Monday, September 22, 2014

Rooftop hop farm and brewery in New York City - Thousands Win



7 comments:

Bob said...

Yeah sure...

Those thousands of rooftop hops gardens will last until thew novelty wears off.

The work required for a rooftop garden is far more than the rewards will provide for. All those thousands of gardeners - and gardens - will vanish in the morning mist when the reality that the work vastly exceeds the rewards.

TheWayfarer said...

Au contraire, Bob:
Organic Towers in cities and factory-grown, hydroponic, non-gmo farms are some of the ideas being developed for countering Monsanto, feeding more with less and helping clean the air.

Bob said...

You're not talking about "rooftop" gardens there. Organic towers and factories mean big money and then - no doubt - ending up with corporate control... and stockholders like Monsanto.

Same shit, different day.

texlahoma said...

Bob - I don't know, looks like a pretty good idea to me. Some will probably lose interest, others will keep it going, obviously.

texlahoma said...

Galt - Even here in rural Ok there have been some fairly successful businesses selling fruits and vegetables this year. People are trying to stay away from GMOs and big corporate foods. I would imagine they would be even more successful in urban areas.

Bob said...

Come on guys...

look at this idea a bit closer.

first, you need a rooftop that's flat and is not cluttered up with air conditioner units, exhaust pipes, air vents, all that usual stuff. Then you need to build a watertight containment area for the tons of soil you will need to make your garden with. That - of course - is after the building owner decides to let you use his roof as a place to haul up tons of soil.

Is there a water outlet up on the roof? Will the building owner meter your usage if there is? Or will yo have to haul all bucket loads of water from your apartment every day?

Then there's fertilizer, bug killers and other stuff you need to keep your garden healthy. That thin layer of soil will not be able to support plant growth for very long before you need to provide chemical boosters. No more natural grown anything.

All those exhaust vents on the roof are going to spew nasty gasses and residue all over your garden 24/7, making your crop unmarketable.

Finally, will the city issue you a permit to do all this? Will building codes even allow it?

You are talking about growing human consumables. You just know there are a host of regulations governing that.

I just don't see it as happening in any sort of commercially viable manner.


texlahoma said...

Bob - Okay, I'll attack the weakest part of your argument. You make a lot of good points but hydroponics doesn't use soil, it uses a growing medium which is much much lighter than soil. You're right about needing water and fertilizer though.

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