Topic: Hydroponics anyone?

[Hugh_Jones]

Sorry John, I can`t fathom the goldmine bit (unless tou`re referring to my one remaining wisdom tooth)

I have indeed seen, and well remember moveable greenhouses. A market garden (long since turned into a housing estate) where I used to call for ten shillingsworth of produce and £5 worth of advice in my younger days had a pair (I think they were mounted on  steel girders) which ran sideways on rails. There were, in effect, 4 greenhouse bases in a row, and any two could be covered at a time. I was told that one of the main advantages was that once a tomato crop was cleared the house could be moved along and planted for a fresh crop of something immediately while the old crop bed could be fumigated at leisure (in those days carbolic acid and formaline were the usual fumigants, and each took several weeks to clear before the beds could be re-used).

Rather like my old double-breasted dinner jacket (bought in 1953); as my wife keeps reminding me it comes back into fashion every 20 years or so.

[john_miller]

Apologies for being so obscure. Gold is a heavy metal. I must remember to keep my strange sense of humour off these boards.
I haven't really understood quite what the purpose of these new moveable greenhouses are to be quite honest. The only thing I can think of is being used to bring on early crops quickly then, as this old crop peters out, being moved to accelerate the growth of, and extend, a late crop. I gather from this gentleman there is a well respected local grower who has written a book about using them. I do remember my greenhouse lecturer (who had an N.D.H.!) mentioning celery in his cropping schedule but that is such a low value crop here I can't imagine that is in the plan. I do have the gentlemens e-mail address and I hope to visit when the operation is running. Hopefully all will be revealed.
As your dinner jacket is 50 years old, half way between phases, I take it that it is in the closet presently?

[Hugh_Jones]

Oh, I can see the advantages, John. Start a crop early, then once it`s well advanced simply move the greenhouse to start another crop while leaving the first crop in situ to carry on growing to maturity. It obviously maximises the use of the house, and no time lost while one crop is cleared and the beds sterilised, and it allows two successive crops to be growing in different stages of development at the same time with only one house.  Wouldn`t pay in this country now, of course because it`s cheaper to transport the stuff from Israel or Egypt than grow it here in heated glasshouses.

As to the dinner jacket, it has to manage whether it`s in fashion or not. But you are quite right as to it`s being in the closet just now - it seems to have rather mysteriously shrunk recently around the middle and I can`t understand what has caused it.

[john_miller]

This sort of investment would require the culture of high value 'cut-and-come again' crops though. This immediately limits the range of adaptable crops. Because the farm is going to be organic then no sterilant that I know of can be used and rotation is paramount and stipulated. This would also impose further limitations upon scheduling. I have heard  numbers of $100,00 gross per acre (retail presumably) though, so obviously someone has got it figured out! I need to get that book.
I do remember my lecturer saying something similar to your comments about utilising the structures and I can see it for, for instance, an early and late tomato crop, (or melons, peppers, cucumbers) but very little else. Is my imagination lacking here?

[Hugh_Jones]

Late (November) flowering Chrysanthemums, followed by winter lettuce, then tomatoes, peppers etc. perhaps?

[john_miller]

When I find out I will let you know. Cut flower production ended in this area a few years ago (due to cheap imports from Columbia and The Netherlands) and winter lettuce from California is also too cheap to be grown competitively in this area.