Thursday, July 03, 2008
Juneau, Alaska – Hydroponic’s New Frontier?
Hello growers! Just got back from a week in Juneau, Alaska, visiting an old high school buddy I hadn’t seen in over twenty years who lives there. What a gorgeous place! Juneau (which is actually the state capitol) is a small town on an island surrounded by snow-capped mountains, deep forests, and glaciers. The weather this time of year is cloudy, cool, and drizzly, not unlike what we get here in California during the winter. Throngs of touristas pour out of mammoth cruise ships that port in the small harbor for a day or two between the months of May and September, flooding the downtown area and basically tripling the town’s population, temporarily. Because Juneau is inaccessible by road, there’s a real feeling of isolation to the place; it seems like so many modern amenities we residents of the “Lower 48” take for granted are unavailable there. For example, there’s only two – TWO! – Mickey D’s in the entire town, and NO other fast-food chains like KFC, Carl’s, etc. Now, this doesn’t mean that I’m a fast-food junkie, but even the most remote desert burgs out in Nevada have a chain restaurant or three!
Basically this inaccessibility, plus the long harsh winters (including about a month where the sun barely gets above the horizon) means that Juneau is a tough place in which to do business. Pretty much everything must be brought in either on a barge up from Seattle or Vancouver, or by air. People tend to come in the spring and summer and leave by September to avoid the winters, when it can be difficult to get around (even for the barge bringing supplies from the outside world). On the other hand, it also means there are tremendous opportunities for business; Juneau needs EVERYTHING!!
One thing that struck me immediately was the shortage of fresh veggies. (Hey, I’m a California dude, I need my salads!! ) Lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, herbs, etc – they all have to be shipped in from elsewhere, and you can tell…it’s just not very fresh in the stores (on the other hand, the locally-grown cherries and apples are crazy good!) Sometimes, the flow of veggies just stops altogether. “Hmmm, what could be done about this situation?” I wondered to myself, when a blinding flash of light went off in my head. No, it wasn’t a seizure…I had a brilliant idea: hydroponic gardening! What a perfect match, I thought…year-round gardens producing delicious green goodness even in the dead of winter, without depending on the barges.
What’s more, the bright, warm HID lighting for the plants would be quite therapeutic for countering Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), otherwise known as Winter Depression, which is believed to be caused by the low, pale light of the winter months (and in Alaska’s case, the lack of light altogether!) Also the heat from the lights could be recycled to warm a home as well.
So, I say – why not bring the glories of indoor gardening to Juneau! Who wants to be the first to open a hydroponics store there?? I sure would if I had the bucks, harsh winters be damned!
OK, there’s one other small hitch: the cost of electricity is pretty high. In fact, it went up nearly 500% overnight last winter when the local hydroelectric power plant was damaged by an avalanche that put it out of commission for several months, forcing the use of diesel generators (and we know what diesel costs these days). The plant is back online now, fortunately, but the average cost per kilowatt hour is still pretty high compared to the rest of the US.
Nonetheless, I think there’s a bright future (pun intended) for indoor gardening in this beautiful state. Once folks realize how fun (and potentially profitable) this hobby/business can be, I believe its popularity would really, ummm, grow rapidly. Anyone wanna step up?
Basically this inaccessibility, plus the long harsh winters (including about a month where the sun barely gets above the horizon) means that Juneau is a tough place in which to do business. Pretty much everything must be brought in either on a barge up from Seattle or Vancouver, or by air. People tend to come in the spring and summer and leave by September to avoid the winters, when it can be difficult to get around (even for the barge bringing supplies from the outside world). On the other hand, it also means there are tremendous opportunities for business; Juneau needs EVERYTHING!!
One thing that struck me immediately was the shortage of fresh veggies. (Hey, I’m a California dude, I need my salads!! ) Lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, herbs, etc – they all have to be shipped in from elsewhere, and you can tell…it’s just not very fresh in the stores (on the other hand, the locally-grown cherries and apples are crazy good!) Sometimes, the flow of veggies just stops altogether. “Hmmm, what could be done about this situation?” I wondered to myself, when a blinding flash of light went off in my head. No, it wasn’t a seizure…I had a brilliant idea: hydroponic gardening! What a perfect match, I thought…year-round gardens producing delicious green goodness even in the dead of winter, without depending on the barges.
What’s more, the bright, warm HID lighting for the plants would be quite therapeutic for countering Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), otherwise known as Winter Depression, which is believed to be caused by the low, pale light of the winter months (and in Alaska’s case, the lack of light altogether!) Also the heat from the lights could be recycled to warm a home as well.
So, I say – why not bring the glories of indoor gardening to Juneau! Who wants to be the first to open a hydroponics store there?? I sure would if I had the bucks, harsh winters be damned!
OK, there’s one other small hitch: the cost of electricity is pretty high. In fact, it went up nearly 500% overnight last winter when the local hydroelectric power plant was damaged by an avalanche that put it out of commission for several months, forcing the use of diesel generators (and we know what diesel costs these days). The plant is back online now, fortunately, but the average cost per kilowatt hour is still pretty high compared to the rest of the US.
Nonetheless, I think there’s a bright future (pun intended) for indoor gardening in this beautiful state. Once folks realize how fun (and potentially profitable) this hobby/business can be, I believe its popularity would really, ummm, grow rapidly. Anyone wanna step up?
