Renewable Revolution

Full article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/09/14/nebraska-geothermal-greenhouse.aspx

Truly remarkable.

What impressed me most what the fact the trench has to be at least 54 feet long. I guess the thermal mass in the trench is not self sustaining with a shorter trench. I may never have a chance to put that knowledge in practice, but perhaps someone that reads this will.

I would love to be able to grow bananas and oranges and avocados and even mangos here in Vermont, but I probably will never have the opportunity. I know Amory Lovins successfully grew Bananas in the mountains of Colorado (his still does 👍).
   
I grew Bananas in Puerto Rico and had an Avocado and Mango tree. Bananas are easy to grow in the tropics and are generally impervious to bugs. Birds can get to them, but only when they are so ripe they are falling off the plant. You need to harvest them before that point is reached. The plants don't get much higher than 12 feet or so.

Mango and Avocado trees get way too big (over 30 feet) for a trench, so a dwarf hybrid would have to be the only type you could grow in a covered trench. Avocado and Mango trees must grow for at least 7 years or so before you can get fruit.

Avocado trees are peculiar because they are both male and female (at different times of the day to prevent cross-pollination on the same tree). Usually you need another Avocado tree nearby for proper flower fertlization. Mango trees don't have that problem, but hybrids revert to more stringy fruit (harder to eat) versions rather easily. You need to have similar hybrid trees near each other to keep the fruit true to the hybrid brand.

Mangos are not like apples, which have a uniform pulp texture across most varieties. Mango texture can vary widely from easy to eat to a fruit dense with stringy "dental tape floss" like fibers all the way to the seed. The versions we get in Vermont are low fiber, peach easy to eat, but pretty bland in taste. I suspect they are picked when they not fully ripe so they aren't damaged in shipping. There is nothing like eating a mango, or any other fruit, for that matter, when it has fully ripened on the tree. 😋