What I would like to find is how to make small greenhouses in basements for example to start seeds growing and how to plant earlier in the season to avoid the seeds to freeze. And how to heat the whole stuff without any gaz or oil.

Finally, may be how to handle a rifle to be able to hunt.......lol, rifles are forbidden in Canada unless you are a registered hunter, and it takes time to get the permit.

We are in planning stages for our green house. You would love it. we are in a very cold climate with a 60 tp 70 day growing season. The green house will be about 20 x 10. The north wall will be solid and could be constructed into a earthen slope if desired but we dont have that so it will be a solid insulated wall lined with 50 gallon drums filled with water. Facing south it will have 2 doors one in the east and one in the west for good cross ventilation in the summer as I will want to grow in there in the summer as well as spring and fall. We will have an electric heater for those few days or nights in may and june and september when it may be needed. on the south side we are thinking of putting in a passive solar air panel... made out of coke cans in a about a 5 x 12 frame painted black. The heat up during the day even if its cold out, from the sun and blow with a small fan hot air up to 100 degrees into the greenhouse, heating up the soil and drums etc. Heres a site about them.. lots of videos on their construction available.. the panel may stand vertical with only storage behind it in the green house or it may go on the roof
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KL35Z4_VFs We are hoping to extend our growing season by 6 weeks on each end of the summer.,, but I think I may be able to grow some greens up until thanksgiving... end of november.

We will not use glass but a double thick poly carbonate. One fan will also go in above a door to help keep it cool in the summer.

[wavydome]

Here is an update: Yet another experimental "insulating" of a greenhouse.... The main feature is that it kept soil well above freezing (in zone 5a). Though reduced sun angle here begs for some LED lights. Yet this size provided kale and mustard greens all winter. The point is that without added insulation, greenhouses freeze dry the plants.

I've added the concept of insulating a skirt around the greenhouse.... To help 'annualize' the summer energy, kinda. My eye lid currently is a crudely welded steel frame with two layers of bubble pack sheets, hand-rolled-seams-stapled. The rest of structure is ferrocement arches, with cardboard and scrap foam, all covered with rubber-roof-sheet. The minimum R value is maybe 2 or 3.

http://harmoniouspalette.com/EyelidG...reenhouse.html

The doubled layer poly carbide is a form of insulation. I had clad a big dome with that in 1995. Before the end of the 10 year 'guarantee' it was developing opacity (hazing-yellowing, which reduces sunlight entry). It's a shame that the plastic industry refuses advanced development of greenhouse materials. Owned buy big oil, no doubt they don't want more-durable greenhouses for the people. Ultimately i' might upgrade insulation further.

[Strat]

I thought the frost killed my broccolis but they are strong. Here is that pic I promised, a broccoli when it is flowering:

Flowering broccoli

The flowers are edible. Actually the whole plant is edible, not sure about the roots though.

The rebar in the background is one of several. When it freezes I lay plastic over the broccolis to protect them from frost. I put rebar in key points to hold the plastic up. The PVC elbow piece keeps the rebar from poking holes in the plastic.