If you really wanna save loads of labor and grow the greatest product do like me.
I plant in rain gutters stacked vertically in some simple "A" frames. I seed thickly in promix and use hen manure as fertilizer. I was too stupid (and too exhausted from designing thinking building everything -ing all these systems) to put in automatic irrigation. Im not good at regular watering and it was a hot summer. Despite that:
- The salad grew so dense that i harvested to close to 2 pounds (yes 2 pounds!) of lettuce per row foot every 40 days in my best spots. I averaged 1,3 pounds per row foot.
- I can grow summer long (zone 5) because the vertical stacking gives all plants some sort of shade during part of the day at least.
-I do not bend down anymore to harvest or to do any work on the plants. Killing my back and knees is a major turn off for me when it comes to farming so thats a major plus.
- NO WEEDING -EVER!!! Weeds do not have the space to grow or the means to propagate into the elevated gutters. Yes, the odd weed seed will make it in one of my gutters, but I must spend about 4 minutes weeding in an entire season...and Ive got 120 of these 10 foot gutters!
-Insect and animal damage reduced by 95%! This used to drive me NUTS! I dont think I needto explain why. I was too lazy to put up protective netting, and the plants were fine anyway. Its much tougher for bugs and animals to get crops that are off the ground. Ive observed this year after year using various vertical systems. This is great!
-The lettuce has no dirt or grit on it. Its clean, nice, crisp, ready to sell off the plant. Saves LOADS of labor and money!
-its a joke to harvest. Very efficient because youre standing up, the canopy is so thick that one snip with the scissors yields almost a half pound of lettuce. The fact that there are multiple tiers of plants make you have to move around less, which saves even more time and effort. No weeds to sort out or anything like that. How long do you think it takes me to harvest 5 pounds of leaf lettuce mix? How about 7,8 seconds? Dont laugh, Ive timed it! Lol
- growing this way makes organic farming easy. All of the need for pesticides and herbicides is replaced by techniques that negate the need for them. I don't spray ANYTHING, organic or chemical, on my plants. Less spending on products, less driving around, less labor, higher quality and market value. Keep it simple, use a well draining medium, sprinkle some pelletized hen manure, run a soaker hose through the length of the gutters and go watch TV.
( I got one ton of fertilizer for 650$ delivered to my front door. Its certified organic, sterilized and great for all around farming of food crops. High in nitrogen, great for leafy greens). I ended up using 3x 25kg bags for the entire plot and it was overkill. So i still got 925kg under my back porch lol.
-Oh, I also grew a 30 foot Sweet 100 cherry tomato plant (or was it a tree lol) that pumped out over 1000 cherry tomatoes and yielded over 48 pounds of toms ( I weighed that too lol). It also only occupied 2 square feet of ground space, but grew very very tall :).
Going vertical has allowed me to build a good revenue farm out of a residential backyard of about 2300 sq ft. Thats just how bad I wanted it lol
Ive got even better systems for the upcoming season, but trust me if you try this youll never look back.
Khaled
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gutter garden
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