Grocery stores begin growing their own produce in store

[KennethT]

https://www.producegrower.com/article/consumer-corner-inside-farmones-in-store-farm/

[KennethT]

https://www.producegrower.com/article/gotham-greens-2020-new-funding/

[AAQuesada]

22 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Also when I was at ICE in NYC a couple of years back visiting Michael Laiskonis they had a huge version of this. It was kept scrupulously clean - and apparently they had to fertilize plants manually with a toothbrush because there were no insects to do so. 

 

Chocdoc and Patris Lunching with Laiskonis

Count me among the fanboi's! I love his 'open source' attitude to recipe development & working with other chefs.

[weinoo]

20 hours ago, weinoo said:

Now now...

 

https://www.newsweek.com/city-bees-feed-flowers-not-junk-food-461600

 

19 hours ago, gfweb said:

Dumpsters, dead rats and Jimmy Hoffa

 

We all know Hoffa is in the midwest somewhere, not the NYC area. You've seen The Irishman.

[gfweb]

7 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

 

We all know Hoffa is in the midwest somewhere, not the NYC area. You've seen The Irishman.

I always figure he was in the Meadowlands.

Friend of mine's father was a labor lawyer in the 50s and 60s.  Hoffa would call their house. He was gruff.

[gfweb]

19 hours ago, KennethT said:

https://www.producegrower.com/article/consumer-corner-inside-farmones-in-store-farm/

That's a lot of space dedicated to basil.

[Maison Rustique]

Seems like good idea, but I don't see it catching on. Many of our grocers here won't even sell wheatgrass because of the liability of salmonella, listeria, etc. 

 

For those of you who grow indoors, how do you control the gnats/fruit flies that come with it? I've given up trying. The pests aren't worth it.

[KennethT]

42 minutes ago, Maison Rustique said:

Seems like good idea, but I don't see it catching on. Many of our grocers here won't even sell wheatgrass because of the liability of salmonella, listeria, etc. 

 

For those of you who grow indoors, how do you control the gnats/fruit flies that come with it? I've given up trying. The pests aren't worth it.

I rarely have pests in my indoor garden.  Pest control is best done preventively, rather than reactively. Gnats/fruit flies aren't problems in actively growing plants - instead, we have aphids, white fly, etc.  Many of these problems are soil born (the eggs are in the soil) so growing hydroponically solves that problem. If growing in media based hydroponics, like in coco coir, one key is to not over water - soggy soil/coir is home to many pests. Keeping the top 1" of media dry solves that problem. If they pop up, issues like aphids can be taken care of with Integrated Pest Management - like using ladybugs to eat the aphids. This way you don't need any chemical pesticides or anything else to be sprayed on the leaves of the plant. But, like anything else, you need an experienced person to check things out and look for problems quite often - once a day, which is a lot of labor on a large scale.

 

Most indoor growing facilities take big precautions in not allowing pests in - making employees cover their shoes/clothes/hair before entering the growing area, screens on all intakes/exhausts on greenhouses - or in the case of indoor facilities, having no fresh air enter the space which makes sure no pests can enter also.  Having a small setup in a grocery store would be much more challenging from a pest perspective - especially if the customer is allowed close access to the plants rather than being behind a counter and having a store employee "harvest" for them.

[heidih]

@KennethT good points. I don;t think people realize how much preventive sanitation goes into such growing systems. Also IPM is becoming the standard non invasive approach but you have to have enough of the pests to keep the "good guys" fat and happy. As for ladybugs - my experience = like herding cats. 

Edited December 27, 2020 by heidih (log)

[gfweb]

@KennethT have you given the specs for your home set up somewhere?

[Elkyfr]

It is common the restaurants grow their own herbs and flowers... I remember for one michelin star restaurant were growing edible flowers on the backyard, because they bought each flower for 1 dollar.

[KennethT]

2 hours ago, gfweb said:

@KennethT have you given the specs for your home set up somewhere?

Over the years my approach has changed.  I think most of it is scattered through the gardening thread(s).

[KennethT]

4 hours ago, heidih said:

@KennethT good points. I don;t think people realize how much preventive sanitation goes into such growing systems. Also IPM is becoming the standard non invasive approach but you have to have enough of the pests to keep the "good guys" fat and happy. As for ladybugs - my experience = like herding cats. 

ladybugs go where the food is.  If you have plenty of aphids, just scatter around and they will find them.  It's actually better to release  a small amount of ladybugs every once in a while rather than waiting until you have a large amount for them to eat.  By that time, it's hard for the plants to bounce back as quickly.  If you take care of it early, the ladybugs will scatter and disappear once they're gone, but it's hard to take care of an infestation once it really gets going.

[heidih]

1 minute ago, KennethT said:

ladybugs go where the food is.  If you have plenty of aphids, just scatter around and they will find them.  It's actually better to release  a small amount of ladybugs every once in a while rather than waiting until you have a large amount for them to eat.  By that time, it's hard for the plants to bounce back as quickly.  If you take care of it early, the ladybugs will scatter and disappear once they're gone, but it's hard to take care of an infestation once it really gets going.

 

I can't find my image but I was speaking from a hilarious ladybug incident. We released them throughout the green houses but they became obsessed with the bromeliads which were pest free. Maybe they were fascinated with the tanks.Anyway we reduced number and did limited releases after but the stampede reminiscent of buffalo was a side splitter. Oh an it was not a big infestation -  just the ups and downs of testing new protocols. 

[heidih]

An example of local Kroger. This is not a new concept - I've seen it for several years. . I smelled the basil with my mask on and it in plastic sleeve. Hydroponically grown, set in a flat in produce section. They say to set in a bowl and water as needed. 

Edited January 5, 2021 by heidih (log)

[dcarch]

On 12/27/2020 at 9:13 AM, Maison Rustique said:

 

For those of you who grow indoors, how do you control the gnats/fruit flies that come with it? I've given up trying. The pests aren't worth it.

 

$20 solution, no chemicals used:

 

Ozone generation UV light, plastic bag over plants. Done in a couple of hours.

 

dcarch

[rotuts]

tangential to this thread :

 

there was a Cooking/Producing food series I saw a while ago

 

Im sure I have it on HardDrive.

 

one episode was on growing herbs / lettuce etc in shipping containers

 

the big ones.  their is a surplus of these etc

 

the growing is done hydroponically and the plants are on vertical risers if you will.

 

several of these are in the Boston area , and one at Boston Latin or such

 

as an educational platform for learning about food.

 

wish I could give the ref.

 

sorry.

[kayb]

That makes a degree of sense. It's enclosed, woulld be simple enough to light, and insulate if need be.

[heidih]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

 

 

several of these are in the Boston area , and one at Boston Latin or such

 

as an educational platform for learning about food.

 

wish I could give the ref.

 

In Boston like this https://money.cnn.com/2015/06/24/technology/upstart30-freight-farms/index.html

 

 

[rotuts]

@heidih 

 

excellent work 

 

that's the place.

[AAQuesada]

This just came up in the LA Times

 

No dirt? No farm? No problem. The potential for soil-less agriculture is huge