HackerTube.dev

Nebraska retiree uses earths's heat to grow oranges in snow

Kirsten Dirksen · 3.4M views · 2018-05-27 · 18:17

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

Kirsten Dirksen visits retired mailman Russ Finch in Alliance, Nebraska, who grows oranges, figs and pomegranates in a backyard greenhouse without paying for heat. The greenhouse uses the stable temperature of the earth, with underground earth tubes, to heat and cool itself.

On Hacker News

HN commenters bring it up in geothermal, greenhouse and vertical farming threads as a low-tech example of growing citrus in a cold climate.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2019–2026

Topics

Environment, agriculture & food systemsPower grid, heating & buildingsHome, DIY & practical skills
Search by tags
geothermalearth tubesgreenhousecitruspassive heatingbackyard farming

What people said

culi · 2026-07 · Recommendation

Almost all the videos on this channel are fascinating btw. Greenhouses enveloping entire houses/villages[0][1] in northern Europe to earthships[2] to someone growing citrus in Nebraska using trenches[3] to entire villages underground in Australia[4] [0] [LINK] [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] [VIDEO] [4] [LINK] I'd also recommend the channels FLORB and Happen Films though they're admittedly a little corny. [LINK] [LINK] Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't recently did a tour of an interesting alt home as well. [LINK]

Read the original HN comment ↗
kingsloi · 2023-01 · Recommendation

If this interests you, I recommend checking out this video by Russ Finch, who grows citruses (orange, lemons, etc), figs, pomegranates in his sunken greenhouse in the middle of Nebraska in the snow/20F, and uses geothermal heating (long tubes buried underground) to heat it during the winter months, and cool in the summer months. Really interesting story/concept and I'm hoping to replicate on a small scale when I renovate my back yard in the coming years. [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗
mythrwy · 2021-10 · Recommendation

Yes I think that would work. Check out this guy, he grows oranges in Nebraska in thermal heated greenhouses. As I recall he talks about cooling as well. He has tubes around 8 feet under the ground running around the yard. [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Kirsten Dirksen, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources