Veggies Too Pricey? Grow Your Own (floridatoday.com)

The Hydroponic Garden--A Guide to Hydroponics
Hydroponics allows us to grow the plants, fruits and vegetables of our choice--even in limited space--without using soil. It's an amazing way to produce perfect specimens and offers TONS of advantages that traditional gardening can't come close to touching!

May26, 2008 

High prices at the pump and the produce aisle have sent home gardeners into their yards with a mission: Grow-it-yourself dining. Sales of vegetable seeds, tomato transplants and fruit trees are soaring as enterprising planters grow their own food.

W. Atlee Burpee & Co., the nation's largest seed company, has sold twice as many seeds this year as it did last year, with half the increase from new customers, the company's president, George Ball, estimates.

"When we saw the gas prices go up, we said, 'Oh boy,' " Ball said.

Interest in growing fruits and vegetables picks up during economic downturns, people in the industry say. Seed companies say a dime spent on seeds yields about $1 worth of produce.

Bad economic times can also mean more time to garden -- people who cancel their summer vacations are around to water their tomatoes. The housing crunch also works in favor of vegetable gardens: If you can't sell your home, you can replant it.

When a bag of six red and yellow peppers went from $4 to $7 at area markets, David Wasler of Palm Bay figured it was time to start planting.

"And most of the ones they are getting are imports," Wasler, 62, said.

The information technology worker, raised on a Pennsylvania farm, already had been working on developing hydroponic organic farming techniques when that produce sticker shock got him planting peppers, yellow tomatoes -- coming in now -- and dragon fruit.

Yes, there were costs associated with his plantings, including replacing sand with nutrient-rich soil, but Wasler took an economist's approach to his financial outlay.

"Costs the first year are somewhat high, but look at the growing season," he said.

"So if you amortize that over the year, it reduces the cost. Going into the second year, you don't have to build that (soil) up."

That kind of thinking is leading to a big year for companies that sell to fruit and vegetable gardeners.

Linda Grover, who owns Sun Harbor Nursery in Indian Harbour Beach with her husband, Dave, said she has seen an increase in people who want to grow their own produce.

"It's been like this for several months. It's really a trend," Grover said.

"For a variety of reasons people want to plant. They want to control the quality of what they eat and they can make sure it's organic. Also there's a nostalgia thing involved where people are growing to show their kids what they used to do with their own parents."

Among the most popular items: The EarthBox, a self-contained soil system popular with time-pressed gardeners.

Grover has tomatoes growing in one at her shop and says the better-than-average yield is timely given the economy.

"My customers who aren't growing their vegetables in the EarthBox have a lot of problems with the plants because here in Florida we get a lot of fungi, bugs, worms and end-rot," she said.

New vegetable gardeners are packing classes from Maine to California.

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