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From: "tvoivozhd" <tvoivozd AT infi.net>
To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT listserv.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Grrenhouse, for George
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 16:31:03 -0800
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Viking" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT listserv.unc.edu>
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 10:36 PM
Subject: Grrenhouse, for George

> I could play with a mini aquaculture or hydroponic setup, but don't have
> any idea of what I would actually grow.  Of course, I could also set the
> aquarium up as a terrarium, but why do that when it will hold water.
> So, I am looking for ideas.  What could I do?  You guys are great at
> giving me ideas, so I am depending on you.
> I also have a 55 gallon tank, but it is not in the greenhouse.  I really
> don't want to use it, but just for your brainstorming pleasure, you can
> include it in the list of materials available.
> I also have grow lights and fluorescent lights.
>
> Bev
>
>
> --
> Bevanron of Rock Creek
> erthnsky AT bellsouth.net
> SISU! (Finnish--There is no single word in English that encompasses
> all that sisu means, but it combines the following ideas... guts, pep,
> determination, stubborness, perseverance, hardy, stamina, go, do, nerve,
> spunk, pluck, and grit.  It's like "Just Do It!" & "Go for It!")  ("Gimme
that pointed stick, Sancho---Rozinante and I are going to take out that guy
trying to confuse us with the old whirling arm trick---makes my Finnish frog
blood boil!")

tvoivozhd---I have promised my little hoophouse that I will be happy with
tomatoes in June---but if it had commercial aspirations I would tell it to
produce what is expensive and/or in short supply, plus something that could
find a profitable set-and-forget place along fencerows, creeks and roads if
there were an unsaleable surplus.

A really low-input crop like blight-free hazelnuts and timber-type
chestnuts.
An alternative or supplement could be blueberries.  Every time I buy some,
as I just did, I say to myself, "how can you expect your campaign for world
domination to succeed, if you waste so much armament money buying blueberry
plants that you could raise for nearly nothing?"


Also, at my age I am not certain I want to get into hybridizing triploid
watermelon, but with seedless watermelon packets selling at a dollar a seed,
it might be something a blonde Finn could explore---after all, what have you
got to lose?

And I have been waiting a year and one half for Southmeadow to ship me some
heirloom apples they thought they had enough of and didn't---on dwarfing
rootstock of course.  The cost-benefit ratio to both grower and
orchard-owner is so much higher than standard skyscraper-height trees, I
don't know why anyone buys them unless they also own a power-utility truck
with a boom and basket.

The world needs more dwarf Ashmead's Kernel, Calville Blanc d'Hiver,
Centennial, Cornish Gilliflower, Cox's Orange Pippin, Esopus Spitzenburg,
Golden Nugget, Golden Russet, Hudson's Golden Gem, Irish Peach, Jefferis,
Kerry Pippin, Tompkin's King, Margil and Mother---late-blooming Gilpin if
you live in a late frost area.  Everything sold in buckets of course.
Eliminate the digging and packaging of bare-root trees, and the shock to the
plant in transplanting.

No one markets this kind of stuff at all in Virginia.  I suspect it is the
same all over the U.S.  Only insipid common varieties are sold in garden
stores, Lowes, Walmart et. al.  It would be a good thing to sell at city
weekend markets and flea markets.  You can't do it all yourself of course,
but it shouldn't be hard to find dealers who pay up front for the
merchandise.  Cash probably, they don't want to leave a paper trail.

Anyway, this is ideal merchandise, no short shelf-life and of wide utility.
Selling plants in buckets extends the season like crazy---plant almost any
time of the year.

P.S.---Re: Grrenhouse.  Reminiscent of the WWII signs, "Where are the
grills?"  And posted below it, "You mean girls!"  And posted below that,
"How about us grills?"