The New Wave Of Urban Farms Sprouting Strong Community Connections

By Greg Callaghan | The Sydney Morning Herald | June 5, 2020

If there’s one thing the global pandemic has taught us, it’s the importance of being as self-sufficient as possible, especially when it comes to putting food on the table.

While community gardens and urban farms have been sprouting up across our cities in recent years, driven by an increasing demand for fresh, locally sourced vegetables and fruits, the coronavirus lockdown really struck a nerve about grow-your-own, according to operators of nurseries, community gardens and commercial urban farms in Sydney and Melbourne.

Tending the veggie garden at Camperdowns Commons, Sydney. Louise Kennerley

Emma Bowen, co-founder of Pocket City Farms in inner Sydney, which is part of Camperdown Commons, a former lawn bowls club turned urban farm and restaurant, says growing food forges a stronger sense of community.

“We’ve seen a really huge shift in mindset towards urban farms in the eight years we’ve been working here,” she notes. “We have many more developers and local councils reaching out about incorporating both urban farms and community gardens into new developments.”

While Camperdown Commons’ on-site restaurant and workshops have been put on hold since the lockdown, produce from the farm has been selling out every week, says Bowen. “Growing food where we live and building resilient communities are more important than ever.”

Before the pandemic, Farmwall, an agrifood-tech start-up in Melbourne, was predominantly selling its vertical aquaponic farming kits to businesses in office buildings. Now the company’s market has shifted to apartment blocks, enabling those without backyards or even balconies to grow microgreens, herbs and leafy greens.

“We show people how to grow food indoors, in limited spaces, in a naturally contained eco-system,” says Geert Hendrix, founder of Farmwall.

Adds Serena Lee, the firm’s non-executive director, “We may never go back to the corporate environment.”

But the urban farming phenomenon isn’t restricted to inner-city hipsters. Five percent of Australia’s biggest urban park, the Western Sydney Parklands, which covers more than 50 square kilometres, has been set aside for urban farming. In the heart of Parklands, 16 existing urban farms supply fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers to surrounding areas.

“Our urban farmers have experienced an upswing in customers at their roadside stalls, with the community choosing to shop locally and away from the traditional supermarkets,” says Parklands executive director Suellen Fitzgerald. “It reduces transport costs and allows children to see where their food comes from.”

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Phytoponics - Deep Water Culture (DWC) Hydroponic Growing Systems

MAKING FRESH PRODUCE ABUNDANT AND MORE SUSTAINABLE

Phytoponics designs and manufactures Deep Water Culture (DWC) hydroponic growing systems for supply to commercial produce growers.

Our mission is to realize and promote the sustainable benefits of hydroponic agriculture at scale through the global deployment of our Deep Water Culture substrate-less growing solutions.

Phytoponics has taken an ancient hydroponic method and we have adapted and evolved it for use at scale by designing a range of Deep Water Culture (DWC) growing modules containing nutrient solutions which are kept oxygenated by built-in aerators.

Plants are located in the growing module and the roots of the plant are suspended in the water which has the crop specific nutrient recipe and the correct amount of dissolved oxygen.

The growing modules are serviced by a computerized nutrient control system that maintains the nutrient and pH at optimum levels whilst also irrigating the rootzone of the plants according to a carefully designed inlet and drain duty cycles.

All Phytoponics' Deep Water Culture solutions are configured around proprietary designed and patent protected grow modules which enable fully controlled soilless growing conditions without the need for additional substrates such as rockwool or coconut coir, but with the additional ability to apply unique root zone management to the crop.

We have developed a range of Deep Water Culture hydroponic growing solutions that are suitable for large scale commercial crop production, tested and refined to deliver high quality taste and yields for vine tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, with recent trials on soft fruits.

Our DWC approach uses less water and produces less waste than other traditional methods of hydroponics for example drip irrigation using rockwool or coir substrates. As such Phytoponics offers a more sustainable means of growing produce, something that will be increasingly preferred by consumers and retail produce buyers.

Our customers, whom we prefer to think of as partners, are typically large scale commercial growers who are looking to take advantage of the efficiency and sustainability benefits we can help them deliver at better or comparable cost to incumbent growing techniques.

For more information, please visit: https://phytoponics.com/