Getting ready for next years growing season

Last year i planted a few strawberry plants and they have done very well But and a big But is most of my land faces the burning sun all day. In the UK with the UK weather that would not be a problem but here even just before dark it's still hot.

Where i have my Strawberries i don't have room for many more plants but i want more strawberries for breakfast and i have found the answer. Hydroponics. Hydroponics is not new and most of the soft fruits on sale in the supermarkets in the UK are grown this way.

So what is Hydroponics, it's all about growing food without using soil. The plant just has it's roots in moving water, the moving water circulates the nutriments that they need to grow. The picture below shows how you can use the system to grow more in less space. I will have maybe 4 or 5 tubes and about 6ft long and from this i should get all the strawberries i want also my peppers, chilli and tomatos.

A simple small solar panel and battery will power a water pump to move the water and a timer to give the movement of water when it's needed simple.

Did you know that each week one farm in the UK picks for the supermarkets up to 700,000 peppers and 700,000 cucumbers are picked each week using this system and tomatos grow year round.

So this is how i am going to proceed with growing better numbers of strawberries, chilli and peppers and also tomatos but in a unit of there own.  

My units will be something like this one but not as high or long. The reason being i don't have the room.

Water goes in the top and comes out the bottom and is sent round and round again.

This is all it's about, i love being able to have strawberries for breakfast and i look forward to having many more next year.










Just copy and paste the links below, one is to a magazine that started in 1991.

http://hydroponics.com.au/issue-06-planning-commercial-hydroponics-part-1/

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJjAWF2DfWY