GERARD HUTCHING • SENIOR AGRIBUSINESS REPORTER
gerard.hutching@stuff.co.nz

October 20, 2019

Once nightclub goers used to bounce off the walls of a Wellington basement, but now it's been transformed into an urban market garden supplying over 80 restaurants.

The lights are still there, but the moody blues have been replaced by state-of-the-art multi coloured LED grow lights.

Shoots Microgreens is a start-up company growing tiny crops mainly for restaurants, but with some of the produce sold through stores such as Moore Wilson.

​Microgreens are the intense flavoured first shoots and leaves, and are popular among chefs and bartenders for garnishing meals and cocktails. Many familiar leaves can be used as microgreens, including mustard, basil, rocket and coriander.

Co-owner Matt Keltie started the business last year and it now employs three fulltime workers, although it is yet to make a profit.

While ostensibly a hydroponic-style system, Shoots Microgreens is marketing itself as different to such common garden businesses that have been around for decades.

First, the location: vertical farms have sprung up in a number of major urban centres where the crops are grown close to where people consume them – in high rises, derelict buildings and abandoned warehouses – reducing carbon emissions and maximising unused spaces in cities.

"It's all about using an efficient production area, recycling water, and having a lower carbon footprint."

Secondly, the crops are grown without the need to cart in soil and spray the chemicals that conventional growers use to control animal pests, fungal diseases and weeds.

Thirdly, everything is recycled including the water and growing trays, and deliveries are made using e-bikes.

Keltie started the business in a garage before moving into a smaller space than where he is now. Once he had successfully realised the proof of concept and started to supply restaurants, he had enough confidence to launch the business.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (Eeca) helped with a $12,300 investment in the special LED grow lights under its "Gen Less" campaign.

Compared with traditional incandescent hydroponic lamps, the LEDs are cool to the touch, and can be frequency controlled to improve productivity – they grow the shoots around twice as fast as their halogen counterparts.

The LEDs conserve 45 percent more lighting electricity, saving Keltie's business about $25,000 a year on its power bill.

With customisable spectrums of light, the colour of LEDs can be adjusted to optimise the growth of each specific variety of microgreens. As they do not produce heat, they can be stacked at every vertical layer, with no risk of heat damaging plants, as with incandescent hydroponic lamps.

Every day chefs order their microgreens and are delivered or collected.

The non-soil medium the plants are grown in is a trade secret, although Keltie is planning on moving to a hemp-based medium once it becomes available.

Keltie says the taste of the microgreens is governed by the light applied to the plants – the lights are one component but managing and changing alone or all components of the growing system influences the plants.

"When I take two trays of the same plants grown under different numbers of bulbs, some chefs can tell me how they've been grown because there's a subtle difference in flavour. It's all about the mix of water and lights.

"Not only do the LEDs provide the right growing spectrums, they are hellishly efficient in terms of power."

A supplier provides the fertiliser in the right sorts of ratios but Keltie is starting to test which plants take up which nutrients, so he can apply a specific rather than a broad spectrum mix. For example, peas do not require much nitrogen.

He admits there has been a lot of trial and error in the start-up period.

"When people say how far down the track are you with your learning, I say about 5 per cent, I've still got a solid 95 percent left to learn. But we hope to start soon in Auckland, once we've ironed out the issues here."

Prices start at $7.25 for a tray of peas, which grow in a little over a week, whereas slower growing red sorrel is priced accordingly higher.

Quotes from famous historical figures are mashed up in a call to arms for climate change campaign Gen Less, encouraging New Zealanders to get more out of life by using less.

Capitol Restaurant owner-chef Tom Hutchison says he buys the microgreens every day.

"It's good that they're doing well, the product is fantastic."

Hutchison is not so much a fan of the very young greens, preferring the more mature, larger leaves.

Eeca technology innovation manager Dinesh Chand worked with Keltie to help get the project off the ground.

"This project not only shows potential for LEDs to reduce electricity use and increase productivity, but is a great example of reducing transport-related emissions. In this case, supplying locally eliminates the equivalent annual carbon emissions of taking 20 cars off the road."

Vertical farming can save up to six times the ground space that conventional farming uses. Keltie said it was not a replacement for traditional New Zealand farming yet, but was part of its future.

Eeca chief executive Andrew Caseley said the authority's intention in running the Gen Less campaign was to mobilise New Zealanders to be world leaders in clean and clever energy use.

Companies that have already joined Gen Less, include Westpac, Countdown, New Zealand Post, Stuff, Wishbone Design, Ecostore, Lewis Road, and Ethique.

"Less" refers to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from energy use. People could join the campaign by walking their children to school, switching to a more efficient car such as an EV, buying sustainable goods and services, and using LED bulbs, he said.