Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Canada Banana Farms, located 200 kilometres west of Toronto in Blyth, Ont., is cultivating fruit such as papayas, pineapples, lemons, guavas, and – of course – bananas. You'd think that you'd need an advanced degree in horticulture or botany to grow fruits like these in frigid Canada, but Terry Brake's method is easy – and cheap.
[...] "We grow them in hoop houses," Brake told CTV News Channel on Friday. "And we heat it with wood all winter long." The hoop houses – essentially long sheets of polyethylene stretched over a frame – have effectively created the jungle-like conditions these fruits need to flourish. "It just feels like you're in the tropics," Brake says of his DIY greenhouses. "It's very humid in there: about 85 to 90 per cent humidity in the winter."
Source: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/meet-the-farmer-who-s-growing-bananas-in-ontario-1.3007500
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday July 30 2016, @12:11PM
burning wood is quite environmentally unfriendly. a much better solution would be a solar concentrator because the only thing they do is make heat.
A better way to take advantage of solar power is to grow them in, say, Guatemala rather than a country that's covered in snow half the year.
(Admittedly you then need to use power to move them to wherever they're going, but it can't be more than heating a pile of greenhouses year round).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @03:48PM
It would b neat to see some math but those details aren't available :(