4 ms·

Having built simple pneumatic and hydraulic systems using relays, sensors and SoCs, this would he an excellent and fun project. It is actually one of my ultimat

Having built simple pneumatic and hydraulic systems using relays, sensors and SoCs, this would he an excellent and fun project. It is actually one of my ultimate goals in life to automate a closed system of food production. But one thing, externalizing a lot of the automation to already automated processes i.e. the natural environment is quite useful. You have a general pattern of predictability and the trade off is that it is not granularly predictable but there are less catastrophic failure modes. All in all, if you're on earth it makes the most sense to just grow things outside, or in a passive greenhouse if temperature is a concern. Also to be considered is the more active automation complexity you add, the more narrow the scope will be, so if you're tightly controlling nutrients for example, you're restricted on what variety you can have. If you consider the plants active participants in the system as opposed to subjects to or of the system you can devise a much easier system to construct, a la permaculture.

ampdepolymerase 5y ago
What you want is a growth chamber.
tharkun__ 5y ago
Same dream here. I just never have time or space ;) I make due with with the garden in the meantime. As you say a lot of it is just free in nature. Nutrients are in the compost (I have a lot of trees meaning leaves that I compost with grass clippings, kitchen scraps and guinea pig poop) and sun and water are free and automatic most of the times. The problem comes in when these don't cooperate. A few years ago my corn was unusable. Too wet and I'm not sure what exactly it was but it had this black fungus-y stuff. Threw it all out. Then it was too dry so I had to add an automated watering system as the rain barrels couldn't keep up. This year I haven't had to use it yet. I can't even really use the overflowing rainbarrels because it keeps raining once a week (mainly have potatoes this year). What I really like is fruit trees. Very very hands off after getting them established. Unfortunately they are mainly for fresh eating and jam, so not really food production in that sense. But sure as hell very tasty all year round! I can recommend sour cherries. The sour of the cherries is awesome once made into jam and personally I will eat them right off the tree too. Not many worms either.
- reydequeso 5y ago
  that black fungus, corn smut, is highly appreciated in Latin American communities. I've been tooling around the idea of making a corn smut farm, because once you get it it 'll stay (in most instances) but that would also make growing corn difficult if I wanted to grow it in the future.
  - tharkun__ 5y ago
    Interesting. I had no idea! That is very good to know actually in case it ever happens again in a year I do have corn.
    - arrosenberg 5y ago
      There is a place in San Diego that puts it on tacos. They're really good. http://www.aquiestexcoco.com/what-is-huitlacoche/ http://www.aquiestexcoco.com/what-is-huitlacoche/
  - Scoundreller 5y ago
    > corn smut is highly appreciated in Latin American communities. So are the guinea pigs! But further south and higher elevation than taco consumers.
- ornornor 5y ago
  > guinea pig poop Interested in this statement, because I’ve always read and been told not to put pet waste into the compost; the rationale being that they can carry viruses that you can then catch if you eat what grew in it. Is guinea pig poop special, or do you have a particular method to avoid that?
  - tharkun__ 5y ago
    That entirely depends on the animal. You don't want dog, cat or human. Chickens have been used for ages to make really awesome manure. It's so 'hot' you need a lot of other material + time so it doesn't burn plants. I guess they might not count as pets in most places, but around here lots of backyard chickens. Do horses count as pets? Horse manure is awesome too. It's only lightly processed grass/hay and you can still see individual blades. I started off my veggie garden with a load of 1 year old horse manure from a local horse place. My guinea pigs mow the lawn in summer (and still get some kitchen scraps like cucumber cut-offs the kids don't like) and the radish greens whenever we pull a radish etc. In winter I still don't feed them any meat :) These small rodents, along with other common household pets such as gerbils and hamsters, are omnivores, eating both plants and animal proteins (mainly from insects). That being said, those kept as pets are typically fed a plant-based diet with much of their proteins and minerals obtained from specialized food, often in the form of pellets. So, unlike meat-eating animals (including your cat or dog), their manure is perfectly safe for use in the garden and suitable for home composting too. https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/manures/guinea-pig-manure.htm https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/manures/guinea-p...

ampdepolymerase 5y ago

What you want is a growth chamber.

tharkun__ 5y ago

Same dream here. I just never have time or space ;) I make due with with the garden in the meantime. As you say a lot of it is just free in nature. Nutrients are in the compost (I have a lot of trees meaning leaves that I compost with grass clippings, kitchen scraps and guinea pig poop) and sun and water are free and automatic most of the times. The problem comes in when these don't cooperate. A few years ago my corn was unusable. Too wet and I'm not sure what exactly it was but it had this black fungus-y stuff. Threw it all out. Then it was too dry so I had to add an automated watering system as the rain barrels couldn't keep up. This year I haven't had to use it yet. I can't even really use the overflowing rainbarrels because it keeps raining once a week (mainly have potatoes this year). What I really like is fruit trees. Very very hands off after getting them established. Unfortunately they are mainly for fresh eating and jam, so not really food production in that sense. But sure as hell very tasty all year round! I can recommend sour cherries. The sour of the cherries is awesome once made into jam and personally I will eat them right off the tree too. Not many worms either.

reydequeso 5y ago
that black fungus, corn smut, is highly appreciated in Latin American communities. I've been tooling around the idea of making a corn smut farm, because once you get it it 'll stay (in most instances) but that would also make growing corn difficult if I wanted to grow it in the future.
- tharkun__ 5y ago
  Interesting. I had no idea! That is very good to know actually in case it ever happens again in a year I do have corn.
  - arrosenberg 5y ago
    There is a place in San Diego that puts it on tacos. They're really good. http://www.aquiestexcoco.com/what-is-huitlacoche/ http://www.aquiestexcoco.com/what-is-huitlacoche/
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  > corn smut is highly appreciated in Latin American communities. So are the guinea pigs! But further south and higher elevation than taco consumers.
ornornor 5y ago
> guinea pig poop Interested in this statement, because I’ve always read and been told not to put pet waste into the compost; the rationale being that they can carry viruses that you can then catch if you eat what grew in it. Is guinea pig poop special, or do you have a particular method to avoid that?
- tharkun__ 5y ago
  That entirely depends on the animal. You don't want dog, cat or human. Chickens have been used for ages to make really awesome manure. It's so 'hot' you need a lot of other material + time so it doesn't burn plants. I guess they might not count as pets in most places, but around here lots of backyard chickens. Do horses count as pets? Horse manure is awesome too. It's only lightly processed grass/hay and you can still see individual blades. I started off my veggie garden with a load of 1 year old horse manure from a local horse place. My guinea pigs mow the lawn in summer (and still get some kitchen scraps like cucumber cut-offs the kids don't like) and the radish greens whenever we pull a radish etc. In winter I still don't feed them any meat :) These small rodents, along with other common household pets such as gerbils and hamsters, are omnivores, eating both plants and animal proteins (mainly from insects). That being said, those kept as pets are typically fed a plant-based diet with much of their proteins and minerals obtained from specialized food, often in the form of pellets. So, unlike meat-eating animals (including your cat or dog), their manure is perfectly safe for use in the garden and suitable for home composting too. https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/manures/guinea-pig-manure.htm https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/manures/guinea-p...