gift
Diego Footer on Permaculture Based Homesteads - from the Eat Your Dirt Summit
will be released to subscribers in: soon!
  • Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • John F Dean
  • Timothy Norton
  • Nancy Reading
  • r ranson
  • Jay Angler
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • paul wheaton
  • Tereza Okava
  • AndrĂ©s Bernal
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • M Ljin
  • Matt McSpadden

Solution looking for a problem, what plants for inside an old fridge...

 
gardener
Posts: 5424
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio,Price Hill 45205
1116
forest garden trees urban
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I want to grow plants inside  an old fridge, outdoors , with the doors still on it, and cheap electric lighting.
This is proof of concept, just a crazy idea I would like to indulge.
The area I have for this is very low light even during summer, otherwise I would just turn these into cold frames.

What plants can deal with low light and low temperatures, but not a zone 6 winter?
Ideally I could harvest during the winter and come spring , remove the doors and let them rocket upwards.
Field peas and favas seem like they could benefit from this arrangement.
Onions, garlic and leeks all seem like they might do but they seem to overwinter here just fine on their own.
Radishes, beets , turnips could give greens over winter and an early root crop.
All kinds of lettuce might work, and be highly valued as well.
 
William Bronson
gardener
Posts: 5424
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio,Price Hill 45205
1116
forest garden trees urban
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Thinking about it more,  I think the next broken fridge I get will become a storage bin.
Installing the soil and reservoir needed to to make a refrigerator into a sub irrigated planter commits me to one usage.
Other than creating a drain, I think I will raise it off the ground to make space underneath and a nice work surface.
I can still use it to grow marginally hardy crops , they will just be in individual containers.
I'm especially interested in using a thermostat to control a heating element, creating a cold but not frozen storage area.

This is a photo of my  sub irrigated worm bin.
It has some worms,  but not many and I'm not sure why.
IMG_20201114_123456.jpg
About 6" of soil and 12" of head space.
About 6" of soil and 12" of head space.
 
pollinator
Posts: 2339
Location: Denmark 57N
600
fungi foraging trees cooking food preservation
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
If there is drainage I don't see a problem with it, you can probably get some more interesting types of lettuce to survive the winter. Just remember to get the refrigerant properly drained and disposed of.
 
William Bronson
gardener
Posts: 5424
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio,Price Hill 45205
1116
forest garden trees urban
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I've taken to getting refrigerators from a used appliance place so I don't have to deal with refrigerant recovery.
So far I've had to pay $20 bucks for this scrap, which sucks, but it's worth it.
 
Skandi Rogers
pollinator
Posts: 2339
Location: Denmark 57N
600
fungi foraging trees cooking food preservation
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
You could try using them to force early greens like dandelions or chicory don't fill it up to much and then when you want greens just close the lid to put it in the dark, might need a heat source but it wouldn't need to be very powerful in a fridge.
 
life is short - but not as short as this ad:
physical copy of the SKIP book
https://permies.com/wiki/160690/physical-copy-SKIP-book
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic