Does it kill weeds? Is watering the only thing it does?
Open Source Farming Robot
161–170 of 369 posts
Re: Open Source Farming Robot
#162Looks like a thing that takes away the pleasure from gardening/small scale farming.
Re: Open Source Farming Robot
#163How many harvests would it take to offset the emissions that go into producing a kit? My guess is that this uses more steel per sapling than almost any other method of tending to a vegetable
Why do you tie emissions to steel contents.
This system is electricity-based, whereas traditional agriculture is fuel-intensive.
Even fertilizer production is fuel-intensive, and this system avoids using any.
Multiply by the time scale you want the system to last, and you get your emissions savings.
Steel contents is a one-off emissions investment.
Now if you want to compare this system to an other electricity-based, renewable energy only, agriculture, say with electric trucks etc, that'd be interesting.
Re: Open Source Farming Robot
#164This is a Juicero of farming. The whole setup is easily replaced with a raised garden bed and a drip hose. Hearing about this a few years back, I was hoping it would at least do some weed control, but no.
It is indeed a juicero of farming. It costs 4 grand for something that can handle a single garden bed. This is not suitable for even small commerical growers, they'd need hundreds of these things. All commercial growers in my latitude start by sprouting their plants indoors, using e.g. soil blocks. Very little is direct sown. If you practice no-till, weeding isn't even that big of a task. This thing definitely does n…
Value for me is to scratch the zombie apocalypse itch.
One feature request is some form of animal and pest protection. Squirrels and cardinals eat a majority percentage of the veggies in my raised bed here in Austin. I think some bats eat the vegetables as well but that’s difficult to validate.
Re: Open Source Farming Robot
#165This worries me from a positioning standpoint. I imagine a large amount of people with a garden bed, even a large one, garden because they like it, this would get in the way of that. The device doesn’t appear like it would scale well to anything large enough, and even then it would compete with much more sophisticated solutions that do this. I feel like it’s actual market may end up being pretty narrow, not that it i…
Do you have any link to more sophisticated solutions ? genuine ask
you can look into 'Precision Agriculture' and find quite a few solutions. Deere is pretty much at the front of the game with automation and data that provide farmers with the ability to make super informed decisions.
Re: Open Source Farming Robot
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
You seem to be struggling with the idea that someone might want the results of hard work without actually doing that hard work, especially if they can get those results by playing with something they do enjoy, like robotics. Let me know when that sinks in.
Are you aware of supermarkets? There you can buy food that others have produced for you, admission to a supermarket is usually free and food can be bought in minutes instead of produced over months. Is this your project? Why are you so emotional over it being a shit product?
I want higher quality food than my local supermarket. Tomatoes are work to grow but what you can buy is awful. I wouldn't use this for wheat as I can't tell any difference.
Re: Open Source Farming Robot
#167This looks fun but not really useful.
My hope would be that in 20 years everyone has a little bot that 24/7 runs a garden for you and provides every family with 80% of their vegetable need.
Imagine the amount of acreage we could return to nature / co2 sinking.
Re: Open Source Farming Robot
#168It sill looks like the software is written by people who don't know how to care for plants. You don't spray water on leaves as shown in the video; you'll just end up with fungus infestation. You water the soil and nourish the microorganisms that facilitate nutrient absorption in roots. But, I don't see any reason the technology can't be adapted to do the right thing.
Doesn't rain fall on the leaves as much as the soil?
Here's a wild thing: at many of the high end vineyards they'll do low-level helicopter flights over the vines every time it rains to blow the water off the leaves and fruit specifically to prevent infection and rot.
Re: Open Source Farming Robot
#169It sill looks like the software is written by people who don't know how to care for plants. You don't spray water on leaves as shown in the video; you'll just end up with fungus infestation. You water the soil and nourish the microorganisms that facilitate nutrient absorption in roots. But, I don't see any reason the technology can't be adapted to do the right thing.
The best way to water a garden is drip irrigation. You do have to manually lay the tubing and then in the fall roll it up. But there are farmers doing it in large fields so a small garden should be possible. Once everything is hooked up it can be pretty well automated. Home Depot now in some stores has drip irrigation supplies. https://www.dripworks.com/drip-irrigation
you don't need anything fancy for drip, a small hole in the pipe and a timer on your pump is is generally enough. If you really want to go fancy you can isolate the system and use moisture sensors, which are cheap.
Re: Open Source Farming Robot
#170This looks fun but not really useful. My hope would be that in 20 years everyone has a little bot that 24/7 runs a garden for you and provides every family with 80% of their vegetable need. Imagine the amount of acreage we could return to nature / co2 sinking.
Every family having to have a robot instead of a handful of tractors for every ten thousand families or so. And that is likely a less optimal use of acreage. I think what you might actually be advocating for is “people should convert more residential land into gardens” which is always fun. I love my garden as a hobby.
We keep trying to un-invent the division of labour.
Edited for unnecessary pre-coffee poor behaviour. Sorry.