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Old 09-26-2016, 11:52 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Lake Havasu AZ.
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Hello shillamus,
Why would you think it would be better to grow blueberry's in soil than hydroponically? You can grow anything hydroponically. The key is knowing the plant you want to grow so you can design a system to grow them that will grow them best, as well as be easy to maintain.

As for the underground refrigerator idea, it's very simple. I'm sure you have heard of a root cellar. A root cellar stays cold naturally because it's underground. But I would be using a window air conditioner as the cooling unit to get it even colder. Any outside or exposed walls/doors etc. will be insulated with sheets of Styrofoam insulation. You could build a box/room and use sheet Styrofoam insulation on all 6 sides, but the underground temps will use geothermal energy and use nature to do some of the cooling for you, reducing size of the AC unit needed and the amount of electricity needed to keep it cold.

Basically just dig a large hole big enough for your needs, build the walls with cinder blocks, put a waterproof roof on it, and cover the whole thing up with 3-4 feet of dirt (except the door). Keep the ground all around the bunker/cellar moist so it stays cool. Then install the window AC unit to cool it further. Just being underground will keep it to near 60 degrees year round, the AC unit will then cool it further to the low 40's. You can use a thermostat to turn on and off the AC unit at a pre-set temp.
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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 09-26-2016 at 11:59 PM.
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