Have everything covered on the pyramid. Good source info for folks to think things through. Lots of these sorts of questions lately.

I have the outdoor part down. Thats takes years to get it right and get your soil fully set up and working right. Knowledge of rotation etc.

Currently I have not bought any fresh produce since February. I grow all my produce indoors in trays, using a hybrid soil and hydro culture which is working out really well. everything all together uses about 1.75 gal of water per day which is about the least i can go for what I get. I have the racks in front of southern windows and only supplement the daylight in the eves with T5 sets.

I would like to find nutrients which have long term shelf life for deep water culture, which in my case would be shallow water lol.

The next step now is building led light boards to use a single 1 watt 60 degree bulb over each plant cup and at 4" they will spread across the whole tray just fine. Trays are 22 cups so 22 watts per tray. And then solar and deep cycles to cover the portion of winter when supplemental light is needed.

Its that foundation on the pyramid thats going to determine the ones who make it and do well and the ones who make it struggling.

We are also preparing for perpetual, but there is so much to learn. I started planting, but boy, you need to plant a lot if you have to grow all your own food.
And it looks so easy, but even after hard work, the outcome is sometimes disappointing.
Like the pumpkins! Lots of flowers, very large, but no pumpkin.
And the water!!! They say you need a gallon a day, with a large family where do I put all the bottles?

But getting there, maybe in a year or so we will have covered the basics

Originally posted by notsosunny
We are also preparing for perpetual, but there is so much to learn. I started planting, but boy, you need to plant a lot if you have to grow all your own food.
And it looks so easy, but even after hard work, the outcome is sometimes disappointing.
Like the pumpkins! Lots of flowers, very large, but no pumpkin.
And the water!!! They say you need a gallon a day, with a large family where do I put all the bottles?

But getting there, maybe in a year or so we will have covered the basics

for those of us in the long term to perpetual mode, we have already made the move to or have means to get to our retreats that have natural year round rivers/streams/lakes. Its un realestic to store 3 months of water at home. It can be done with water colection and traps but what happens when you get no rain?

Spam, Mres, and beer in my survival food pyramid!!!

Good info Mr op.

Originally posted by Shadowalker
I would like to find nutrients which have long term shelf life for deep water culture, which in my case would be shallow water lol.

The next step now is building led light boards to use a single 1 watt 60 degree bulb over each plant cup and at 4" they will spread across the whole tray just fine. Trays are 22 cups so 22 watts per tray. And then solar and deep cycles to cover the portion of winter when supplemental light is needed.

Its that foundation on the pyramid thats going to determine the ones who make it and do well and the ones who make it struggling.

Check out General HydroDynamics beand of nutrients: "Ionics".
They are PH buffered, and do not chelate.
They work great for any DWC application.
LED lights do not have the power to penetrate any decent canopy.
The inverse square law dictates they just dont cut it for plants over a few inches tall.
( check user reviews of LEDs that are NOT on any website associated with selling them)

technology just hasn't advanced enough to bring LEDs to the forefront of indoor gardening.
They are the future, but they arent the NOW.

Im told Solar panels can be home built at a fraction of the cost of conventional panels, cutting corners with deep cycle marine gel batteries instead of the expensive power cells used in commercial solar setups, but Im not current on solar panel construction, so I dunno.