Live in an apartment?? Need to grow food??

Compact barrel gardening. Like I said in the other thread.. you can buy or barter these food grade barrels el cheapo on Craigslist. If I were to do this, Id work in gravity fed irrigation.




Scrounge up a discarded pallet inthe trash.. grow!

Im a real fan of these pvc pipe gardens.




This is a really priceless idea. Incredible. I can think of a million ways to fit this into apartment living or small space. The closed system of it is GREAT!

Sprouted beans and seeds are very nutritious and can be done with mason jars, and cheesecloth. They are ready in as little as 48 hours and storage space is very small.

Wheatgrass and other greens for juicing are also easy to grow and small in size.

These two types of food will provide vitamins, minerals and healthy enzymes that are not available in stored foods.

They both can be used within a few days of starting.

To avoid being at the mercy of the natural elements and food cost inflationary measures, learning about growing sprouting seeds indoors is highly recommended and invaluable knowledge. It is simple, highly nutritious and inexpensive also.
vegetarian.lovetoknow.com...

For ONE person you need about 200 sq ft of a raised garden to feed them per season. 800-1200 square feet should yield enough fruits and vegetables for a family of four per season. How many mason jars of sprouts does that equal? Not being a jerk here, but Im talking about REALISTIC survival and receiving adequate nutrition to survive, work, whatever. Even supplementation of your diet with home grown is a lg amount... hence the different techniques of vertical growing for those with limited space.

Awesome Thread - Thanks.

I'm gonna try this at home.

Originally posted by Advantage
For ONE person you need about 200 sq ft of a raised garden to feed them per season. 800-1200 square feet should yield enough fruits and vegetables for a family of four per season. How many mason jars of sprouts does that equal? Not being a jerk here, but Im talking about REALISTIC survival and receiving adequate nutrition to survive, work, whatever. Even supplementation of your diet with home grown is a lg amount... hence the different techniques of vertical growing for those with limited space.

A tablespoon of bean seeds will provide a pint of sprouts in three days. A person who eats only sprouts for vegetables would need six jars rotated out two at a time over the three day growing period. That's an entire square foot of counter space.

That means no matter what the season there will be nutritious green food with a lot of vitamins and healthy enzymes. Even in the dead of winter.

The point of sprouts is that it is a nearly immediate return of food when the 200 feet of raised garden is still getting planted, sitting under snow or never got planted in the first place..

The storage space for seeds is very small and the nutrition returned for the small effort is very high.

Realistic survival includes capitalizing on your options, no matter how small they may seem at first.

These videos are AWESOME!!!

Can't wait to construct these from scratch.

reply to post by Advantage

For ONE person you need about 200 sq ft of a raised garden to feed them per season. 800-1200 square feet should yield enough fruits and vegetables for a family of four per season. How many mason jars of sprouts does that equal? Not being a jerk here, but Im talking about REALISTIC survival and receiving adequate nutrition to survive, work, whatever. Even supplementation of your diet with home grown is a lg amount... hence the different techniques of vertical growing for those with limited space.

What I posted was moreso in the context of a survival situation and I should have made that more clear, in which the body requires very little food to sustain itself if receiving quality nutrients to maintain life. Sprouting in such cases will be a 'life saver' because it is so simple, fast yielding and cheap to source. Your efforts here to educate are applauded and certainly have their merit (S and F for you) because it is knowledge that so many reliant on commercial produce need, as environments can and will change to alter society.

i know quite a bit about indoor gardening from my younger days

Great ideas, some I have seen, some I haven't. I'm going to study all of these.

Regarding the second post, I too have seeds - alfalfa, mung beans, chia seeds etc. They only need a little water and NO light, at least for the mung beans. Fresh, fast and super nutritious. I made my own sprouter with the tall round plastic containers that the generic drink powder used to come in from Walmart. I picked them up at our recycle center. Poked some holes in the bottom and the lid. Much cheaper than ordering a sprouter. I still need to get wheat grass seeds and I'll be set in that department.

reply to post by Advantage


I have done this for fun and it actually works way better than you would think. Watering can get a little messy but nothing you can't handle with a few sham-wows. It may not seem practical to some but these with a few mercury halide lamps or sodium lamps (depending on what you are growing) and you would be good to grow, you would be growing things that people would not be able to grow outdoors. I also did some experimenting with LED grow lights and have had mixed results. If you live in an apartment this is important because you may not have enough natural sunlight.
The posted videos are great but they are not really in an apartment, from what I can tell they are either outside or in a green-house type setting. An important factor in this is ventilation, if you were to do this in an apartment or other small space you are going to need some ventilation. If you don't you get mold and then you start losing plants.
S&F

reply to post by Advantage


Awesome thread. I guess there are definitely some things I have missed as far as prepping. I have food storage but i was literally thinking about ways to plant food in my confined space when I saw this! I do not live in an apartment, but my yard is limited.

I will look into this further thank you!

Well, you've got the plants, you've got the fish - why not put them together?

Make your garden get nutrient rich water fed automatically via pumps connected to a live fish trough - and have the garden water recycle back to the system. You can even have fish grow big enough to eat them. Seafood and Salad together forever!

This is similar to the video above but it doesn't cost millions of dollars and it's designed for personal home use.

Backyard aquaponics: DIY system to farm fish with vegetables



BTW, per the video above mine, contrary to their claims there is no proof our oceans are over fished.

Interesting techniques being discussed - I'm not seeing an extended SHTF/WROL situation even lending itself to Apartment living. However, these techniques still interest me in just a living better situation.

Questions for those who have done ~any~ indoor gardening:

- How have you managed the landlord, pests, and pets situations in both cases? I'd think insurance issues might emerge, easy scapegoating if their is a pest infestation, animals wreaking havoc, etc. all come up.

- How do you manage the balance of sunlight and water when, almost by definition, you want to keep a low profile in the earlier speculated phases of a SHTF/WROL event? I'm not looking to let in a lot of light or leave my secured environment often while things are potentially crazy in early stages.

Appreciate your responses, -Mags

reply to post by badgerprints

Even this only works for as long as the seeds hold out. Without a way of replenishing your supply you still have a problem, hence gardening.

Originally posted by SeenMyShare
reply to post by badgerprints

 

Even this only works for as long as the seeds hold out. Without a way of replenishing your supply you still have a problem, hence gardening.

I agree.
I'm not saying that sprouting is the only solution. I'm simply pointing out that if you are prepared, it is a good way to insure a quick supply of healthy fresh food.

Am I not saying it right?

reply to post by badgerprints

You're saying it right. I misunderstood about the length of time sprouts were supposed to last . Sprouts will get you to the harvest and seed saving of a garden.

Excellent info and vids op.
I have an aquaponics set up with fish tanks and farm cubes 1m x 1m, it's brilliant and very user friendly once they're set up.
These systems can be made as big or as small as you like and you can grow anything.
My next system will be for perch, set up as a flood and drain system, where as the first set is constant flow.

I think the future coming it will be important for people to be more responsible about where they get their food from, so it's a valuable skill, and not as difficult as some think.

s & f

Arent some of these systems called bubbleponics?