Thoughts on vertical garden methods wanted
Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:03 am
Had a nosey at a few mthods of growing vertically the other day and narrowed down to a likely three that I can do with space and ability I have. Now comes the tricky bit of finding the most efficient.
Firstly is a hydroponic system of pipes, pretty self explanitory in that water is dripped drown from the top and runs down the pipework to be pumped back up to the top. Likely will need to be an a timer for on every 20 minutes or so. The electricity cost is easy to work out along with material costs. But has anyone had any experience of outdoor hydroponics? Just how much faster does your crop really grow? can you even squeeze in additional crops?
Second is a bottle tower garden, a good method of recycling I'll admit and also seems to provide some good returns on square footage. But again just how much crop will be grown in this way? I know I will treble or quaduple what I would have growing in the ground but I'm concerned it may not matchup to a hydropnic method?
Lastly Is a new design I noticed from the states being marketed as a "garden composting tower". The premise being similar to stacked boxes or bottles where you have cut outs all the way up for the plants. However this has a perforated cylinder through the center which is filled with all your kitchen scraps, add in worms which then happily compost this waste into food for your plants in the main tower, at the bottom is a method of catching water run off so it can be recycled. This is perhaps a very good idea I think should be fairly easy to replicate. Anyone have any thoughts on just how effective this would be though in the real world?
http://www.gardentowerproject.com/
So of all these three which would most folk who have had practical experience of one or more say is likely to be the most efficient for a small garden?
Firstly is a hydroponic system of pipes, pretty self explanitory in that water is dripped drown from the top and runs down the pipework to be pumped back up to the top. Likely will need to be an a timer for on every 20 minutes or so. The electricity cost is easy to work out along with material costs. But has anyone had any experience of outdoor hydroponics? Just how much faster does your crop really grow? can you even squeeze in additional crops?
Second is a bottle tower garden, a good method of recycling I'll admit and also seems to provide some good returns on square footage. But again just how much crop will be grown in this way? I know I will treble or quaduple what I would have growing in the ground but I'm concerned it may not matchup to a hydropnic method?
Lastly Is a new design I noticed from the states being marketed as a "garden composting tower". The premise being similar to stacked boxes or bottles where you have cut outs all the way up for the plants. However this has a perforated cylinder through the center which is filled with all your kitchen scraps, add in worms which then happily compost this waste into food for your plants in the main tower, at the bottom is a method of catching water run off so it can be recycled. This is perhaps a very good idea I think should be fairly easy to replicate. Anyone have any thoughts on just how effective this would be though in the real world?
http://www.gardentowerproject.com/
So of all these three which would most folk who have had practical experience of one or more say is likely to be the most efficient for a small garden?