Artificial islands?

Question

For example, could someone grow a crop of corn (just using corn as ana example) on an artificial island? I've seen those artificial islands in Dubai (The Palms they're called I think). They have sandy beaches the house have grass lawns and sometimes some trees and shrubs. So would it be possible to grow a large amount of vegetables on an artificial island? Also how big can an artificial island be? Is there like a limit on how big they can be or not? Please post. Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes. You can add compost and clays to the sand or treat the whole thing as a hydroponic crop. That, contrary to myth doesn't require a greenhouse. The largest average yield (extrapolated) for corn was done hydroponically by a student in Georgia (first record I am aware of).

Answer 2

If you are asking if it is possible to grow a large amount of corn or other vegetables on an artificial island like the Palms, the answer would be yes, it would be possible.  Would it be practical? The answer would be no. It would be something like buying a Rolls Royce and running a taxi service.

Answer 3

Yes.  Consider that they are hauling thousands of tons of earth from various locations to form the islands.  Some of that has to retain minerals.  As for the size limit, it can only be as big as the amount of earth that you move to the location, and how deep the ocean at said location is.

Answer 4

Soil or even rock transported to form an island will not be solid the way natural rock is.

In the event of earthquakes disturbed soil and rock substantially liquefies... buildings sink into the surface. even more striking, where the depth of disturbed aggregate is changing, buildings will tumble into the earth, rolling in the direction of deeper aggregate.

Very deep deposits would be impractical. That would require moving too much material, as well as making an island that is very unstable.

Building an island that is at risk for  a tsunami would give me reason to cringe. So we may have to build the island to well above high tide.

Salt water is going to be all through the base of the island, but if the land is 10 metres high, above the ocean, we might be able to supply irrigation water continuously to grow crops.

one thing we can know is that every last square metre of those islands will be very well drained, so keeping a lot of water in the upper soil would be out of the question.

We see mangrove islands, islands anchored by the roots of mangrove trees all round their circumference, and fed from a river, can be a very viable place to farm. The river brings constant irrigation and even some fresh nutrients. (We have them for instance on the coasts of Liberia.)

But those started as swamps round the mouth of the river, in a place where the continental shelf was close to the surface of the sea.