Sorry, I meant that microgreens are best suited for indoors, but your balcony could be used for dwarf fruit trees in containers, berries growing on vines, and conventional vegetables (suitability of course depends on your climate). I would think rinsing fruits/veggies should deal with the soot issue, and if there is serious concern about zoonosis then you obviously want to cook them first. Netting can be used to protect your bounty from critters.Alphaville wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:00 pm
my balcony is not endless, due to pollution and birds, i.e. not a clean environment for microgreens. anything from traffic to seasonal forest fires will deposit soot. and zoonosis is real--sprouts can harbor stuff.
(eta: but im trying to sort out the space for indoor microgreens, actually)
for potted plants, im buying cheap good dirt (not fertilizer). just a seasonal bicycle ride away and it's done.
I am also curious about bokashi, but that is still going to require some space and I'm not entirely sure what you do with the output. It seems it technically is fermentation not composting, so I think there are some differences in application.Alphaville wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:00 pmbut yes, decomposing and reusing discards is what nature does. the question is if the decomposition phase has to happen inside my 4 walls. i am not sure about that.
also, maybe bokashi could work better than worms at my scale, since i'm good with microbes. but don't know yet. too many options/variables.
I actually disagree about the limited outputs. If I use microgreens as my nutrient dense leafy greens, then I can grow all of my vegetable needs by using only one tray under the light (see Sky's method posted earlier). Since I can fit 3 trays under my grow lights, I could feasibly scale it up to provide all vegetable needs for up to 3 people. This is assuming each person is consuming 100g a day of microgreens, which is a lot but would be similar to a decent sized salad for lunch and dinner in terms of quantity. Since eating only microgreens for vegetables might lead to some monotony, that's where things like root vegetables, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, etc in containers come in to spice things up, but these are mostly just providing flavor variety and perhaps some extra micronutrients.Alphaville wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:00 pmi get the little produce market idea, more like a produce farm actually, but here it's only at toy level with very limited outputs, hence i'm wondering if worth it (for me) to do the entire carbon/nitrogen/phosphorus cycle here, or if it's more worth it for me to just purchase inputs (dirt) and just perform the anabolic phase so to speak.
Another project on my list is dwarf fruit trees in containers. In my region, with proper planning I could have a continuous harvest of fruit for 6 months of the year, which in combination with canning/storage techniques could last the entire year. Maybe something like berries in May (technically bushes not a tree), peaches in June, nectarines in July, apples and pears in August/September/October. Sorry if these examples are specific to my region, but you get the idea. Quick google search says I can purchase such trees at fruiting age for $30-60 each depending on the variety. I suspect such a scheme would provide enough fruit for 2-3 people.
So with those 2 previous systems, I'm looking at providing all of my fruits and veggies on site without external input after the initial establishment. Worms/bokashi should provide me with adequate fertilizer, so I'm just restocking on seeds each year because microgreens use a lot of seeds.
The rest of my diet is staples (flour, grains, legumes) which are easy to stockpile for long periods of time, and proteins which are a bit trickier. We've beaten the dead horse quite a bit on the animal protein challenges in this space, so I'll just reiterate that in an ideal world I transform stored grains into eggs with quail and transform prunings from fruit trees, vegetable waste, garden waste, etc into milk with goats. Bees help to pollinate my fruit trees and provide honey. The animals are not feasible in all situations, but that's at least how I'd design my homestead system. Maybe my potato tower concept will work enough to reduce the requirements for taking in so many staples from elsewhere.
I think the odor is due to your bag design. My bin only has that earthy smell when I take the lid off, but otherwise does not give off any odors.Alphaville wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:00 pm
i tried when i brought in to keep the worms indoors. and they have a musty smell-- as they should. but i couldn't sleep with the musty smell, it messes with my sensory input, and i value good sleep above most things. plus if something is going wrong i gotta be able to smell it, not have it masked by worms. my nose is my sentry--i'm this household's guard dog, and that takes priority over other concerns.
Yes, I think this is essential and something I'm still wrestling with myself. Neighborhood gardens are a well-established route, but I think it could also be possible to create new solutions. I'm thinking of space on apartment rooftops, or perhaps talking to management and squaring off a section of the apartment grounds for a community garden. I would think if you can get a band of neighbors together then you should have a lot more bargaining power.Alphaville wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:00 pmeta, further: i'm thinking if it's later proven unworkable to decompose organic matter within my 4 walls, i might be able to find a local composter that could welcome my materials towards their pile. e.g. neighborhood gardens. which would point to the importance of neighborhood for apartment dwellers. i.e., apartments are not space stations.
Retrosuburbia talks a bit how such a community would eventually evolve into some kind of specialization. E.g. give your used coffee grounds and sawdust to Dave in exchange for getting some of his mushroom harvest, give your weeds and prunings to Jill because she feeds them to her goats and in exchange get some goat milk, give scrap wood to Mike because he makes furniture, and so on. Maybe a further evolution of that would be a community biodigester or compost toilet system to manage waste on site, but then we're talking about stuff that's way outside of mainstream code and structure in the USA.