Urban Farmer Shares His Secret to Growing Citrus in Snow Without Heating Bills

[@chadsproduce]

A special thanks to Stefano for sharing mine and many other such talented farmers, generational growers and their valuable wisdom along with the awesome army ranger story that is for inspiration and education. To help you all grow your own food, and provide security for your families for impending hard times that will come.

[@StefanoCreatini]

It takes a village to grow food, we all have a role to play!

[@brentparks8524]

Great share Chad!

[@chadsproduce]

@@brentparks8524 thanks Brent. Hope you had a merry Christmas and let me know if you ever need help with a greenhouse setup.

[@GurvanCustom]

Thank you for sharing your experiences, very interesting and appreciated! Well done!

[@chadsproduce]

An on going experiment over a decade in the process. Hopefully we can take some of the comments listed and continue to innovate this system. Thanks so much for watching and Merry Christmas ❤

[@dieodd9866]

Your work is very inspirational & fascinating this is absolutely incredible thank you very much!

[@chadsproduce]

Stefano has the inspiration in his heart to tell these stories and inspire folks to grow food for hard times ahead.

[@dieodd9866]

@@chadsproduce indeed Chad!

[@tanyadekowski336]

It's Christmas Eve and I am crying because this video is so beautiful. Thank you for this Christmas gift

[@sproutrock9232]

Amazing presentation! Been following Chad on tiktok, always 🤯. Thanks for sharing this 🍑

[@StefanoCreatini]

Our pleasure!

[@tangobayus]

Greenhouses do not need glazing on the North side. It's a net loss in terms of heating. East and West walls break even, and South walls gain heat. An energy-efficient greenhouse would have 3 insulated walls (ENW) and an insulated roof that slopes downward toward the North. The South, glazed wall could slope backwards to be at 90 degrees to the Sun at the Winter Solstice. The South wall could actually be partially glazed because it will turn into an oven if it is completely glazed. Passive solar building usually have about 1 square foot of window for 8 square feet of floor space. Paint the inside white or cover with aluminized mylar (rescue blankets) to get the most out of the light that comes in. If the South wall is completely glazed you need some thermal mass to absorb the extra heat.

[@chadsproduce]

Man you think the exact same as I do. Awesome awesome comments thanks so much. ❤

[@StefanoCreatini]

Great suggestions

[@JohnPritzlaff]

Needs a pond under half of the floor and/or barrels of water on the north wall.

[@bobmarley965]

BELOVED I AM IN THE UK I LIVE IN ESSEX AND I AM A KEEN FOOD GARDENER SO GLAD TO SEE THIS VIDEO I ALSO HAVE LOADS OF LEAVES BUT CAN ALSO GET STRAWS

[@chadsproduce]

Thank you for watching and so glad you’re excited to get started. ❤

[@JoséCruz-u2m]

Gracias amigo

[@JoséCruz-u2m]

Muy buena informacion

[@savvy2639]

amazing stuff. thanks for the tour and great ideas. 👍🏻

[@StefanoCreatini]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@kathleenmead9259]

Brilliant! Thank you for sharing! Happy holidays to you and your family!

[@StefanoCreatini]

Glad you liked it! Happy Holidays to you and yours as well!

[@higherrating2195]

Do you remove plastic when you harvest the mulch? A video that shows what happens to a bag of leaves would be awesome! Do they break down slowly, or do you empty them when harvesting mulch? What happens to the layers of buried plastic.

[@chadsproduce]

The greenhouse plastic on the new greenhouses we built can be easily pulled up to edit and or remove plastic bags of leaves halfway up the sides . Plastic can be clamped up half way. The greenhouse grade plastic doesn’t deteriorate like a Home Depot plastic would. Lasts for years and sometimes over a decade. Even when I eventually remove older plastic from the inside out to increase light I can use the plastic remnants for other projects. Low tunnels etc.

[@saraadair8362]

I Love your videos, keep them coming

[@StefanoCreatini]

Thanks Sara! Will do!. I also run a permaculture/homestead community with 100+ hrs of courses. www.skool.com/perma-resilience/about

[@7Thunders777]

You should have pictures of Your greenhouses at Your Booth. Well done , excellent Project.

[@chadsproduce]

That is a great idea. Like a photo collage Love it. 😍

[@mikecf1]

Absolutely spectacular. I am going to try to use some of your methods. Have you tried any of the satsumas? They would probably thrive in your setup.

[@chadsproduce]

Have them growing now. They do very well. Thanks for watching. ❤

[@georgemckenzie2525]

Admirable results for certain.

[@elnosworld9893]

I think it is wonderful that you found a way to produce food in less than desirable conditions where the plants don't actually enjoy their atmosphere And it is a lot of trial and error it takes a long time to hang our skills and I'll give you a lot of props for that Yeah money is important because I need to be able to take care of your financial responsibilities unfortunately we live in a world that requires money to some degree but I find that's the driving force for most people and they're not thinking about some of the other elements that they need to consider which is as wonderful as plastic is for a purpose like this because it's inexpensive and replaceable quite easily it also off gases and while that heat is being generated from the decay of the bail of hay and brown matter grass clippings etc. it's getting into the food and you're feeding that to other people and they're paying for it So you might wanna come up with a better idea for example if you had to just put in a bunch of studs and built your walls out of straw bale and covered it with Adobe that would've pulled in passive heat and that passive heat wouldn't have been off gassing or bleaching any type of chemicals from plastic into the Earth or into the plants themselves And then what you could've done is used Glass instead as the roof which would've generated more heat than plastic so hopefully moving forward you'll start to consider those as options and in those you could've put vents so then your entire roof is glass and if you wanted to do the upper portion around the circumference of the building in Glass as well which you could've repurpose from a rehab store or something like that like transom windows in the old Victorian homes you could vent the greenhouse you'll still be making compost because you still got all those materials built up to that level like 1 foot or 2 feet away from the roof and now you're growing healthier food because if you do a DNA test on someone or you rather labs almost everybody including children has plastics and the chemicals that are in plastics in their blood which also gets into their organs and creates havoc People are getting sick they're getting really sick and people are dying because these things are Kim would've their body cannot get rid of the amount of toxins that they are absorbing so while doing incredible things you have to start considering the ramifications and every time you get a chance to level up you do it because making a lot of money going on vacation is wonderful for you but some people will never have another vacation because they're dying they're dying because they ate food that had chemicals and plastics on it and in it and they don't know how to take care of their body they don't know how to heal and they end up never having another vacation let alone another holiday So I hope that prompting is enough to make you reconsider what you're doing and how you're doing it so that it can be a win-win for everyone because if I go back to the very beginning of this video when you started talking about the chemical reaction between the PVC which is plastic and the plastic itself and how that deteriorated the plastic That right there is your first clue this stuff is breaking down and it's getting into your compost that's being made and it's it's leaching even faster because of the element of heat that is being produced by all the natural materials that are breaking down and providing your greenhouse with the heat that it requires to sustain and help those plants grow The reason why to answer the person who said why don't you just leave the leaves in a bag and let them decay because they produce heat but they also produce compost so why would you leave them in the bag so they can't touch the Earth and then they leach from the heat produced all the chemicals in the bag into the leaves and then when they do break down and you get rid of the bag you're now spreading toxic matter all over the property to feed the plants and what do you think they're gonna eat don't listen to people start thinking more progressively you have the experience but you have to keep expanding what do you want do you want to feed people for the money or do you want to do both feed them to be healthy and feed the land and feed your bank account Integrity that's the bottom line

[@StefanoCreatini]

Thanks for your thoughts. I’m sure Chad will appreciate feedback

[@chadsproduce]

Thanks for your insights and comments. Lots to expand upon and continually reimagine as this experiment continues.

[@Junzar56]

I hope we can visit this in January or February.

[@Sandwichking-hikes]

There are citrus that can grow to zone 8 like satsuma oranges, some mandarin oranges, kumquats, and there are some off flavor hardy citrus that can can handle single digit temps no protection like the citremon etc. these need to be mature plants before they can handle sub freezing temps.

[@chadsproduce]

What I have found is that the trees can stand some colder temps. But I haven’t seen any citrus fruit that can handle anything and stay good and edible below 26 or 27. When I first started to do this I read that too and didn’t worry as much when exposing to cold and not having the first greenhouses up to par for growing citrus. I learned the hard way when I had kumquats and Satsuma Mandarins freeze on the trees and turn to mush exposed to temps too cold. Let me know if you know of any fruit itself that can handle colder temps into the teens ?

[@tcbink]

30:40 I have a suggestion, call it a “Permaculture greenhouse thing.” Easy to remember!😂😂😂

[@chadsproduce]

Chaos Gardening. Chaos heating. Chaos composting. 🍊 🧑‍🌾. Thanks for watching clear to 30:40. That gives you a B grade

[@jonathanblanchard9922]

What hardy zone is this?

[@StefanoCreatini]

6A. Believe

[@southernyankeeprepper]

Is this pvc for the hoops electrical conduit pvc or regular plumbing pvc?

[@chadsproduce]

The thick dark gray pvc. Even in time that doesn’t hold up well to the outdoor weather.

[@hansmiddelburg1366]

You could also dig the greenhouse in the ground, same effect: no light 😮

[@JohnPritzlaff]

Build into a south-facing hill.

[@chadsproduce]

Digging into the earth would be problematic. We would hit water. We would also put the best soil on the walls of the structure. I am not a fan of this. We get plenty of light or the trees would not be 15 feet tall and full of fruit. 🍉. Thanks for watching.

[@chadsproduce]

@@JohnPritzlaffI like this idea. Great thinking.

[@aldas3831]

So why didn’t he keep the pomegranates and figs? He said they grew vigorously! You don’t take out what grows well…and congrats to him. Great job!

[@StefanoCreatini]

I think he said citrus is better for fruiting times, he has a crop when no one else does

[@chadsproduce]

The figs and pomegranates overtook the greenhouse, the poor citrus trees, the city of Ogden, state of Utah. Didn’t know what to do with them. Decided to get them out. Give them their own large greenhouse in West Bountiful Utah. Save the very best soil, climate I had in Ogden for the Citrus. The fig trees pruned way back are still there but the citrus are what I wanted to focus on. The citrus would allow lots of profitable May fruit for the farmers markets, agritourism, farm tours, tv spots and best of all Stefano Creatini KZbin videos ❤

[@aldas3831]

@ you have done a great job! I would have chosen figs and pomegranate but you had your reasons. It’s a matter of preference I guess.

[@chadsproduce]

@ interesting comment. I think it came down to another wish I had. A wish of trees that stay green all winter and do not lose their leaves. There is something about looking at a tree that is still green full of fruit in the snow around me that intrigues me. Great comment. Maybe I should have thought twice.

[@aldas3831]

@@chadsproduce I hear you. Great on the eyes, I agree.

[@sunshinedayz2172]

Does the citrus fruit set without the help of bees?

[@chadsproduce]

It is all self pollinating to some point. But you only get one chance to make this right with the trees. Watering being a good steward etc. So I double it up with paint brushes and make it a fun event with a paint brush festival at my Farm Tours. I have never figured out how to get the trees to grow and or bloom once during the year. I have tried about everything. Fertilizers etc.

[@TeamDNABJJ]

He does it by hand. The oranges and such. Watch his other videos ❤❤❤

[@sunshinedayz2172]

@@TeamDNABJJ Thanks, 👍 I know that the bees are on the elimination list..

[@TeamDNABJJ]

@sunshinedayz2172 horrible. You hear about the monarchs ??? More then half wiped out on 2 years..... That 5g is messing them up something bad... No one is really talking about that.... I didn't see like any this year. Sooooo sad....

[@lloydleach1352]

I would like to see a KZbin video in stead of a slide show. I have a 20 x 30 green high tunnel and have 23 arc of clay and. Found out that raised beads do better than growing clay,

[@chadsproduce]

Check out Stefano’s original video documenting our Citrus Farms in Utah video entitled $1000 Greenhouses Grow Citrus in the Snow No Heaters. This webinar is an update as we have done tons of upgrades and new greenhouse technologies since. Thanks for watching.

[@StefanoCreatini]

Check out my other video

[@other-phone]

🌱

[@coincollector315]

How do you control rodents like mice when the housing and food sources are so conveniently placed together.

[@chadsproduce]

We have two methods the ultra sonic plug in pest control device which is working fantastic for us. Works great on aphids too. The longer it is plugged in the better it works. Have had in for a year. No aphids or mice indoors. Outdoors we have several feral kitties fixed as stated in this video that do a fantastic job. More info in the middle of this video.

[@Avocado740]

You should put a beehive in your greenhouse.

[@StefanoCreatini]

His neighbor have beehives, would be intense to have them loose in a greenhouse

[@coincollector315]

As a beekeeper, there would never be enough food to support even a singe hive. They require a lot more resources that people think and they get more pollen from trees and weeds than food producing agriculture.

[@babsoneverything3060]

How do you keep the mice and other rodents out?

[@chadsproduce]

We have two to four feral kitties per farm. They do a fantastic job. The ultra sonic pest control plug in devices if left inside plugged in for a year do a fantastic job for my indoor farm. Hundreds of cherry tomato plants all in bloom right now. No aphids. Is a miracle.

[@britt518]

When you use the leaves you are leaving them in the plastic bags or dumping them and then covering them with plastic?

[@chadsproduce]

I have done both but have noticed that leaves blow away outside of the plastic and don’t stack very well under the plastic. So I am keeping them bagged as a new experiment for even more heat exchange. To keep it from overheating in the summer under the plastic I can gently mulch over the top of what I am doing with some loose straw and keep that heat mass buried for future winter use by gently uncovering the bags for next winter and mulch over the top for the summer.

[@lisagarrett6966]

WOW !

[@chadsproduce]

Thanks so much for watching. ❤

[@mattg6472]

Your pouring efforts and money into changing the environment when you can change the plants

[@CrossroadToCountry]

But that would take years right?

[@chadsproduce]

I considered buying land in Southern Utah Northern Arizona to change the climate but it is MUCH cheaper to change the environment in the area which you live than to purchase crazy expensive land. I don’t understand how you can change the plants ? Please explain.

[@StefanoCreatini]

That’s what everyone is doing when they heat their homes and buying food from somewhere else around the world. This is an example of taking waste and adding a use for old plastic, and waste yard material.

[@mattg6472]

@@chadsproduce adaptation gardening

[@mattg6472]

@@CrossroadToCountry a couple years and the greenhouses won't take that long? Plus adapted plants grow way better way more nutrition and up to no effort and no inputs.