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Old April 26, 2018   #417
Cole_Robbie
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
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It's mostly economics. I happen to live in an area of the country with very good soil and very low produce prices. I think hydro is great and I would love to grow that way, but the initial outlay of money takes years to re-coup. I know of one successful greenhouse tomato grower here. He has Cherokee Purples right now for sale that are quite good, but I think he is still only getting $2.50 a pound for them, and that's before most people here have even planted a garden. He has a team of migrant laborers who live on his farm and keep the wood stove burning overnight.

I pulled out a lot of Johnson Grass roots over the winter. I suspect my tomato disease spores may have been living on those roots. We shall see.

As far as soil-building taking time, that is true, but if you can find good soil existing somewhere already like I did, soil-moving is much faster.
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