Sunday, December 03, 2006

Hydroponic Strawberries in December

Only twenty two miles east of down town Bradenton, a lovely drive through the scrubby Florida countryside, you will find the hydroponic farm “Hydro-Taste”. Part show room, part working farm, this out door laboratory has our community talking. We were greeted by columns of colourful impatiens and the enthusiastic owner, Chester Bullock. Chester ushered us directly to the growing area where he graciously explained how the growing system works. We could not believe our eyes, we were surprised by the magnitude of operation lush with vegetation. With the “hydro-stackers”, Chester explains that he grows as many strawberries on one acre that would normally take seven acres to grow conventionally. We soon found ourselves armed with scissors and baskets picking large juicy perfectly red berries. There is no bending over to pick here, the “hydro-stackers” spin allowing access to picking on all sides, much like a post card rack. Our pictures show just a portion of what can be accomplished with “hydro-stackers”, why you can even grow corn with out it falling over. After seeing this affordable system, we believe even if you don’t have a “green thumb” you can have success following a few simple steps. If you want a garden that uses absolutely zero space this is it. Don’t believe us check out the photos on the “hydro-stacker” web site. By next year we will be posting our crop.

Rows of strawberries in December.
These planters survived a hurricane.
"Hydro-stackers" filled with cabbage,
White eggplant is one of Chester's many crops.
Stackers are emptied after the growing season. Ready to be replaced with new crops.
Columns of colorful impatients in hydro-stackers.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally think that this blog is awsome Hydropnic strawberries are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cool

polly + dieter said...

holy cow! a comment, maybe we need to get off our duffs and do some new postings for the blog. thanks for the comment. we are going to make a hydroponic garden for our house using pvc pipes.it is much cheaper than the hydro stackers. good for us diy mentality people.

Anonymous said...

Try Vertigro.com same concept but much better support and growing experience. I'm farming now with a 5,000 plant system and it is amazing how much you can grow in a little space with limited labor involved.
Gotta go Vertigro!!!

Vertical Hydroponics said...

This is an absolutely fantastic example of vertical hydroponics gardening. I have been building my own hydroponics garden systems and the strawberries that come from them are absolutely delicious!

polly + dieter said...

glad to hear that your strawberries are tasty. i thought the ones grown with this system were not as sweet as i had hoped, but i was only sampling a small amount and i only ate them one time.

Unknown said...

Hello
I'm from Iran
I wanted to help me that I could have a Hydvrpvnyk
my question
Nutrients in the water container is what is and what percent
And where do I get it
Please email me on my email
Usefi.mh@Gmail.com

polly + dieter said...

hello mohammad...if you do a google search for hydroponic supplies in florida you will find several links.
this is the one near us: https://www.hydrostacker.com/ i am not sure about how to grow hydroponic because we don't do it. but these folks can help you to figure out what you need. best of luck!