Latest Project

As our swimming pool was in place for almost twenty years, and almost in need of replacement, I decided to replace it with something more useful. After all, who needs a swimming pool in upstate New York? You can use a pool about eight days a season, and it needs maintenance every day. My thinking was that we could use a greenhouse for ten months a year , compared to the very few days a year we were using the pool. Factor in the power to run the pump, the cost of chemicals, not to mention the labor, and it seems like a wise decision indeed.
I was going to buy a Rion hobby greenhouse for about two thousand dollars when a friend told me there was a store in Albany having a sale on greenhouses the size I wanted for, get this, $299. I thought it would prove to be a piece of junk for that price.
Today I finished the assembly and it seems to be fine, however, I have to admit it was a chore. The best comparison I can make is like a gigantic erector set and final exams all rolled into one session with the expectation of a perfect grade.
All that remains to complete the project is to install patio block on the floor, and I am thinking red, to absorb heat during the day and release it at night. There is also a thermal activated arm to open the windows automatically, but I am not that lazy yet, so I will open them myself for a few days.
The tomatoes in the AutoPots appear to be growing faster than the soil grown plants started the same day. So I am very very very pleased with the AutoPot experiment, and will do a comparison post in the next few days. Presently I have hydroponic and soil grown plants in the same environment, and I want to separate them ASAP. I have never had any pests in my hydro environment, and I really don't want to push my luck.