While I was contemplating my next move, the aphids ate all the tomato flowers. The harvest that I got was small but good tasting, so I started planning for next year, hoping to correct all mistakes I had made. The fans are still in their boxes, there are still no holes to put them in.
I decided to build another bio-bed and plant something that could provide some shade for the tomatoes. I had some small banana plants in a pot so I planted three of them in the box, thinking that this will never be enough.
Be careful what you wish for ….! Have you ever seen a banana plant grow? From a tiny, 30 cm plant with a stem you can wrap your fingers around, they grew to 4 meters high and 30 cm in diameter! In six months. During this time the tomatoes had an equally bad summer, While the tomatoes were suffering the bananas thrived!
The tomatoes demanded much care, were sensitive to insects, sensitive to high humidity, high temperatures, low temperatures, handling and generally fuzzy. So the h… with them! Instead I decided to try perennial plants, fruit-trees and plants that could tolerate the shifting conditions in the dome.
It would be too expensive and energy consuming to have AC in the dome. It just must be a sign! Since then I have filled the dome with all kinds of tropical plants. Some plants, like the papaya, do not tolerate water logged conditions for its roots.
From a tiny little plant it grew up to the ceiling in one year, producing 22 kilos of fantastic papayas. The flowers on the banana trees took six months to grow to harvest size, each bunch weighing kilos. This variety of bananas, dwarf Cavendish, are grown on the Canary Islands and normally takes months to produce a bunch of kilos of bananas. My bananas take months and have so far produced bunches of kilos. Almost the same, but in Sweden! Not too bad. The heating system uses biofuels. In the dome I have a small heat-exchange unit that provides heat to the Aerotemper radiator and fan combined.
It also gives heat to the fish tank and hot and cold tap water. The temperature in the dome is kept at 16 C, mainly because the cocoa trees, five of them, do not tolerate lower temperatures. So far, guava, passion-fruit, carambola, banana and coffee have fruited. The vanilla plants are growing fast but still no flowers. I also have a lot of Bougainvilla and Strelitzia, just because I like them. Also, I started my own company last year, Svensk Aquaponik, Swedish aquaponics and things are getting along fine.
I have built two new bio-beds and am now testing to grow avocado and mango in the aquaponics system, for a client. The test aims at learning more about flowering and pollination of these species when growing them in a greenhouse. The client has a 17, square meter greenhouse. With abundant renewable energy and a largely urban population, Iceland could create community gardens that would revolutionize its city food systems and reduce dependence on produce imports from as far away as Chile.
With a booming tourism sector, Reykjavik offers opportunities for economic prosperity, employment, and improved quality of life. It is an emergent hub of knowledge, culture, and innovation, but, like cities in the rest of the world, it is also where the generation of greenhouse gas emissions and waste, urban sprawl, and overconsumption of resources converge.
The conjunction of opportunities and challenges that come with development in a highly urbanized but relatively small country could turn cities like Reykjavik into a unique place to pilot transformational change. Iceland is unique in that percent of its electricity comes from hydropower or geothermal energy. The city of Reykjavik could use this energy to power community greenhouses where Icelandic people could get together, know each other, and grow their own food year-round, in a temperature and light-controlled environment.
Inclusive, zero-emissions urban agriculture is possible in a country like Iceland; Reykjavik can create community gardens in public land or existing infrastructure. The municipality can learn from social innovations from other initiatives in the Arctic. Successful, seasonal community gardens exist in places like Fairbanks and the Inuvik Community in the Arctic.
On the other hand, private enterprises such as Fridheimar already use geothermal energy to produce tomatoes and offer a unique food experience for locals and tourists. Reykjavik could create an innovative combination of both, give it scale, and make it a public space, citizen-led initiative. A citywide program for renewable energy-powered urban community gardens could bring economic, social, and environmental benefits to Iceland and the world.
An important part of the vegetable imports, like tomatoes, potatoes and onions, came from other European countries. Others, including apples, bananas, and rice, originated in distant nations like Chile, Ecuador, and Thailand. These products, grown and harvested in the tropics, and then transported to, consumed and disposed of in the Arctic, have a significant environmental impact across the food chain.
Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Dissertation How do they grow bananas in Iceland? Ben Davis January 23, How do they grow bananas in Iceland? Does Iceland grow fruit? Where is the largest banana farm?
Which country eats the most bananas?
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