Hydroponic Lettuce Coming Soon To Saranac Lake, New York

March 31, 2018

GLYNIS HART  |  Staff Writer  | ghart@adirondackdailyenterprise.com

SARANAC LAKE — Jennie Evans and Aurora White may have the solution to a problem that has long frustrated farming in the Adirondacks: the short growing season.

In mid-April, Evans and White hope to start Saranac Lake’s first hydroponic container farm on the site of the old municipal dump near McKenzie Pond Road.

“It’s a great opportunity for the village to support an environmentally friendly business,” said Saranac Lake village Mayor Clyde Rabideau. At the next village board meeting, he will ask the trustees to approve letting Dandelion Farm place the container near the old landfill.

Evans and White said the site is ideal for two reasons: it’s flat, and it’s close to where they want to sell their produce.

“One of our goals is to be hyper-local,” said White. “The idea is to distribute your product as close to where it’s grown as possible.”

The hyrdroponic farm is a 40-foot shipping container sold by Freight Farms, which comes complete with the hydroponic systems installed.

Plants are grown vertically inside the container, which uses no outside light. Evans estimates the yield from one container to be the equivalent of 1 to 3 acres of soil.

The farm needs water and electricity to function. It runs year-round, keeping an indoor temperature between 60 and 65 degrees F.

“It uses 90 percent less water than traditional farming,” said White. “We’re using much less water, and not adding anything dirty to the environment.”

The water inside the container is recycled. Dehumidifiers remove water from the air when it’s too humid, and air conditioners kick on when it gets too hot inside. Water use can be as little as 5 gallons a day.

Electricity use is estimated at around 125 kwh (kilowatt hours) per day. For comparison, National Grid estimates the monthly kilowatt hours needed to run an electric water heater is 100 kwh; a 17 cubic foot refrigerator uses up to 190 kwh per month.

“That will be our greatest expense,” said White. “The lights are using most of the electricity.”

The container farm uses no pesticides. Plants are grown in nutrient-rich water rather than soil. Different nutrient mixes are available according to the product the grower is planning on.

Evans said the short-term plan is to grow head lettuces and loose-leaf lettuces, kale, and herbs. “We’ll just start with some basic lettuce varieties,” she said. “Hopefully, we’ll be selling to a lot of the local restaurants and Nori’s as well.”

“Once we start growing our first harvest is about seven weeks out,” said White. “So we hope to be at the farmers market in June.”