Farming on a small scale...

[Allen Rout]

There were several different conversations this evening about small
scale farming, hydroponics, and aquaponics. Coincidentally, in my
inbox this evening, came a message from AutoMicrofarm

https://automicrofarm.com/

If you're interested in such things, they've gotten a start on the
topic, and their hardware is now open source.

- Allen S. Rout

[Patrick Beatty]

A bit tangentially related but some decent DIY farming tools, etc at Open Source Ecology: http://opensourceecology.org/gvcs/gvcs-machine-index/

-Patrick (in SF Bay Area but originally from Gainesville)

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[matteroflight]

I can't find it, but I remember a story of a plasma physicist that turned to create open farming equipment.  The Open Source Ecology site might be it?

-Michael

On Wed, Jan 4, 2017 at 10:15 AM, Patrick Beatty <patrick...@gmail.com> wrote:

A bit tangentially related but some decent DIY farming tools, etc at Open Source Ecology: http://opensourceecology.org/gvcs/gvcs-machine-index/

-Patrick (in SF Bay Area but originally from Gainesville)

On Tue, Jan 3, 2017 at 7:37 PM, Allen Rout <allen...@gmail.com> wrote:

There were several different conversations this evening about small
scale farming, hydroponics, and aquaponics.  Coincidentally, in my
inbox this evening, came a message from AutoMicrofarm

https://automicrofarm.com/

If you're interested in such things, they've gotten a start on the
topic, and their hardware is now open source.

- Allen S. Rout

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[Brian Bartholomew]

> automicrofarm.com
>
> What if you could grow the majority of the food essentials that your
> family needs -- vegetables, fruits, fish, nuts, and beans -- in an
> area the size of a two-car garage?

22 foot square two car garage
1/3 the floorplan is noncollecting footpaths
8 hours/day of sun
1 kilowatt total solar per square meter
1% food plant solar energy conversion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthetic_efficiency
I wonder how big the root collection area is for a nut tree
10% by weight of plant is edible
50% lost to disease, pests, bad weather
2,000 food calorie/day vegetarian diet
avoid the additional 90% conversion loss to meat
3 family members

$ units
2411 units, 71 prefixes, 33 nonlinear units

You have: 22*22 * (2/3) ft^2 * 8 hour * 1000 watt/meter^2 * 0.01 * 0.1 * 0.5
You want: kilocalorie
* 103.10134 <--- answer in food calories
/ 0.0096991951

You have: (2000 kilocalories/day * 3) / (103.10134 kilocalories/day)
You want:
Definition: 58.19517

What's a mere factor of 58? Suburbia can feed itself, we can make up
the deficit with tax collection.

You have: ((20 - 1) acre * 8 hour * 1000 watt/meter^2 * 0.01 * 0.1 * 0.5) / (2000 kilocalories)
You want:
Definition: 132.228 <--- Jeffersons supported, not including mule

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> opensourceecology.org/gvcs/gvcs-machine-index

Stranded on the tropical island with nothing but your book of open
source blueprints waterproof printed on mylar, your Leatherman, and
the entire surpluscenter.com warehouse.

> MicroHouse Prototype 1, a small, energy efficient, low-cost
> sustainable home for two built using OSE machines and a prototype
> process: swarming construction

Performance dominated by a mature process: swarming tax collectors.

Brian

[matteroflight]

Calories are an over simplification, but here are some other calculations:

http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/9582/how-many-people-can-you-feed-per-square-kilometer-of-farmland

Sweet potatoes

Conventional: 425m^2/person

Hydroponic approach: 75m^2/person

Aeroponic approach: 20.3m^2/person -> 218sqft ~ 15x15

The 3D approach is interesting, growing layers would be preferred if space is limited.

Granted, one can't live off of sweet potatoes.  Here's a chart I just made depicting the spectrum of RDI per 100g of sweet potato.  Thin vertical line is 100%, Beta Carotene is at ~1000%.  The optimal solution should consider 100% nutrition in the densest area.  I suspect the optimal solution might include a diet with bugs/fish.

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