Geodesic Domes in Ag: Wyoming and the Tropics Learning Together

At first glance, agriculture in Wyoming and agriculture on Hawaii or Guam don’t have much in common.

But growers in both the tropical Pacific and the northern prairie can benefit from enclosed production spaces, which is why Wyoming-developed domes will soon be popping up in the islands.

In this episode, University of Wyoming Extension Specialist Jeff Edwards and Pepe Miranda, an agronomist with Farms and Coffee Solutions, discuss how they became interested in geodesic domes for agriculture production and how the domes help overcome challenges in their different locations. 

Jeff has refined existing designs and developed a materials list and construction manual so people can build the domes themselves. He then led dome-building workshops and erected domes throughout Wyoming. 

Pepe was one of the workshop and tour participants and is building a dome for local schools in Hawaii.

Learn more about the advantages of domes and how to build a dome by listening to this podcast and ordering the construction manual.

Photo by Steve Elliott

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Transcript

Steve 

My guests today are Jeff Edwards of the University of Wyoming and Pepe Miranda, an agronomist at Farm and Coffee Solutions in Hawaii. And we're going to talk about enclosed space agricultural production inside geodesic domes. Gentlemen, thanks for joining us.

Jeff Edwards 

You're welcome Steve, good to be here.

Pepe Miranda 

Thank you for having us, Steve.

Steve 

You bet. When most people think about growing produce or other crops indoors, they think of greenhouses or high tunnels, hoop houses maybe, not domes. You two are a little different in that. Jeff, let's start with you. How did you become interested in domes for agricultural production?

Jeff Edwards 

Yeah, so I've been working with enclosed space production since about 2009. And in 2018, I had an individual from the Wyoming Department of Agriculture contact me about the possibilities of putting up a dome in one of the small rural communities of Wyoming. at first, I was a little hesitant because I often ask people how much of their high school geometry they remembered, I don't remember a whole lot of high school geometry. But this particular dome, was a kit, and we struggled putting it together, and the instructions were very vague and not complete. And working for Extension, I kind of took it on as a personal task to improve the methodology of how people could build their own domes. And that's kind of how we got started into it.

Steve 

All right. And from that first one, did you see that one used in production at all in any production? And then once you started improving them, what did you see happen in Wyoming?

Jeff Edwards 

Yeah, I've not seen that one in production. But once we built it though, it really piqued my interest on how they would be if we would build kits and put them together. Since that time, we've done about 30 workshops around the state of Wyoming and built domes and have seen the majority of those put into production.

And it's just kind of interesting and different. the production itself is very similar to in a high tunnel. And the plants can grow very quickly and take over. And I caution people not to overplant them. But that tends to be what people do when they are actually growing in them. And one of the things that we how this kind of progressed is that when we were doing workshops early on, we would just have a group of 10 or 12 people conduct a school on how to build everything, build the dome on site. And then I felt that we were done, right? Like, hey, you got a dome, it's up to you now to do with it what you want. And after a couple of years of doing that, I found it was a little frustrating because some of the domes that we would put into place. They would not be being used for production. And so the workshop evolved again to actually include irrigation systems, raised beds on the inside and outside. And then now, if I do a workshop with folks, by the time that I am, by the time we're completed with the dome and I walk away from the project, they should be able to just go out and plant. And I can see them being utilized more when we are more complete with the project.

Steve 

So Pepe, I met you last summer on a tour of some of these domes with Jeff in Wyoming. How did you come to hear about them and why did you think they would be suitable for growing on the island?

Pepe Miranda (

Thank you, Steve. I think that we just want to forward couple of years in regards to what Jeff just mentioned. He just talked about the initiation of this project. So I think that we are one of the tail end of these projects. then, it's an ongoing process and learning process.

I think I met Jeff, he come over to do some other pesticides and some other projects and then he mentioned it about these storms and then, you know, curiosity, and we were trying to figure out how we can bring it up over here to the islands because initially it's just to extend the winter period or the summer period for you guys up there compared to here in Hawaii. I was super, super excited about it and then we went to see the possibility.

Steve 

I think that's what surprised me a little bit is when you think of it closed space production, it's typically for season extension. have to get a little more growing weeks, few more growing weeks in the spring and in the fall and extend the season a little bit. That's not an issue in the islands. What is the benefit of growing inside?

Pepe Miranda (

Well, for, sorry Steve, for the Pacific, the way I see it and then is that we are, you know, we are Pacific Islands, water is an issue. Sometimes the weather in regards to being so dry, low elevations, and then when it's in high elevations, too much rain. So the environment to have these control settings,

Steve 

No.

Pepe Miranda (I can see or dream that can be a great, great purpose for especially farmers or students or you know just to get the enclosed or better controlled environment.

Steve 

Jeff, when you did first talk about this on the islands, what similarities did you see between the needs in Wyoming and the needs in the Pacific?

Jeff Edwards 

Irrigation management, number one, as Pepe said. I can also see that better insect management and fungal management, think. Just some opportunities there. But yeah, I think that the problems can be similar in both locations so that they can be managed similarly in both locations.

Steve 

Yeah, one thing I think I learned on that tour is, I mean, in Wyoming, it's drying winds, very harsh winds. And in the islands, it's sort of the rain pulling down that volcanic dust that abrades the plants and makes them more susceptible for plant diseases. And the protection helps on both.

Jeff Edwards 

Right, so when we were on the island, if I may, we were supposed to go to Volcano to build a dome, and we actually had to schedule it between episode 41 of the eruption of the volcano and episode 42. episode 40, which is not something that I normally have to deal with, episode 41 was odd because the winds were from the south and actually blew the tephra to the north on top of volcano and prior to us getting there we had to take the dome kit that we had built and get it to the location. And when we first started going over there the tephra was so bad that it was, you know, it would cause respiratory issues for us and we were afraid that we would and the school kids and we were afraid that we were going to have to wear respirators when we were there. But by the time we got there, weather had straightened up, it had rained a couple of times and it had settled the tephra. And so it wasn't as much of a concern, but that was something I wasn't anticipating.

Steve 

Yes, scheduling around rain, we're kind of used to that in ag, or it's too muddy, but the volcanic eruptions, that's something different.

Jeff Edwards 

It was definitely different.

Steve 

Either one of you, but describe these domes. I mean, how big. And you talked about the kits, and now I know they're not coming in kits. You have a parts list, basically a cutting list. Yeah, sort of describe what they look like and how they're built.

Jeff Edwards 

So I'll take that one. So the kits themselves are not, let's not call them kits. We start from raw materials and cut all the parts and pieces and assemble all the parts and pieces to build the base wall and the frame of the dome. And then we come back in and add the irrigation for the raised beds and skin it and then add the soil for the raised bed.

The domes themselves are 10 sided at the base. And they are 22 feet in diameter. So relatively good size I think with the raised beds that we incorporate into it, each 22 foot dome has about 354 square feet of production area, I think. Something along that number. They are, they're about 11 and a half feet tall at the peak. And the material that we use to cover them is a woven polyethylene product. So, and I don't know if this is too much detail or not, Steve, but in Wyoming, we use a clear polyethylene product. And one of the problems or one of the challenges that we had in Hawaii is that, you know, they grow 365 days and it can be very hot. So I was concerned that the woven polyethylene that we use might allow too much sun exposure and just be cooking in there all the time. So we modified the venting system that we use on the mainland to incorporate more open screening without a louvered vent.

And the other thing that we did is we took the, we used the clear woven polyethylene product and covered about 30 % of the bottom tier, let's say, of the dome in east to west and on a southern exposure. And then the rest of the dome, we covered it with a white polyethylene product.

So it's white on the outside, white on the inside. And what we would find while we were in Hawaii is that the, you know, the temperature can get hot, but as soon as you get in the shade or some shade, temperature is very pleasant. So what we were seeing before we left, after we got the covers on, is that once you moved into the shade inside of the dome, and we're not really, it's not reduced light or it's not really shade, but you're being protected from the sun is there is a significant temperature differential between indirect sun and not in the sun. And it's very pleasant inside of those domes. And I hope that we can collect some temperature data on them to see, and production data to see how well those modifications worked. And I think we might consider doing some of that type of stuff in Wyoming, moving away from a strictly a clear polyethylene cover to something more messing around with the combinations of a white on white product or with the clear. So I think that was a big win or a big learning that we got from doing the project in Hawaii.

Steve 

And let's talk about that. So the tour was last summer, late summer, I think, I don't remember, but the plan was to go to Hawaii and build several domes over the winter in different locations. So talk about that.

Jeff Edwards 

Yeah, so the original grant application we said we were going to go to the big island of Hawaii for two weeks, and then we would go to Maui for two weeks, and then we would go to Guam for two weeks and build two domes in each location. And because of the way that the grants were awarded this year or made available. We kind of got into a time crunch and the folks in Guam also came back and said, well, we don't have the budget to support people and we don't have the location. So they tapped out. They just didn't want to participate. And the Maui connections, we primarily were conversing with the master gardeners on Maui, and made a couple of attempts to meet up with them, but they just weren't invested in the process. And so we took it upon ourselves to locate additional schools and producers on the Big Island so that we could complete the deliverable of building all six on the Big Island before I was no longer able to do it. I'm currently on sabbatical and we had to wrap this up before the end of March. that's kind of how we ended up on the big island and we wanted to meet the objectives of the grant and that's what we did in order to do so.

Steve 

So Pepe, you were a part of those construction days on the Big Island?

Pepe Miranda 

Oh yeah, definitely my participation in this, was, I wanna say that 90%, 95 % of the time. And to add on Jeff, these domes for your questions is that the University of Wyoming have a key, have a manual.

It's a very simple manual, very explicit, but even I can comfortably say that I can feel it will take me a little bit more time. Jeff make it look so easy, but can be done.

Steve 

He doesn't need to remember his high school geometry. He's done it 30 or 40 times since.

Jeff Edwards 

Yeah, I wrote it down so I didn't have to keep remembering the numbers.

Steve 

Yeah. 22 divided by 360, or 360 divided by 20. What's that angle? So tell me how construction went, Pepe. Where was the first one built that when you guys, when Jeff and the crew got there?

Pepe Miranda 

Well, we have collaborating with two different schools. I think was the, yeah, two schools and then we got in one of farmers, one of the stakeholders was very interested in the development of these projects. So he has allocation for some area in the kind of lower elevation. So we did two for what is it TSA and or something like that.

Jeff Edwards (

So I'm sorry, Pepe, it was HTA. it's Hawaiian Technical Academy and the ALPS program, which was alternative learning program and the Volcano School. So those were the three schools that we worked with and the others were three producers.

Pepe Miranda 

HTAs.

Steve 

Okay. All right. Where are they in the big islands? Which quadrant?

Jeff Edwards 

There are...oh I'm sorry Pepe, go ahead, you can answer that one

Pepe Miranda 

No, go ahead. Yeah, there, what is it, a total of three sites? Yeah, it's three sites in Kona site, one in Nahuatl and then one in Volcano's area.

Steve 

Okay.

Jeff Edwards (

The one in Nā'ihuehu is south. So, yeah. And so, that's only five. The sixth one was also supposed to be built on the Kona side, but we're waiting for Department of Education for final approval to put that one up.

Steve 

And how did construction go? So you got all the material there on the islands, I'm assuming. Did you show up with tools or did you get tools on the islands too? And what tools do you need to build these?

Pepe Miranda 

One of the schools, maybe Jeff can clarify better, but one of the school got kind of assistant grant and they got some of the tools that is required to do this.

We have to remember that, and I don't know that the budget purpose for Jeff, for the grant was a little bit challenging because everything is imported to Hawaii. I know that some of the main parts or requirements for materials were a little bit delayed because it takes time to get theirs, even though we were trying to be as much as organized. Always it's a little bit challenge to send something to the middle of the Pacific. Go ahead, Jeff.

Jeff Edwards 

So I did bring slash ship some things with me. The hubs that we use for connectors I had manufactured in the United States. Sorry, not in the United States, that's wrong. On the mainland. Yeah. I found a machinist in Mitchell, Nebraska, who is willing to build the hubs for the projects. I had been using schedule 80 PVC, but we were chastised, I guess might be the right word by an engineering firm because schedule 80 PVC is not a traditional construction material. So we decided to go ahead and try it with aluminum hubs in Hawaii.

So we shipped and brought those over. The majority of everything else were considered, I guess they would be locally sourced, but everything still has to be imported. But all of the lumber that we use, and then I guess the other component that we were actually waiting on that Pepe mentioned, I use biocomposite fence pickets, which are recycled plastic and fence and wheat straw merged together to make fence pickets. I guess most people would be familiar with the product Trex for decking, those types of things. Yeah, and so the material that I used is available through Home Depot. There's Home Depot on the Big Island. We were able to get them to import things into, but

Steve 

Yeah, so so authentic. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Edwards (

That was about 15 days longer that we had to wait on materials from them. Just, yeah, because Pepe mentioned the challenges that there are with getting materials there. As far as the tools are concerned, the big thing is a chop saw or a miter chop saw, I guess you would call. Yeah. And table saw. And then the rest of the tools that are required, which can be a little bit challenging to get a hold of our 916 box end wrenches. And because I normally, when I'm running a school, I need about 10 of those. And so everybody's got one in order to crank the nuts on the bolts. And other than that, would be impact drivers, basically to drive screws and assemble all the parts and pieces. Steve, if I can go back, one of the things about the dome itself, we don't need to necessarily need all of what we remember about geometry at school because of the way that they're built together or assembled together. The hubs that I mentioned, using that system, it's just one angle or two angles that you have to use or keep in your brain. You don't have to have compound angles for every intersecting strut of the dome. It's been much simplified. So yeah, you might want to include that too.

Steve 

Yeah. I mean, and that's something you just set up on the miter saw and repeat the cut.

Jeff Edwards 

Yeah, so on the miter saw it's either 18 degrees or 16 degrees to get the right angle to put the dome together.

Steve 

And if you had two saws and just put big signs over which was which, it would be even faster.

Jeff Edwards 

Yeah, potentially.

Steve 

How long does it take to assemble one of these? Once you have all the parts.

Jeff Edwards 

Can we talk about me doing it in Wyoming?

Steve 

Let's talk about both.

Jeff Edwards 

So, yeah, so before we started the Hawaii project in 2025, I did six dome schools and we got to a point where I could start and a dome school has about 12 people in it, including myself. And I could go from raw material to all through all the building steps to finish product that we could walk away from in about 19 and a half hours.

Jeff Edwards (

So in Hawaii, it was a little bit more challenging because we had a lot of the materials, we were working in one place, and so we were actually building all six dome kits at once. Now, four of the domes were the same, two of them were a little bit different, and I had all of these numbers and parts and pieces rolling around in my brain. We work pretty solid. Go ahead.

Steve 

So they were being assembled in one place and then transported to where they were gonna be or just pre-assembled?

Jeff Edwards Yes, all the parts and pieces were being prepped and then there was some pre-assembly and then those parts and pieces were transported to the build location. So we worked pretty solidly from the first January through about the 27th of January and got one dome completed by the 30th of January.

Steve 

Gotcha, gotcha. Okay.

Jeff Edwards 

…and then the parts and pieces for the others were also assembled. It actually took us about seven weeks to get five domes completely finished.

Steve 

But these are probably the first geodesic, you know, agricultural production domes that have ever been erected in Hawaii. So it's a different process.

Jeff Edwards 

It is a different process.

Steve 

So Pepe, how are they being used? What have you seen in the... There's only a few weeks since then, but what's going on?

Pepe Miranda 

Well, to be honest with you, we just finished a couple weeks ago. Earlier when Jeff was mentioning about the tephra and the situation with volcanoes, this past weekend a couple days ago we have a big, big rainstorm. And then to be honest, I haven't had a chance to be on site and see if there was any damage on those domes. But the schools, last activity that I have with both of the schools who are working up on those sites, they're still in the process. And my understanding is that they are planting already. Again, it takes a little bit more time and see how this project is going to continue. my opinion is that there's somehow some positive intake for this.

Steve 

Yeah, yeah, if you get a little insect control and you get a little wind damage controller, the volcanic ash, they might prove to be very beneficial over time.

Pepe Miranda 

Definitely.

Jeff Edwards 

We're hopeful. I can give you a kind of a status about each one. So the volcano school, were still trying to source their soil. So their dome is completely built. And then they were going to have to put in a water catchment system to provide water for the dome itself.

Steve 

Yeah.

Jeff Edwards 

I don't know how familiar people, your listeners are with water catchment, but what they do is they're collecting rain off the rooftops or whatever and put it in a large container and then they're able to pull that material off. Kind of like rain, like a rain barrel on your vehicle, on your house for your garden, only larger scale.

Jeff Edwards (

The, again, the project in Alehu, they are trying to figure out how to connect their water system. And the folks, the two Kona sites, they are as well trying to connect their irrigation systems. And so that was something we left them with as an assignment on the end. the fifth one. It is all connected. I just don't think that they have soil placed in the raised bed in that one. So they're staged for production, but just waiting on a few end wrap-up things.

Steve 

Okay. All right. Well, I will be curious to see in six months, nine months, a year, two years, what happens inside of all of these.

Jeff Edwards 

As are we.

Steve 

So sort of final thoughts on, in closed space production, Jeff, because you've been studying that a while. If anybody's interested in that and doesn't know where to begin or perhaps even why, what advice would you give?

Jeff Edwards 

Hmm what advice it's definitely worthwhile and I know you have listeners nationally, but In Wyoming Traditionally you can start planting inside some and these are all passive structures. There's no additional heating and cooling you can traditionally start planting sometime in March and Harvest. Final harvest would probably be sometime in November for us. And you can, with some effort, actually produce over the course of the winter. So if you have something like greens, particularly spinach, you can get it to overwinter. You might only get one crop in January, but as soon as the weather turns around, February you might get two, March you might get three. So it's definitely worth it.

If you are a gardener and like to grow or if you are considering expanding your growing season so that you can participate at farmers markets, because generally the earlier that you can get something planted, the earlier you're harvesting it. And what happens at farmers markets, if you're the first one there with a particular item that sells really well, you will sell a

Steve 

If you're the first one there with a good tomato in the early spring, you will sell them all at whatever price you want to charge.

Jeff Edwards 

Yes, you will sell them all. Yes, yeah. And so there's some definite benefits there. In Wyoming, our winters can be very stressful. And so if you can get out into your high tunnel or your dome and you're doing some type of gardening in a protected space, it can be very therapeutic just to get outside and get some fresh air and not be bothered too much by the temperature or the wind.

It's in closed space is highly beneficial both mentally and can be financially and it can be to support your family as far as providing fresh vegetables.

Steve 

I hadn't thought of the psychological benefits from being able to get outside in a garden in January, but that makes a lot of sense.

Jeff Edwards 

Yeah, and I'm not quite sure I answered your question entirely.

Steve 

I think, I think, but you did raise the financial aspect of this. How much are materials roughly?...

Jeff Edwards 

Okay. Oh, sure. So let's talk about mainland prices. For the dome itself, a 22-foot structure is just about $25 or $2,800. I know that there are kits that are available that you can buy commercially, and they charge like $30,000 for a kit for a dome. But those structures generally aren't passive. They usually have some type of element where they're a little more insulated. When we started adding the irrigation system, that adds another $2,200. So generally on the mainland, if you're talking about a full irrigation system, raised beds inside and outside and the dome, it's less than $5,000.

Steve 

And we'll put a link to the guide in with the podcast so people can download the how-to guide and take a look at this. 

Jeff Edwards 

The manual on how to build a dome? Yeah, sure. OK. And also, Steve, there's a publication that I have that is how to manage insects as well. And if you'd like, I can send you that link.

Steve 

Yeah, so this link will put that in as well. Excellent. And Pepe, for you, if there was another grower in the islands, Guam, Hawaii, anywhere else, that thought this was a good idea, would you encourage him to look into it?

Pepe Miranda 

I still thinking that it requires work, requires dedication and then being motivated. Over there in the tropics and over here in Hawaii, we don't have much excuse to grow. We have 365 days a year and then to me is a plus but sometimes reality is a little bit you know like I human nature so I like how Jeff put it if you want to be out and have some release and tensions and stuff and enjoy producing and see things grow that I see that is a great great thing to do.

Steve 

There you go. Well, gentlemen, I have enjoyed this conversation immensely. I really appreciate you taking the time today. 

Good growing.

Jeff Edwards 

Yeah, thanks for having us, Steve.

Steve 

Thanks a lot. All right. Yeah. Take care. All right.

Pepe Miranda 

Thank you so much, Steve. Looking forward to see you guys later.

Jeff Edwards 

Take care.