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B.J. Feeney retired to New Mexico a few years ago and since
then he’s been a very busy man. Growing food had been a
hobby, while he was working, now it’s a full time passion.
Inspired by his son’s interest and degree in horticulture (his son
went on to get a Masters and is now an army chaplain) B.J has
been building greenhouses and experimenting with a variety of
veggies. This year we avid tomato lovers are going to be able to
enjoy the benefits of all that effort, as he begins to harvest his hydroponic
tomatoes. And in the future, only time will tell what “bounty” his greenhouses
will produce.
A big believer in hydroponic methods, B.J. points out that hydroponics can
“grow equal amounts of food on 1/10th the land with 1/6 the water as regular
dirt farming methods.” He says, “This method is not new. The hanging
gardens of
Babylon were really the first experiment with hydroponics.
But the technology has improved a bit since
then,” he says with a chuckle in his voice. “Back in
1945 the Air Force built the first hydroponic farm
out on one of the small coral islands in the Pacific to
get fresh vegetables to their troops and NASA scientists
are experimenting with it for fresh food for
astronauts. In the last ten years the technology has
really bloomed.”
While he is still doing research to find the best varieties
and crops for seasonal production, this year
we will see an abundance of 6-9 ounce tomato fruit
from his greenhouses. He uses a reverse osmosis
water system with 3,000 gallon holding tanks and
regularly recycles the water through his RO system
and out to the plants. “ It’s really extremely efficient
in terms of resource use,” says B.J.
The bumblebee hives he keeps in the greenhouses
pollinate the flowers. He is impressed
with how hard the bees work pointing out
that one bumble bee can pollinate 10,000
flowers a day and can fly as much as 12 miles
a day. “They just keep their eye on those yellow
tomato flowers and don’t get distracted
the way honey bees do.”
Right now he’s got five rows of 63 buckets
with two tomato plants in each bucket and
is hoping to produce lots of great tasting
fresh tomatoes. He picks them at all stages,
green, first blush and fully ripe for area’s growers
markets and the Co-op. “There is a great market
for green tomatoes,” he says. And I agree thinking
back to some delicious fried green tomato dishes
I’ve made. At one point he grew 1100 heads of lettuce
in a 65 by 15 foot space, with a lettuce harvest
every 30 days; that could make winter salad
eaters pretty happy.
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