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Nepal: AeroRoots Wants To Transform Nepal’s Agriculture By Farming In The Air
In 2017, Rana and Singh designed a system with over 150 plants and put it at Rana’s house. “At that point, we were in a hit and trial process. We didn’t know if our system would work,” shares Rana.
Linked by Michael Levenston
We want to be able to grow Himalayan herbs in the Terai and Terai vegetables in the Himalayas,” claims Rana.
By Shashwat Pant
Online Khabar
March 10, 2019
Excerpt:
In 2017, Rana and Singh designed a system with over 150 plants and put it at Rana’s house. “At that point, we were in a hit and trial process. We didn’t know if our system would work,” shares Rana.
Of the 150 plants they had planted, only one survived. But the survival of one plant was enough to give the two partners the boost to continue the project which they started as a dream.
“The one plant that survived gave us the confidence that we were heading on the right path. Had that plant not survived, I don’t think AeroRoots would have existed today,” shares Rana.
Since then AeroRoots has come a long way. Learning from their mistakes, they have till date created four systems, each upgraded and better than the other.
The co-founders also share that they not only want to create a pesticide-free tomorrow, they also aim to revolutionize agriculture in Nepal. The company through its system is paving way for a soilfree farm which ensures higher yield and less investment of resources including the workforce.
Read the complete article here.
Agri-Tech Business Wins Vodafone Funding
15 Feb 2019
Josh Morris Digital Staff Writer
A Bristol-based agricultural technology company has been awarded £45,000 in funding from Vodafone.
LettUs Grow, which is developing aeroponic and vertical farming techniques was awarded £35,000 by the telecommunications giant as part of its Techstarter awards, as well as a further £10,000 Techstarter Champion’s award.
Jack Farmer, co-founder and operational lead at LettUs Grow, said: "We are seriously excited to be working with Vodafone. As much as the funding is incredibly useful, we are particularly keen to collaborate with them from a technical and a commercial standpoint. That mentorship is really going to help us to develop our business.
"We are looking to work with Vodafone and a number of other key partners this year, to implement our hardware and software and deliver profitable pilot farms – both greenhouse and vertical – before then working with these partners to scale nationally and internationally.
"We are very excited technically to work with Vodafone on both our communications platform and also the application of data analysis in large scale farms."
Nick Jeffery, chief executive, Vodafone UK, said: "The range and calibre of the Vodafone Techstarter winners show that the UK is home to a thriving social tech sector.
"We believe some of the biggest challenges in society can be addressed using technology and innovation. These awards are just one way we can recognise, celebrate and support start-ups developing and using technology as a force for good."
Hanging Gardens of Steel & Glass
Vertical farming is conceptually simple. Instead of spreading out a farm over the land, you stack it into the air using shelves and multi-storey buildings
By: urbanagnews
February 11, 2019
Article by Lunacy Now
Long spires of steel and glass stretch up towards the sun. Within, teeming billions go about their busy lives, like ants in a kilometer tall nest. But every human in this vast metropolis needs to eat. And the solution is all around: towering vertical farms. Precise algorithms calibrate the exact amount of water and other nutrients required for optimal growth, and deliver it on a pre-determined schedule to ensure optimal growth.
That’s the sci-fi hive city dream, right? So how far are we from being able to produce that density of food production? And can you start producing enough food to feed your family in a regular suburban home?
We spoke with Dr. Joel Cuello, vice chair of the Association of Vertical Farming and Professor of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Arizona to find out.
What is Vertical Farming?
Vertical farming is conceptually simple. Instead of spreading out a farm over the land, you stack it into the air using shelves and multi-storey buildings. That’s how a company like Bowery Farming is able to produce 100 times more food on the same footprint of land as conventional agriculture, according to its statistics.
But it’s not just about horizontal versus vertical. Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) technology allows farmers to measure every aspect of their plants physical surroundings. The type and level of light, the temperature, and humidity are tightly controlled. Furthermore, farmers can supply the exact amount of water and nutrients a plant needs at the right time. Complex data analysis programs and AI enable a farmer to track progress and further optimize efficiency.
Types of Vertical Farming
There are two main technologies underpinning indoor farming.
Hydroponic: The plants are grown in a solution of water and nutrients.
Aeroponic: The plants are grown in a nutrient-infused mist.
Subcategories like fogoponic, deep water hydroponics, or aquaponics where fish are added to create an entire ecosystem also exist.
When Cuello spoke with us he had a clear vision that this industry could be the future of agriculture. He identifies three primary types of vertical farms, depending on the buildings.
Skyscrapers: This is probably what most people think of when they imagine a vertical farm. Although the technical capacity to construct them is there, Cuello says the economics don’t necessarily add up. Real estate is at such a premium in urban centers such as New York that it makes no sense to use it for agriculture, even if densely organized. Some architects such as Ken Yeang favor mixed-use skyscrapers which grow plants as part of a broader set of purposes.
Warehouse: Cuello sees this as the most viable for large scale commercial operations. You either build a new warehouse and fill it with vertical farming equipment or buy an existing building and convert it.
Modular: This is the most efficient and practical way to scale out vertical farming, according to Cuello. The beauty of modular farms is you can put them anywhere, in the desert, in Antarctica, it doesn’t matter.
The Japanese were among the first to commercialize this type of agriculture, perhaps due in part to the space restrictions in Japan. Cuello says the best use of vertical farming in terms of return on investment is to grow certain kinds of high-value fresh fruits and vegetables which require specific but not particularly complicated conditions for optimal growth. Grains and cash crops like wheat or rice still make much more sense to grow in fields in the traditional manner, while boutique crops like orchids or and other horticultural crops are already cost-effectively mass produced in large-scale greenhouses.
Cuello has high hopes for modular vertical farms in particular to extend the reach and community-adoptability of vertical farms from its current warehouse form. Although. Although vertical farming is energy intensive and therefore quite expensive, the costs plummet where a renewable energy source is readily available. This makes the desert a fantastic place to put modular vertical farms, as you can simply bolt solar panels onto the roof. The Gulf States are experimenting with this technique at the moment.
History of Vertical Farming
Sophisticated vertical farming techniques such as rice terraces have been used in South America and East Asia for centuries. As early as 1909, Life Magazine produced a sketch of vertical homesteads stacked on top of one another and in 1915, the American geologist Gilbert Ellis Bailey published his book Vertical Farming. But it wasn’t until the 1990s that technology caught up. Professor Joel Cuello did a postdoctoral internship at NASA in 1994, in the Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems division. That unit worked on creating methods of farming which could be used in space, with an eventual view to colonizing other planets. NASA developed efficient crop nutrient
systems based on hydroponics and aeroponics, which utilizing about 90% less water than the typical open-field cultivation.
Based on these and similar ideas of what was possible to do, Professor Dickson Despommier adopted the term vertical farming in 1999 while teaching a course at Columbia. Dr. Despommier wrote The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century, which was published in 2010. In 2013 the Association of Vertical Farming was founded in Munich, Germany.
Feed The World
Ever since British economist Thomas Malthus published “An Essay on the Principle of Population” in 1798, a certain subset of demographers have worried the human population is going to grow and grow indefinitely. If this doesn’t stop, eventually we will consume the entire world, like fire ants in the jungle. The global population currently stands around 7.68 billion. “To feed those who are currently hungry—and the additional 2 billion-plus people who will live on the planet by 2050—our best projections are that crop production will need to increase between 60 and 100 percent,” the Food Matters report put out by the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment says.
Others are more skeptical. “Hunger is caused by poverty and inequality, not scarcity,” Eric Holt-Gimenez, the Executive Director of Food First, wrote in the Huffington Post. Food First engages in research and action dedicated to helping people achieve control over their food systems. “For the past two decades,” Holt-Gimenez continues, “the rate of global food production has increased faster than the rate of global population growth. The world already produces more than 1 ½ times enough food to feed everyone on the planet. That’s enough to feed 10 billion people, the population peak we expect by 2050.”
Historically, food production capacity has expanded as a result of technological innovations such as the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 70s. Much of our future increased crop yield per acreage is also likely to come from technological innovations such as vertical farming.
Regardless of whether enough food is produced, there is a secondary question of whether or not current methods of agricultural production are sustainable, in terms of land and energy use. An estimated 38.6% of available land is already devoted to agriculture, according to National Geographic. If we don’t want to chop down every last tree to make way for corn fields, something is going to have to be done about density.
Future of Vertical Farming
Market research firm Arizton projects that the US Vertical Farming market will grow to $3 billion by 2024, as reported by PR Newswire. The market is expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 24%. The report predicts that hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponic business will triple their revenue in the next six years.
Surprisingly, the cannabis industry has been at the forefront of the commercialization and scaling of indoor farming technology. Because cannabis has been illegal for many years, manufacturers usually grow their product indoors, to avoid detection. However, since drug dealing is fundamentally a money making enterprise, they learned to optimize for quality and cost just as any legitimate business operation would do. These standard market pressures pushed producers to experiment with hydroponics/aeroponics. As legalization of recreational marijuana is rolled out, companies like California-based GrowX are maximizing their profits using vertical farming.
One exciting possibility brought about by modular farms is the option to deploy them rapidly where needed, eg. in conflict zones. That’s why Cuello is in talks with Dubai about using specially designed farming units in refugee camps to ease the burden on aid requirements. He is also currently working on a shipping container design which he expects to see operational in the Philippines by the end of the year.
Another way vertical farms can be used is to facilitate the return of nomadism. You can fit a small vertical farm in a roof compartment of a caravan and continue to be mobile while growing enough food to feed a couple. This empowers people to move around and remain self-sufficient in a way that hasn’t been possible for a long time.
The ultimate goal, of course, is space, the final frontier. While Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are competing to get to Mars, how humans will be able to eat once we get there is a vital question. Perfecting vertical farming on Earth could hold the key to a fully functional year-round lunar base, or the world’s first resource-independent Martian colony.
But enough about the outer reaches of interplanetary existence. Let’s take this right back down, to your zone of control, to an ordinary family home somewhere in America.
The Suburban Vertical Farm
Most suburban homes in America have garages. There is certainly enough space to produce food for your family inside, although Cuello thinks running a commercial operation out of your garage may not be cost effective. The technology is consumer accessible, just go to your local hydroponics shop.
So we called Brite Ideas Hydroponics, Aquaponics and Organics shop in Austin, Texas, to ask them how to rig your garage into an indoor farm.
Athena told us that the most expensive part would be the lights, which range from around $50 to $500. LED lights are best since they are low energy and low heat. They also offer a variety of light spectrums, leafy vegetables need more of a full spectrum, whereas fruit like strawberries needs more red light.
There are lots of different ways to set up a vertical or hydroponic indoor farm. You can use buckets, hang the plants in the air or put them on shelves in float tables.
To fill your whole garage with units with 4-5 shelves with float tables on each unit could run you between $1000-$2000, not including the $300 a year in costs for nutrients. Of course, as with all things, your mileage may vary depending on circumstances. Energy costs will add to the price, but securing a renewable power source is an entirely different conversation.
If you own land, it’s a different story. The company Freight Farms is already selling fully-functional ready to operate vertical farms in up-cycled shipping containers. You can buy one from their website right now if you want (average operating costs are around $13,000/year).
Vertical farming is a sustainably sourced locally grown solution to feeding urban populations. You can even start today and feed your family in a normal suburban home.
Article by Lunacy Now
Innovative Veg Growing Firm Secures £1 Million To Build The Farms Of The Future
January 11, 2019
An innovative Bristol firm which has developed a range of aeroponic technology for indoor farms has announced it has secured £1 million in funding to build world-leading indoor growing facilities.
LettUs Grow was awarded a grant of £399,650 by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, to lead a £700,000 project – which will help increase food resilience and security in the face of climate change.
This is alongside a further €100,000 from the Green Challenge and several additional research grants.
As part of the project, LettUs Grow will work alongside ECH Engineering, industry leaders in controlled environment technology, and urban agriculture experts from Grow Bristol.
The grants came hot on the heels of the disruptive startup’s most recent investment round, where they raised £460,000 from ClearlySo, Bethnal Green Ventures, the University of Bristol Enterprise Fund II, managed by Parkwalk Advisors, and angel investors.
This funding has allowed the company to scale operations and drive forward product development to access a rapidly growing global market for efficient and sustainable farming technology.
By 2050, it’s expected that humanity will need to increase food production by 70% to feed over nine billion people. Existing methods of agriculture will not be enough to feed this burgeoning global population.
Alongside this, most ‘fresh’ produce is imported out of season, often travelling hundreds of miles to reach consumers and resulting in colossal waste throughout the supply chain.
LettUs Grow has designed a patent-pending aeroponic system that has shown growth rate increases of over 70% compared to existing solutions for leafy greens, salads and herb production.
What Is Aeroponic Growing?
Aeroponics is a way of growing plants without soil, where the roots are watered using a fine mist. Not only does this allow greater oxygenation of the roots, delivering better flavour and faster growth, but it uses up to 95% less water than traditional agriculture.
Charlie Guy, co-founder and managing director said: “This injection of private and public funding into the company enables us to accelerate our innovative products to market and build one of the most technically advanced facilities for indoor growing in the world.
The global agri-tech industry is very exciting right now, all stemming from the necessity to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of food production.
“We are fielding enquiries from all around the world from food producers and farmers who want to experience the benefits of our technology across a growing range of crops.”
Matias Wibowo, investment manager at ClearlySo: “Innovation is critical to ensuring long-term food security and sustainability.
“Our investors see the value, both in terms of financial and environmental returns from tackling this systemic global problem. That’s why they got involved in LettUs Grow.
“LettUs Grow provides the technological innovation piece to the vertical smart farming movement that is currently trending rapidly in the urban context.”
Organic Industry Is Not Giving Hydroponic, Aquaponic Growers A Warm Embrace
The litigious Center for Food Safety two weeks ago filed a rule-making petition with U.S. Department of Agriculture, demanding new regulations prohibiting organic certification of hydroponic agriculture production
By Dan Flynn on February 8, 2019
Some fresh produce from hydroponic growers has been approved for and is being sold under USDA’s organic seal, but farmers who grow their organic crops in the soil don’t like the competition.
The litigious Center for Food Safety two weeks ago filed a rule-making petition with U.S. Department of Agriculture, demanding new regulations prohibiting organic certification of hydroponic agriculture production. The 22-page petition also asks USDA to revoke any existing organic certification previously issued to hydroponic operations.
Food safety comes into play in the petition in only one way. Hydroponics doesn’t have soil, so they come up a little short because they do not provide soil samples as a measure of testing compliance. The CFS points out that regulations implementing the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 “consistently suggest soil samples as a measure for testing compliance.”
Agents who review operations as part of the USDA’s organic certification process “must conduct periodic residue testing of agricultural products,” with soil samples suggested as a method for testing, CFS’s petition says. “Many hydroponic systems would not contain soil for sampling, as suggested in the OFPA regulations.”
Hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic growers currently can earn organic certification. It is allowed by USDA so long as the certifier can show there is compliance with the organic standard. One industry supplier says hydroponics, by definition, is a method of growing plants in a water-based nutrient-rich solution that does not use soil. Instead of plants root in a nutrient solution with access to oxygen.
A year ago, USDA’s Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) tried to settle some issues concerning organic certification of hydroponic and aeroponic growing operations. The AMS action came after USDA’s advisory National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) recommended banning the non-soil systems from being called organic production. USDA only briefly pondered that one before saying “thanks, but no thanks” to NOSB for the recommendation.
Aquaponics refers to growing crops in a system with farmed fish that supply nutrients for plants. Greenhouse growers and urban farmers using vertical growing systems use hydroponic and aeroponic methods — all without soil. The organic industry has been rocked with debate about these hydroponic methods for nearly a decade.
CFS wants a flat prohibition on hydroponic operations ever being allowed to use the USDA organic label. It claims hydroponic production systems that do not use soil do not meet federal organic standards and violate organic practices, which require that organic farming include soil improvement and biodiversity conservation.
Joining the CFS petition are more than a dozen other organic farmers, consumer, retailer, and certifying organizations, including the Organic Farmers Association, Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance (NODPA), PCC Community Markets, and the Cornucopia Institute.
“Mislabeling mega-hydroponic operations as ‘organic’ is contrary to the text and basic principles of the organic standard. Right now there is a pitched battle for the future of organic, and we stand with organic farmers and consumers who believe the label must retain its integrity,” said George Kimbrell, CFS legal director.
The petitioners say consumers trust the organic label and pay extra for the assurance that it indicates a more healthful and environmentally-friendly way of producing the food they buy.
Since the federal Certified Organic label was introduced more than 20 years ago, CFS says the organic food market has grown exponentially and is now a $60 billion industry in which multinational corporations have bought organic brands and compete with small food producers who use environmentally-friendly methods.
“Allowing hydroponic systems to be certified as organic undercuts the livelihood of organic farmers that take great lengths to support healthy soil as the bedrock of their farms,” stated Kate Mendenhall of the Organic Farmers Association. “Hydroponic producers getting the benefit of the organic label without actually doing anything to benefit the soil undermines the standard and puts all soil-based organic farmers at an untenable economic disadvantage.”
The petition argues that organic agriculture has traditionally been defined as using soil requirements such as fostering soil fertility, improving soil quality, and using environmentally beneficial farming methods such as proper tillage and crop rotation.
USDA continues to allow hydroponics, which goes against the advisory NOSB’s recommendation that organic certification not be extended to the non-soil growing methods.
Canada and Mexico prohibit hydroponics for organics, and the European Parliament voted to end the organic certification of hydroponic products in April 2018.
“Corporate agribusiness lobbyists have been working to water down the organic standards for decades,” said Mark Kastel, executive director for the Cornucopia Institute. “In this case, the careful stewardship of soil fertility is not only a philosophical precept, but it’s also codified in federal law.”
And while CFS is often successful with its legal strategies, the current petition to USDA may not get too far. Jennifer Tucker, the deputy administrator of USDA’s National Organic Program, recently said organic certification of hydroponic operations is “a settled issue.”
“Last year we issued an Organic Insider (e-mail newsletter) that indicated that hydroponics had been allowed since the beginning of the program and that (they) are still allowed,” Tucker said. “We consider that a settled issue.”
The Packer, the produce industry publication, reported Tucker’s comments to the 2019 Global Organic Produce Expo.
“There are some certifiers that certify hydroponics, and there are some that do not; they are all bound by a common set of regulations,” Tucker added.
Tags: Center for Food Safety, hydroponic, Jennifer Tucker, NOP, NOSB, organic certification, organics, USDA Organic
Introducing Living Food Company: The Future of Food
India’s Food Supply Chain is Not Working
Why is India, one of the fastest growing economies, undergoing a nutrition and health crisis? India has the largest micronutrient deficiency among all countries and among the highest disability-adjusted lost years of life from micronutrient deficiencies. Diets low in nutrition are the leading cause of this current health and nutrition crisis. Fresh food that is nutrient-dense is surprisingly difficult to find in India, particularly for the urban consumer.
We don’t know where our food comes from, what it contains and how long it takes to reach us.
The food we consume has been designed to be stored and shipped in containers over long distances. The industrial food supply chain is extremely complex and is plagued by inefficient supply management and wastage at the distribution stage. The agriculture system is failing us by producing food that contains harmful chemicals in the form of pesticides and fertilizers.
On an average, Indians consume close to 42000 metric tonnes of pesticides in a year, including those that are banned in other countries for their carcinogenic effects.
In June 2017, more than 40 cotton farmers died after inhaling chemicals while spraying pesticides in Maharashtra in one agricultural season.
Micronutrient deficiency in India. Source: http://unicef.in/Whatwedo/8/Micronutrient-Nutrition
We now depend upon cheap, low-nutrient food that sacrifices quality for quantity at the cost of our health and the environment. Global crop production has more than tripled since the 1960s. This has led to the depletion of water resources for irrigation, soil pollution from overwhelming fertilizer application and rising greenhouse gas emissions.
The average concentration of pollutants in the Indian soil is almost twice the amount found globally.
Such high levels lead to long-term damage in the central nervous system, immune and reproductive systems, while also being one of the leading causes of cancer.
The organic food movement, tries to address some of the health risks by eliminating the use of fertilizers. Yet, organic produce that is grown in soil can’t prevent harmful chemicals from entering our bodies. Contaminated groundwater containing dangerous proportions of heavy metals such as Arsenic is still used in organic farming and can cause long-term damage to our cells and immune systems. Simply put, organic food doesn’t solve the problem.
We are what we eat
In June 2017, my life took a drastic turn. My mother was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer and had to undergo a painful surgery. Less than a year later, on 20th March, my father was diagnosed with Stage 4 Peritoneal cancer.
This personal tragedy shook me to the core and I started investigating into this deadly disease. The more I read, I found out — how less I knew. I had never imagined that the everyday food that we eat can either strengthen our immune system or completely break it down making us susceptible to life threatening diseases, such as cancer. Everything I read brought me to the same point — we are what we eat.
Real food is about trust and transparency. It is also about ensuring quality and traceability at every step. Living food Company was born to provide food that we can trust. Our produce is grown with passion, care and precision and by controlling the entire process we guarantee high quality produce that can be traced at every step.
Living Food Company: The Future of Food
Living Food Company was born from the need to take control of our food production systems. We decided to grow microgreens, 10–12 day old baby plants that are extremely rich in nutrients, anti-oxidants and essential vitamins and minerals. They contain upto 40 x the nutrition found in their mature counterparts.
We focus on growing extraordinarily highly nutritious microgreens such as Kale, Broccoli, Mizuna (Japanese mustard), Pink Radish, Red Chard and 15 other powerful varieties. We make these nutrient rich foods affordable and accessible for the average urban Indian consumer and democratize access to superfoods.
Akash K. Sajith
CEO & Founder at @LivingFood, building the future of food.
AEssenseGrows Introduces ‘The Perfect Grow Light’ For Cannabis
AErix Line Brings Broad Spectrum and High Photon Efficacy
that Help Plants Grow Superior Buds
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 12, 2018 -- AEssenseGrows, an AgTech company specializing in automated precision aeroponic platforms for consistent high-yield plant production, today introduced a unique new line of grow lights optimized for premium value plants like cannabis. The AErix LBR003 grow light delivers the specifications required to improve the quality of buds grown indoors along with all of the automation features large cultivation facilities desire.
AErix lights offer a balanced broad spectrum coupled with high photon efficacy, making them ideal for premium leafy plants. The lights will be showcased Wednesday through Friday at MJBizCon in Las Vegas at the AEssenseGrows booth, #2473.
“Science has come a long way in pinpointing the role lighting plays in plant growth, and our new AErix line is built around these findings,” said Phil Gibson, AEssenseGrows’ vice president of marketing. “The best quality buds grow under balanced broad-spectrum light--light that contains sufficient amounts of blue, green, yellow, and red—and that’s what AErix lights deliver. That’s why we call them the perfect grow light.”
AErix lights (dimensions: 40”x50”) provide intense output with wide wavelength coverage and full light spectrum with an average PPFD of 1,000 µmol/s/m2 when placed 6 to 12 inches above the plant canopy—optimal for cannabis. With a maximum power usage of 700W, the lights are less than 3 inches thick including the power supply with no fan required. All AErix lights include an IP65 water repellant rating covering everything you want in a high humidity-intensive grow room.
The AErix lights drew praise from Joel Cuello, professor of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Arizona and a global expert in indoor farming.
“The AErix LBR003 indoor grow light spans the wavelength range of the photosynthetically active radiation with a spectral output distribution that remarkably conforms with the significant portions of the average plant's photosynthetic response curve to light,” Cuello said. “Its excellent spectral quality distribution combined with its high photon flux output makes it a superior indoor grow light.”
The new networked lights include many automation features and are optimized for the AEssenseGrows AEtrium-4 Bloom System. Fully controlled by the Guardian Grow Manager central control system software, the AErix lights include 0-100% dimming through an integrated AES link for complete scheduling and intensity automation. When connected, the lights automatically daisy chain to the network and can be sequenced in massive grow rooms to soft-start, one row at a time, without complex relays or programming.
Also included is a wide range 100-277V universal input power connection so the light is ideal for all power grids and geographies. The AErix lights will deliver as much as 16-24 pounds of dry trimmed bud per light per year, at below $150 per pound at scale. The complete AEssenseGrows system will be on display this week at MJBizCon Las Vegas.
The lights are automated to enable scheduling at various intensity levels. They are built for longevity and require little to no maintenance. The AErix light is verified by the Electrical Testing Laboratories (ETL) safety certification, exceeding or surpassing all Standards for Safety published by UL and other standards bodies.
For more information about the AErix lights, including a data sheet and user manual, visit the AEssenseGrows website or contact Gibson at pgibson@aessensegrows.com or 669.261.3086.
Ackrell Capital listed AEssenseGrows as one of the firm's Top 100 Private Cannabis Companies for 2018.
AEssenseGrows (pronounced "essence grows"), founded in 2014, is a precision AgTech company based in Sunnyvale, CA. AEssenseGrows provides accelerated plant growth SmartFarm platforms and software automation delivering pure, zero pesticide, year-round, enriched growth to fresh produce and medicinal plant producers globally. With AEssenseGrows, you can precisely control your production operations at your fingertips from anywhere in the world.
2nd Urban Agri Africa 2018
The world’s population is expected to increase by about 3 billion by 2050 and it is forecasted that nearly 80% of that population will live in urban centers.
Africa’s urban growth rate is at 3.5% the highest in the world and doubles the world average. The challenge of growing enough healthy food for Africa’s growing cities is enormous. At the same time, the stresses of climate change, and the declining availability of arable land and fresh water are challenging conventional agriculture as never before.
Many countries and companies are expressing strong interest in vertical farming business and urban agriculture. It is a solution to the weather and pests problems, food security, climate change and environmental preservation. Commercialization of vertical farming is catching on in Asia, Europe, USA, Russia and now Africa.
Many private companies are interested in growing crops in hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics systems in warehouses, greenhouses, containers and high scrapers. There is also a burgeoning interest in the production of medicinal plants in vertical farms.
Africa has unique opportunities for vertical farms. Feeding Africa’s rapidly growing urban population will continue to be a daunting challenge, but vertical farming – and its variations – is one of the most innovative approaches that can be tapped into as part of an effort to grow fresh, healthy, nutritious and pesticide-free food for consumers.
Learn more at 2nd Urban Agri Africa 2018 to be held on September 25-26 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The latest joint ventures and partnerships will be highlighted, case studies shared and strategies robustly debated. New trends, opportunities, and technologies will be showcased, once again providing the perfect platform for extraordinary networking opportunities for all Summit participants.
Find out more at 2nd Urban Agri Africa 2018.
To register or request event details... Contact
Jose at +65 6846 2366 or jose@magenta-global.com.sg today.
Way To Grow: Urban Farms Are An Amenity At Many Developments
2018 Margaret Jackson, Bisnow Denver
As people increasingly demand to know where their food comes from, more developers are jumping on board to integrate urban farms into their projects.
Courtesy of Tracy Weil
RiNo Art District Creative Director Tracy Weil grows heirloom tomatoes at Farm 39 in RiNo
Take S*Park. Named for its heritage as Sustainability Park, the 99-unit residential project in Denver’s Curtis Park neighborhood includes a 7,200 SF greenhouse with 340 aeroponic towers that will grow leafy greens.
The greenhouse will be operated by Altius Farms, which will offer residents a vegetable subscription program, greenhouse tours and classes and community dinners with Denver celebrity chefs. Altius also will provide neighborhood restaurants with produce from the greenhouse.
Courtesy of Altius Farms
Altius Farms will grow leafy greens on towers like these at Scissortail Farms in Tulsa, Okla.
Altius Farms founder and CEO Sally Herbert said the tower system at S*Park will produce 75,000 pounds of leafy greens a year — the equivalent of 1.5 acres of conventional farming each month. The towers use 10% of the water of a traditional farm and produce 10 times the yield, and the produce is much fresher than what consumers find in grocery stores, she said. Colorado imports 97% of its produce, and after it spends seven to 14 days in transport, between 20% and 40% of it is discarded.
“When restaurateurs receive produce that’s come in from Arizona or California, it’s been harvested early and gets wilty or bruised,” she said. “You have to throw away the crappy stuff.”
NAVA Real Estate Development is taking a different approach at Lakehouse, its 12-story, 196-unit condominium project at Sloan’s Lake. The produce from its second-floor garden will be available only for residents of the 12-story building.
“We are growing a certain amount of vegetables and herbs on-site that will be professionally managed and harvested,” NAVA co-founder and CEO Brian Levittsaid. “We’ll have a harvest room where people can be part of a harvest. There will be opportunities where people can reach over and pick something and put it in their salad. There will be a juicing center and sauna where people can sit and enjoy the juice.”
Bisnow/Margaret Jackson
The greenhouse at S*Park will provide produce to residents and nearby restaurants.
The garden is just one component of NAVA’s efforts to ensure a healthy environment for residents of Lakehouse, which is seeking Well Building certification. It also must meet standards for air and water quality and fitness, among other things.
Urban Ventures has launched a wellness program that includes food production at Aria Denver development. Aria Denver has partnered with Regis University to launch the Cultivate Health program at its development in northwest Denver. Food production, in both gardens and greenhouses in the neighborhood, is just one component of the program, which is designed to support the health and wellness of residents living in the multi-generational, mixed-income community. Its food production partners are UrbiCulture Farms and Groundwork Denver.
Courtesy of Tracy Weil
Farm 39 in RiNo sells about 8,000 tomato plants a year.
Urban farming is a growing trend both in new developments and city neighborhoods.
Artist Tracy Weil, creative director of the RiNo Art District, co-founded Heirloom Tomato Farms with Carolyn Jansen in 2004 when they weren’t able to find the produce they wanted. They started with 175 plants, which they sold and gave to friends. Weil was on the board of The GrowHaus, a nonprofit indoor farm, marketplace and educational center in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood. The GrowHaus, based in a historic 20K SF greenhouse, agreed to give him enough space to expand to 1,200 plants.
But then aphids from the herbs in The GrowHaus infested Weil's tomato plants, so he built his own greenhouse — Farm 39 — on an eighth of an acre at 3611 Chestnut Place in RiNo. Jansen started The Sparrow in Capital Hill. The combined farms are known as Heirloom Tomato Farms. Now, people line up every spring to purchase some of the 8,000 plants the two farms grow before they sell out.
“It’s been kind of a nice supplemental income,” he said. “As an artist, I wanted to diversify my income stream.
A ‘Fresh’ Look At Indoor AgTech
ndoor production of fresh fruits and vegetables leveraging aeroponic and hydroponic growing techniques has gained meaningful investor momentum in recent years.
Kenneth Scott Zuckerberg, AIF® AFA®, Wells Fargo Sector Manager, Agrifood Technology and Packaged Foods
Indoor production of fresh fruits and vegetables leveraging aeroponic and hydroponic growing techniques has gained meaningful investor momentum in recent years. The simplistic bull case for sector investment is that indoor farming operations provide direct exposure to a growing consumer demand for healthy, local, farm-fresh produce. Unfortunately, the defendable bear case is that indoor farms are expensive to build and operate, lack full automation, and do not command a pricing premium over outdoor-grown, organically produced crops.
In my opinion, the path to greater value creation lies in the partnership between indoor farms and food retailers. I think this can be accomplished by: 1) creating a branded ultra-premium offering; 2) creating private-labeled products leveraging the retailer’s brand name; and/or 3) installing living breathing vertical farms inside the produce section of the grocery store. Can anyone say craft produce?
I commenced a deep-dive into indoor farming prior to moderating a panel at the Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit sponsored by Rethink Events, Ltd., this past June. The event afforded me the opportunity to gain perspectives from the leading players in the space, including AeroFarms, Bowery, Bright Farms, 80 Acres Farms, Gotham Greens, Plenty, and Uriah’s Urban Farms, as well as greenhouse data service providers such as iUnu, and academic experts from Cornell University. The knowledge gained augments existing Wells Fargo Food and Ag Industry Advisor subject matter expertise.1
Defining indoor farming and Controlled Environment Agriculture
Indoor farming is actually a sub-segment of a much broader segment of farming called Controlled Environment Agriculture. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s definition reads as follows:
Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is the combination of engineering, plant science, and computer managed greenhouse control technologies used to optimize plant growing systems, plant quality, and production efficiency. CEA systems allow stable control of the plant environment, including temperature, light, and CO2, and provide separate control of the root-zone environment.
In simple terms, indoor farming can be seen as an innovative, conservation-oriented method of growing high-quality produce such as lettuces, microgreens, tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables on a year-round basis in local communities. Currently, a large amount of the fresh produce consumed in the U.S. is grown on the West Coast and shipped cross country, or imported from other farming regions such as Mexico.
To be clear, CEA is not a new concept as evidenced by the fact that mushrooms have been grown indoors in the U.S. for approximately 100 years, and edible plants and decorative flowers have been grown in greenhouses and nurseries in Holland for approximately 50 years. Tomatoes are another important crop grown in greenhouses. Additionally, NASA has claimed to pioneer the process of growing plants utilizing LED lights as far back as the 1980s. What is new, however, is the combination of more powerful and energy efficient LED lights coupled with improved controls on temperature, humidity, and sensors, tied into a plant growing system on warehouse vertical racks, in shipping containers, or on rooftop farms.
Investor interest in indoor agriculture
In recent years, more than $500 million of capital has been deployed by investors in indoor AgTech startup companies based on the simple thesis of high-return potential resulting from the intersection of declining prices for LED lighting technologies and the growing consumer demand for fresh produce grown with limited use of traditional crop inputs. The capital has come from socially responsible funds and others seeking returns from companies that use clean technology and emphasize sustainable business practices.
The following table presents a snapshot of the competitive landscape for the indoor AgTech Industry. It should be noted that this snapshot excludes traditional nurseries and greenhouses along with certain technology robotics companies. (The latter happens to be a very interesting category, including startups such as AgriLyst, Arable, FoodLogic, Harvest Automation, and iUnu, that I’ll cover in a future blog.)
A theory on how indoor Ag retailers and consumers can all win
To recap several of the points above, produce grown in indoor farms provides an interesting alternative to outdoor-grown fruits and vegetables. That being said, I struggle with the notion that indoor farming will fully disrupt the existing outdoor growing regions and seasonal migration of growing operations between central, coastal, and desert valleys in the Western U.S. and Mexico. My reasoning is as follows:
- Many, not all, business models are capital intensive, and could be challenged to scale profitably in local regions.
- Local indoor farms typically offer high-quality produce delivered to grocers more quickly than many Californian or Mexican producers can, however the industry is not achieving additional compensation for this perceived competitive advantage.
- Existing industry players are generally low-cost, high-efficiency operators with long-established relationships with food distributors and retailers. Without a large scale national player, the incumbent players will remain in control of the terms of trade.
- Indoor farming operations have not yet proven they can fully insulate themselves from a disease outbreak such as the recent outbreak of the E.coli virus in Romaine lettuce, even though growing in a controlled environment.
- Indoor-grown lettuces, microgreens, arugula, and tomatoes lose flavor and remain highly perishable once harvested, packaged, and shipped to product sellers.
Notwithstanding this backdrop of challenges, I remain intrigued by the idea that closer alignments and joint ventures between indoor farmers and food retailers can create and deliver significant value. How can this be accomplished? Here are a few tactical ideas:
- Creation of an ultra-premium line of produce – Working directly with retailers, indoor farming operations can better message key product attributes: high-quality consistent products, year-round availability, and local/sustainable production. Wendy’s recent announcement to eventually source 100% of its tomatoes from indoor greenhouses would seemingly provide a positive tailwind for marketing indoor-grown produce.
- Installation of vertical farms in or on top of the grocery store – The difference in quality is noticeable between produce harvested immediately prior to consumption as compared to packaged, post-harvest produce. Again, the taste and quality attributes need to be properly marketed to achieve better pricing, however, the idea of produce harvested on-demand should theoretically de-risk the stand alone indoor ag business model from the perspectives of efficiency and waste reduction.
Parting thoughts
Personally speaking, nothing makes me happier than starting a meal with a healthy salad filled with fresh, peppery arugula, leafy spinach, and flavorful, red tomatoes, and cucumbers. Based on ongoing sector research and visits to several indoor farming facilities, I believe that indoor AgTech offers a compelling method to extend the seasonality of domestically-grown produce to 12 months of the year. I look forward to further exploring the issues raised in this blog in a future webinar on indoor farming and Controlled Environment Agriculture.
1. Article input provided by David Branch, Wells Fargo Sector Manager, Specialty Crops, Matt Dusi, Wells Fargo Sector Manager, Fresh Produce, and Karol Aure-Flynn, Wells Fargo Senior Sector Analyst, AgriFood Technology and Packaged Foods
Using A Hydroponic System Vs Growing With Soil
by Stephen Campbell
June 08, 2018
Ah, one of life’s great debates: growing with a hydroponic system or with soil, an especially difficult question to answer for your first grow.
History has given us great success using dirt as a base, and in 1953, Austin Miller referred to soil as ‘the skin of the earth’. Throughout the years, the soil community has learned a few tricks. By adding nutrients, balancing pH, and enriching soil with organic ingredients, producers have made advanced planting mixes to ensure healthy plant growth.
So why consider a hydroponic system at all if soil has come so far? Well for starters, the advantages of hydroponics include offering the grower higher plant yields and automation, which for most people, are two very powerful motivations to switch away from the past, and move into the future. Let's take a more in-depth look at the two mediums:
HYDROPONICS
In a nutshell, a complete hydroponic system is simply growing plants without soil. There are many different types of hydroponic systems, we've listed some of these techniques below.
Aeroponics - The process of growing plants in an air or mist environment, without the use of soil or aggregate medium. Plant roots hang in the air, and a mist of nutrient-rich water is sprayed onto the roots periodically.
Aquaponics - The combination of aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, or prawns in tanks) and hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. The waste produced by aquatic animals supplies nutrients for the hydroponic plants. In turn, these plants purify the water for the animals.
Drip Irrigation - Also known as micro or localized watering, small drip emitters deliver a constant drip directly to the soil. This ensures that the soil is always moist, but not over watered.
DWC (Deep Water Culture) - A type of hydroponics system where plant roots continuously sit in a highly oxygenated water and nutrient solution. Oxygen is usually supplied using an airstone that pumps air to into the water.
Ebb & Flow - In this process, plant roots sit in a coarse growing medium for support, while a water and nutrient solution periodically flows past the roots on a set time schedule. This is similar to the ocean's rising and receding tides. This allows for the aeration of the roots, while automating the job of watering the plants by hand.
Nutrient Film Technique - This technique involves running a continuous oxygen and nutrient rich film of water over the plants roots in an enclosed space or tube.
All of these different techniques have one thing in common: they don’t need the roots to spread out in soil to absorb nutrients. Instead, they are fed a concentrated solution of oxygen and nutrients. This allows the roots to be packed into much smaller spaces.
All of these systems allow you to be creative and in control. You decide what nutrients to add, how much, and when. This control contributes to the increased speed and yield of growth you will experience.
There are additional benefits to going the hydro route. With a hydroponic system, you are using less water, as it is being recirculated to your plants and only changed out every 7-12 days. No more watching 10% of your runoff go to waste each watering. You also have a secret weapon in your battle against bugs, since eliminating soil from your operation will also eliminate certain bugs that can attack your plants.
SOIL
When it comes to soil, there are many different types and blends of soil available. So what's what?
Sand - Formed from bits of rock including limestone, quartz, granite, and shale. Drains water quickly.
Silt - Fine particles of organic material combined with sand. Very fertile, drains water well.
Muck - Primarily humus from drained swamps or bogs. Dense with little potassium.
Clay - Fine crystals formed by chemical reactions between minerals. Very poor draining.
Loam - A combination of the above. Organic loams must contain at least 20% organic matter.
Compost - Decayed organic matter. Can contain good bacteria, fungi, insects, worms, and microorganisms.
So head outside with a bucket and shovel right? Yeah, not so fast.
You should always ensure that you are buying your soil from a bag and not just getting it from outside, as store bought product has been treated to remove all of the bugs and critters that can tear-up your garden.
Soil not only provides a secure anchor for your plants and it’s roots, but it also aids in the retention and delivery of nutrients. Soil can act as a buffer for those nutrients, making it easier for the gardener to maintain a perfect nutrient balance.
One thing to watch out for is watering soil, as it can be surprisingly tricky. The number one issue new growers have is overwatering their precious plants.
New growers will try to be extremely attentive to their plants, and they normally want to get the most growth possible. This causes them to water too much and results in killing their plants. Over watering is dangerous because plant roots need to eat and breathe. Too much water logged in soil depletes oxygen, and thus the roots do not get enough oxygen to survive.
When you water your soil, it’s helpful to have some water runoff to ensure you have fully saturated your medium. Once watered, the soil needs to dry out, allowing the roots access to air before letting them drink again. It is a balance that once achieved, will produce consistent healthy results.
The Final Choice
In the end, whether you choose to use soil or hydroponics is, of course, up to you. There really is no right or wrong answer. Just weigh the pros and cons of each style and method, make a decision that works best for you, and then get growing!
Starting An Outdoor Hydroponic Garden
Indoor gardening can get expensive if you’re constantly running air conditioners and dehumidifiers. Why not take advantage of free sunlight and start an outdoor hydroponic garden?
Source: Pixbox77 / Dreamstime.com
Takeaway: Indoor gardening can get expensive if you’re constantly running air conditioners and dehumidifiers. Why not take advantage of free sunlight and start an outdoor hydroponic garden?
Indoor gardening can get expensive in the heat of the summer, especially if you’re constantly running air conditioners and dehumidifiers. Why not take advantage of all the free sunlight nature has to offer and start an outdoor hydroponic garden?
Outdoor hydroponics still provides the perfect balance of water and nutrients, and your plants will grow much faster than in soil. Plus, there’s no weeding!
Choose a Sunny Location for Your Hydroponic Garden
There is no substitute for full-spectrum summer sunlight, and best of all, it’s free! Even a 1,000W lamp, placed a foot from your plants, can’t compare with a sunny day in mid-July. So when setting up an outdoor hydroponic garden, pick a sheltered area with a good southern exposure if you can.
I’ve grown prolific amounts of basil in a nutrient film technique system in a parking lot, towers of aeroponic herbs and strawberries on my back porch, and a huge row of tomatoes in stonewool in front of my garage.
The vines grew so dramatically that strangers driving by would stop their cars, knock on my door and ask me how I was making the tomatoes grow so fast!
They were amazed when I showed them my hydroponic systems. By the end of the summer, the vines were growing up to the roof and I had a wall of gourmet-quality tomatoes.
Keep the Water Reservoir Cool
Plants will transpire a lot more water in the outdoor heat than when they are grown indoors, so make sure you top off the reservoir with cool water from your garden hose often. It’s also a good idea to keep the reservoir in the shade whenever possible.
In an ebb and flow system, it’s easy because the nutrient reservoir is underneath the flood table anyway. But if the reservoir is somewhat exposed, I like to at least partially bury it if I can. The earth acts as a natural heat sink to pull some of the excess heat out of the reservoir.
On the hottest days of the summer, adding a little ice to the reservoir can help. Keep a couple of two-liter bottles of water in the freezer, and drop one into the reservoir occasionally.
If you walk by later in the sweltering afternoon and you notice the ice has melted, put the bottle back in the freezer and drop in another. Luckily, the worst heat waves usually don’t last more than a few days, so such emergency measures are rarely needed.
Lower the Electrical Conductivity (EC)
In hot weather, it’s best to lower the electrical conductivity of the nutrient solution. For example, if I normally keep the EC for my lettuce-growing system at 1.2, I’ll lower it to 1 in the summer. Plants are thirstier in the summer, so doing everything possible to make it easier for them to take up water is a good thing.
Low-to-medium EC stimulates vegetative growth by making the nutrient solution less salty, while medium-to-high EC restricts vegetative growth. During the heavy fruiting and flowering stage, a little salt stress is good but watch your plants carefully. At the first sign of browning at the edges of the leaves, lower the EC a little more.
The worst thing that can happen to an outdoor hydroponic garden is to let the reservoir run dry. Plants won’t last long in the summer sun without water. It might be a good idea to add a float valve to your reservoir as an insurance policy.
If the water level gets too low, the float valve will open automatically and top off the tank with fresh water. Plants can go a few extra days without fertilizer, but they will only last a few hours without water. Plan ahead so you can enjoy a few days away at the beach when you want to.
Boost the Heat Tolerance of Plants
The best time to condition your plants against stressful situations is before the stress happens. In the earlier part of the summer, try adding a combination of humic acid and kelp extracts to your nutrient solution.
A 10-year study at Virginia Tech showed that humic acids combined with seaweed extracts work 50% better than either product alone. A 5:2 ratio of humic acid to kelp works best to greatly stimulate lateral root growth and improve overall root mass. When the summer heat comes, the more roots the better for taking up the extra water they need.
The humic acid/kelp combo also encourages the plant to make extra plant-protection agents. Under ideal conditions, plants have no trouble protecting themselves from cell damage, but when plants are under too much stress, they can’t keep up with the constant barrage of damaging free radicals.
Free radicals break down cell membranes such as chloroplast and mitochondrial membranes, which is why plants go from green to yellow to brown under excessive heat and UV light.
If you condition your plants against stress with a combination of humic acids and kelp, plants will produce 50% more of the protective molecules that sponge free radicals, and plants will stay green longer when the summer heat arrives.
Remember to condition the plants before it gets hot—if the plants are already suffering in the middle of the summer, the bio-stimulants won’t have enough time to help.
Ensure Air Movement
Air movement is important, especially in the summer. One of the advantages of outdoor hydroponics is the breeze. The air movement helps cool the plant and keep the stomata open.
Stomata are the pores in the leaves that take in carbon dioxide and transpire water vapor and oxygen. As the breeze takes away the water vapor from the leaves, it has a cooling effect on the plant.
Too much wind has the opposite effect—plants close their stomata to conserve water so they don’t dry out too fast. Outdoors, we don’t have much control over the wind, so try to grow in a spot that has good air movement but also provides a protective windbreak.
Planting along a fence row with southern exposure is a good choice. Also, think ahead about what you will do if a major storm approaches. I’ve learned the hard way how important it is to properly stake and trellis my plants and provide a little extra emergency protection.
Protect Against Pests
One downside to growing outdoors is that you often have to share your crops with animals and other pests. The simplest advice is to fence in your garden or grow a few extra plants and hope the critters don’t get too greedy.
If you’re not willing to share, there are other deterrents available at your hydro store such as wolf and coyote urine (I’m serious!) that help keep rabbits and other invaders away. There are also some good natural sprays such as neem oil and insecticidal soaps that help fight bugs and act as natural insect repellents.
But the best defense against pests, particularly sucking insects, is to grow healthy plants. Use full-spectrum, all-purpose fertilizers, and keep the potassium-to-nitrogen ratio high. Too much nitrate nitrogen produces large cells with thin cell walls, making them an easy target for sucking insects and fungi, so don’t over-fertilize.
For even healthier plants, try using a bio-hydroponic fertilizer that combines minerals with organic bio-stimulants. For example, amino acids stimulate the uptake of calcium.
Due to the extra calcium intake, plants grown with amino acids have thicker cell walls and a higher resistance to temperature extremes. The plants will also have a stronger vascular system, allowing them to take up water and minerals more efficiently. (Read more about pests in Maximum Yield's pest control article archives)
It all adds up to nutrient-dense, high-brix plants that have an increased resistance to pests and diseases. If all goes well, sucking insects won’t even recognize the plants as food.
Just wait until you taste what a well-managed outdoor hydroponic garden can produce. Healthier plants mean tasty, nutrient-dense food high in vitamins and minerals.
Colors and aromas are also much richer, and you can literally see the difference in growth from day to day. It’s hard to imagine just how productive an outdoor hydroponic garden can be until you try one for yourself!
How Does Aeroponics Work?
Aeroponic systems nourish plants with nothing more than nutrient-laden mist. The concept builds off that of hydroponic systems, in which the roots are held in a soilless growing medium, such as coco coir, over which nutrient-laden water is periodically pumped.
By Brian Barth on July 26, 2018
Towers and other vertical approaches are increasingly popular for aeroponics systems. Since the roots have a need to spread out, this is a clever way to save space. A vertical setup also allows misting devices to be placed at the top, allowing gravity to distribute the moisture.
By Globe Guide Media Inc / shutterstock.com
You finally wrapped your mind around the concept of Hydroponics
(soilless growing). Then all your horticulturally-savvy friends started carrying on about Aquaponics
(raising fish in a hydroponic system) So here’s a new buzzword for you: aeroponics. It has nothing to do with raising vegetables in airplanes, though it has been used to grow beans in the zero-gravity confines of the Mir space station
So what is it? Let’s investigate.
Aeroponics Defined
A simplified diagram of an aeroponic system. By Lilkin / shutterstock.com.
Aeroponic systems nourish plants with nothing more than nutrient-laden mist. The concept builds off that of hydroponic systems, in which the roots are held in a soilless growing medium, such as coco coir, over which nutrient-laden water is periodically pumped. Aeroponics simply dispenses with the growing medium, leaving the roots to dangle in the air, where they are periodically puffed by specially-designed misting devices.
In aeroponics systems, seeds are “planted” in pieces of foam stuffed into tiny pots, which are exposed to light on one end and nutrient mist on the other. The foam also holds the stem and root mass in place as the plants grow.
The Advantages of Aeroponics
Who knew naked roots could survive, much less thrive? It turns out that eliminating the growing medium is very freeing for a plants’ roots: the extra oxygen they are exposed to results in faster growth. Aeroponic systems are also extremely water-efficient. These closed-loop systems use 95 percent less irrigation than plants grown in soil. And since the nutrients are held in the water, they get recycled, too.
In addition to these efficiencies, aeroponics’ eco-friendly reputation is bolstered by the ability to grow large quantities of food in small spaces. The approach is mainly employed in indoor vertical farms, which are increasingly common in cities—cutting down on the environmental costs of getting food from field to plate. And because aeroponics systems are fully enclosed, there is no nutrient runoff to foul nearby waterways. Rather than treating pest and disease with harsh chemicals, the growing equipment can simply be sterilized as needed.
Drawbacks of Aeroponics
Aeroponics systems require a bit of finesse to operate effectively. The nutrient concentration of the water must be maintained within precise parameters and even a slight malfunction of your equipment can cause the loss of a crop. If the misters don’t spray every few minutes—maybe because the power goes out, for example — those dangling roots will quickly desiccate. And the misters need regular cleaning to keep them from becoming clogged by mineral deposits in the water.
There is also one major drawback, environmentally-speaking: aeroponic systems rely on electrical power to pump water through the tiny misting devices. And while they can be employed in the natural light of a greenhouse, they are more often used with energy-intensive grow lights. Solar power or other alternative energy sources can be harnessed to eliminate this drawback, however.
How Much Does an Aeroponics System Cost?
DIY models can be made for less than $100, but good quality professional systems with automated nutrient monitoring and a backup power supply start in the four-figure range.
Equipment Considerations
All aeroponics systems require an enclosure to hold in the humidity and prevent light from reaching the roots (this is typically a plastic bin with holes drilled for each plant), plus a separate tank to hold the nutrient solution. Beyond these basic components, there are a few other things to consider in devising an aeroponic system to suit your needs.
Some aeroponics systems are designed to be used horizontally, like a traditional planting bed. But towers and other vertical approaches are increasingly popular — since the roots need to spread out, this is a clever way to save space. Vertical systems are also popular because the misting devices may be placed at the top, allowing gravity to distribute the moisture.
Another dichotomy in aeroponic equipment: high-pressure versus low-pressure systems.
Low-pressure systems, which rely on a simple fountain pump to spray water through the misters, are inexpensive and suitable for DIY construction. This approach is sometimes called “soakaponics,” as low-pressure misters are capable of producing only a light spray, kind of like a tiny sprinkler, not true mist.
For true mist—meaning moisture floats in the air and more effectively delivers nutrients to the roots—you need higher water pressure than an ordinary pump can provide. Thus, professional aeroponics systems rely on a pressurized water tank capable of holding 60 to 90 psi, along with top-quality misters capable of delivering the finest possible puff of moisture.
National Organic Standards Board Decrees That Hydroponic Can Be Organic
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A Hydroponic Rooftop Farm Grows in the Bronx
Dirt-Free Farming: Will Hydroponics (Finally) Take Off?
Hydroponics suppliers increasingly stock a full-line of aeroponics equipment, from the nutrients, pots, pumps, timers, and tubing you need for a DIY system to fully-automated turnkey aero-farms.
What Can You Grow with Aeroponics?
Anything, in theory. In practice, aeroponics systems are primarily used for the same applications as hydroponics systems, including leafy greens, culinary herbs, marijuana, strawberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers. One exception is root crops, which are impractical in a hydroponic system, but well-suited to aeroponics, as the roots have plenty of room to grow and are easily accessible for harvesting.
Other vegetable crops are possible but have more complex nutrient requirements. Fruiting shrubs and trees are impractical in aeroponics systems due to their size.
LettUs Grow Wins "Best Elevator Pitch" At Tech-Xpo Event
Charlie Guy (right) with VWV’s Nathan Guest
LettUs Grow scooped the top prize of ‘Best Elevator Pitch’ last night at SETsquared Bristol’s annual Tech-Xpo event, which was held at Circomedia Bristol.
The start-up, which designs irrigation and control technology for vertical farms, was one of six tech start-ups to pitch at the event, with the audience using a digital voting system to crown the winner.
17 companies, including AutonoMe, Interactive Scientific, and YellowDog, exhibited to a crowd of investors, academics, and business leaders.
The six pitching companies were filmed as they presented their 60-second speed session, with the aim of winning over delegates, and winning the ‘Best Elevator Pitch’ award.
Charlie Guy, Managing Director of LettUs Grow who delivered their winning pitch, collected the prize for their patent-pending aeroponic technology, which delivers consistently high yields for vertical farms.
Aeroponics is a methodology of growing plants without soil, which allows greater oxygenation to the roots, delivering better flavour and faster growth, and using 95% less water than traditional agriculture.
Charlie Guy comments: “We’re absolutely over the moon to have won the ‘Best Elevator Pitch’ at SETsquared’s Tech-Xpo 2018. This is a really exciting time for us as a business, the team is growing, and building Europe’s first vertical farm, and we’re really excited to see what comes next.”
New Commercial Aeroponic Systems
New Commercial Aeroponic Systems
Pure Grows Aeroponics is launching three new product choices, Commercial Aeroponic System, Intelli Tissue Culture Clone Nursery and a 40 Foot Smart Grow Aeroponic Container.
“We keep a close eye to what our clients require for their cultivation needs and aim to meet these requirements with the latest, proven technology at affordable price points,” commented a spokesperson from the company. “Our latest additions are sure to cause excitement among commercial cannabis growers looking to take things to the next level.”
Pure Grows Aeroponic Systems are custom designed for every client. Pure Grows is built on a module based system, where each module produces 416 healthy, fast-growing plants. Modules could be used independently or as part of a larger growing operation where many modules are connected together to cultivate thousands of plants maximizing the use of available space.
Pure Grows Aeroponic Systems are designed for simplified and controlled commercial cultivation of ecologically pure plants, while creating the ideal growing environment with up to 40% shorter maturation times, providing 6 healthy harvests per year, up to 55% more yearly harvest output versus any other growing methods.
Another addition to the Pure Grows catalog is their 40 Foot Smart Grow Container. The 40 Foot Smart Grow Container is an automated aeroponics greenhouse, packaged in its own 40-foot shell, making it an ideal place to grow a wide range of plants, in a 100% turn-key way.
For more information:
Pure Grows
917-755-2446
info@puregrows.com
puregrows.com
Publication date: 5/22/2018
Lettuce Abound Farms Serves Up First Harvest From New London Aeroponics Operation
Lettuce Abound Farms Serves Up First Harvest From New London Aeroponics Operation
By Carolyn Lange on May 4, 2018
NEW LONDON — With plates heaped high with at least five varieties of lettuce picked that morning at an aeroponics farm a couple miles away, restaurant owners and volunteers working to bring a food cooperative to New London were clearly enjoying their salads.
They were also talking with the farm's owners about getting the fresh greens on the menu and on the shelves.
"Absolutely," said Leah Michaelis, owner of Lake Affect Coffee in New London, when asked if she would consider purchasing the leafy greens from Lettuce Abound Farms. "It's good and nearby and fresh."
Mateo Mackbee and his partner Erin Lucas, who will be opening Model Citizen Restaurant this month in the Goat Ridge Brewery in New London, said the locally grown greens will fit perfectly with the farm-to-market emphasis of their menu.
That's exactly the kind of reaction Kevin Ortenblad and Brian Dengler were hoping for when they invited several business owners and business leaders on a tour last week to see how their aeroponics lettuce is grown and to serve up a meal featuring their first harvest.
When Ortenblad and Dengler, along with their wives Julie Ortenblad and Melody Dengler, started the process 16 months ago to build the region's first commercial-scale aeroponics lettuce farm, they asked local grocery stores and restaurateurs if they would be interested in buying lettuce grown year-round in rural New London.
"They told us, 'let us know when you have something to taste,'" said Dengler, who is Ortenblad's son-in-law.
That time has arrived.
To show people how the lettuce is raised, how it tastes and how much it costs, the family-owned farm is giving tours and giving potential customers a taste of the product.
While building up their wholesale commercial base, individuals can purchase the lettuce from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. directly from the farm site, 3825 County Road 40 N.E. The price is $2.25 a head.
"You pray at the end that people want it," said Dengler, who is also setting up private meetings with local grocery stores. Their goal is to sell their product to local vendors.
"We're very optimistic," Dengler said.
They're hoping that once people taste the greens, they'll be hooked.
"My life was rocked when I found out what real lettuce can taste like," Dengler said.
Lettuce Abound is the first franchise operation of the Faribault-based Living Greens Farm, which developed this type of aeroponics system.
Ortenblad and Dengler modified the system and, despite some challenges that delayed the start-up, they said the system is working flawlessly and plants are growing faster than expected.
The facility is housed in a farm machine shed they turned into an immaculate indoor farm that meets federal vegetable production and packaging standards.
After suiting up in a white jacket and hairnet, washing one's hands and stepping in a shallow shoe wash before entering the indoor farm, visitors see vertical walls of lush green lettuce.
The quantity and vibrancy of the edible greens stops visitors in their tracks.
When the facility is eventually in full year-round production, the 102- by 50-foot building will produce the equivalent of a 180-acre farm.
But these plants are grown without one grain of soil.
Instead, seeds for the greens — including butter lettuce, red and green oak leaf lettuce, romaine, arugula and microgreens — are hand-seeded in a product called "rock wool" that Dengler describes as crushed volcanic rock "spun like cotton candy."
After the seeds germinate and plants are a couple inches high, the chunks of rock wool are placed into panels with cup-like plastic containers and attached to 12 stainless steel A-frame units that are eight feet high and 32 feet long.
Each unit holds 1,536 lettuce plants.
The roots of the plants dangle in the air underneath the frame and are spritzed every 12 minutes with a mist of reverse osmosis water and fertilizer delivered through mechanical sprayers run by a complex computer program.
The water does not touch the leaves of the lettuce, and there are no pesticides used.
Banks of intense lights — which are so strong sunglasses are needed to work among the plants — help fuel the plants' rapid growth. (The lights are turned down during tours.)
The carbon dioxide level is carefully measured, the temperature is kept at 70-72, the humidity is at 55-65 percent and a fan blows air to mimic the wind and makes the indoor farm "smell amazing," Dengler said.
"Schedule is king," Dengler said of the enclosed system and computer program that controls nearly every aspect of the growing process.
It takes about a month from when seeds are started to when plants are harvested. During peak capacity, they will harvest three units, or about 4,600 heads of lettuce, every week, Ortenblad said.
The plan is to harvest lettuce on Thursday, and get it packaged and cooled and delivered on Friday.
They are gradually increasing the number of varieties of lettuce and will grow specific types of greens requested by large-scale customers, Dengler said.
While they're growing just lettuce now, they have already laid the groundwork for a potential expansion in a couple years for a new building to grow aeroponics strawberries and small cherry tomatoes.
Ortenblad, a retired farmer who raised organic soybeans in traditional fields near Willmar, said he is "having a ball" with this new project, in part because he gets to work with his family, including grandchildren, who help plants the seeds.
During the April blizzard, he teased his farmer friends that he was already working in his fields in a perfect climate-controlled environment surrounded by sumptuous green leaves ready to eat while they were waiting out the storm.
US (CO): Aeroponic Garden Provides Students With Fresh Greens
US (CO): Aeroponic Garden Provides Students With Fresh Greens
A new aeroponic garden in the Village Center Dining and Community Commons is the first in the nation to provide students, staff and faculty with fresh salad greens grown on site in a high-tech greenhouse attached to a dining hall.
The “air garden” will help the university reduce its carbon footprint, cut energy costs and eliminate the need for harvesting, cleaning, packing and transporting food from outside farms.
The greenhouse in CU Boulder’s Village Center Dining and Community Commons occupies nearly 3,000 south-facing square feet and consists of 137 grow towers able to produce 44 plants each without soil.
“Locally grown food just tastes better,” said Farm Manager Alex Macmillan, a horticulturalist and organic farmer who will oversee the greenhouse and its production schedule.
Macmillan and student-assistants will start by growing romaine lettuce and other vegetables in stages to ensure a continuous supply of fresh greens.
The inaugural harvest in March produced 15 pounds of kale, 10 pounds of all-star lettuce and 10 pounds of arugula that dining hall employees served to students, staff and faculty.
The aeroponic system at CU Boulder relies on water and “soilless media” to provide nutrients to plants, allowing them to grow faster and produce greater yields on average.
Vertical farming allows for better space usage and efficiency, and automated operations help maintain optimal sunlight, shade, temperature and humidity levels, creating the best year-round growing conditions.
Sensors will monitor conditions to prevent fans, lights and other equipment from running unnecessarily when natural sunlight and other conditions are sufficient.
“I’m excited to get growing and hope this new greenhouse inspires people to be informed about where their food comes from,” Macmillan said. “It’s not grown by someone you’ve never met on some faraway farm with unknown farming practices. It’s me, right here, and you can literally see how I’m growing your food.”
Source: University of Colorado Boulder
Publication date: 5/2/2018
"50% Higher Clone Production With New AEtrium-2.1 SmartFarm-72"
"50% Higher Clone Production With New AEtrium-2.1 SmartFarm-72"
In advance of next week's MJBizConNEXT conference, AEssenseGrows introduced last Monday the AEtrium-2.1 SmartFarm-72, enabling 50 percent higher clone production than prior versions of the aeroponics system. The new 72-tray configuration increases yield to 13,500 per month from the prior version's 9,000 per month.
AEssenseGrows is an ag-tech company specializing in automated aeroponic platforms for high-yield plant production. The company has developed advanced grow systems featuring sensor-driven software that monitors and automatically adjusts the ingredients for specific grow recipes. The four-layer high-density AEtrium-2.1 SmartFarms are designed for high-volume cultivators and come in 24-, 48-, and now 72-tray configurations.
"The pressure on growers in the burgeoning cannabis industry is intense and will only increase as laws evolve and the market grows," said Phil Gibson, vice president of Marketing at AEssenseGrows. "AEssenseGrows' latest version of its SmartFarm cloning product helps give growers greater control over their fates by delivering fast, safe and reliable clones in volume."
AEssenseGrows will showcase its grow systems at MJBizConNEXT, May 9-11, at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center. The company will also participate in the National Cannabis Industry Association annual Lobby Days, May 21 to 23 in Washington, D.C.
And in mid-June, AEssenseGrows will co-sponsor the 2018 International Indoor Plant Factory Symposium with the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SAAS). The symposium, running June 12-15 at the Blue Palace Hotel in Jiading, Shanghai, brings together some of the world's leading experts in commercial indoor cultivation for an exchange of ideas and information about the latest innovations, technologies and research in the field.
More information:
www.aessensegrows.com
Publication date: 5/2/2018
Hydroponic Farm Plans To Grow On Reclaimed Mine Site In Eastern Kentucky
An indoor farming company plans to invest $44 million to grow produce on the site of a reclaimed mine in eastern Kentucky.
Hydroponic Farm Plans To Grow On Reclaimed Mine Site In Eastern Kentucky
By RYAN VAN VELZER • APR 2, 2018
CREDIT CREATIVE COMMONS
An indoor farming company plans to invest $44 million to grow produce on the site of a reclaimed mine in eastern Kentucky.
Hydroponic Farms USA says it will bring 121 jobs to the region, which has seen rising unemployment with the decline of eastern Kentucky’s coal industry.
Hydroponic Farms USA spokesman Trevor Terry said investors chose to build on the site of a former mine in Breathitt County for two reasons. First, the large, flat space the former mine provided was perfect for a large indoor growing operation.
Second, Terry said investors made it part of their mission to bring prosperity back to an economically depressed region.
“Somebody said to me the other day that eastern Kentucky kept the lights on for a long time and now they are going to feed the world and I think that’s a fantastic way of looking at it,” he said.
The indoor farming company plans to build a 42-acre facility that will use hydroponic and aeroponic technology to grow leafy greens, tomatoes, peppers and other produce, Terry said.
Gov. Matt Bevin said the move is “wonderful news for eastern Kentucky.”
“We are truly grateful for this vote of confidence in the commonwealth,” he said. “Hydroponic Farms USA will be a great fit for the Jackson community, and continues the economic momentum that is building in eastern Kentucky.”
The farm will be second of its kind in Kentucky for Oz Agribusiness Projects and Investments Ltd., who formed a partnership with Green Ag Technologies LLC to manage and operate the facility.
Nebullam: Indoor Farming
What started seven years ago as a way to address food security, production and sustainability led to 13 different prototypes and a model farm near Nevada. And if all goes according to plan in 2018, Nebullam will have a second model farm near Ames and additional capital to help send a product to market by 2019.
Nebullam: Indoor Farming
Lettuce that was grown and harvested last Friday from inside the Nebullam model farm near Nevada. Photo courtesy of Clayton Mooney
For the founders of Nebullam, they hope 13 is a lucky number.
What started seven years ago as a way to address food security, production and sustainability led to 13 different prototypes and a model farm near Nevada. And if all goes according to plan in 2018, Nebullam will have a second model farm near Ames and additional capital to help send a product to market by 2019.
The Ames-based agtech startup pairs high-pressure aeroponic technology and software to grow different types of leafy greens indoors.
The company was founded by Clayton Mooney and Danen Pool, who first met while attending Indian Hills Community College. They stayed in contact and three years ago, Pool contacted Mooney to run a business idea by him.
“He started tinkering on hydroponic systems which led into aeroponic systems,” Mooney said of Pool. “He was very intrigued by the early research NASA had done on aeroponic systems back in the 80’s. Throughout the first half-dozen prototypes, he (Pool) was able to grow tomatoes, basil and lettuce varieties. One winter, he took tomatoes into his coworkers and got great feedback.”
Aeroponics is a method of growing plants in a water-based, nutrient-rich solution without using soil. And when those tomatoes—that were grown indoors—tasted like they were from the garden, a business idea formed.
It was no longer a hobby.
“We thought our original business model was to go around Iowa, set up in warehouses, grow leafy greens and get them into grocery stores,” Mooney explained. “The more feedback we received, it really came back to the technology and that was more interesting to scale than just the production side.”
Mooney said along with Pool and third co-founder Mahmoud Parto, they realized the industry needs to be automated.
“Eventually you need an indoor, vertical farm producing at full capacity without any human interaction,” Mooney says. “We are trying to bring it to the forefront so if we have to trail blaze a little bit, we’re ready.”
To fund Nebullam, Mooney said they raised a “friends and family” round of investment last year and received some funding from through the Iowa State Ag Startup Engine last year when they were going through the program. Nebullam also received a $25,000 loan from the Iowa Economic Development Authority.
This year Mooney said they hope to raise $1 million by the end of June.
Fewer parts, fewer problems
With high-pressure aeroponic expertise and startup experience, Nebullam was looking for a partner who had a background in software and automation.
Mooney said that’s when Nebullam hired Parto, who has helped implement software and automate as many of the processes between germination and harvest as possible.
“From there we’ve considered ourselves a 50 percent hardware and 50 percent software company,” Mooney says.
In total there are six employees working for Nebullam in some capacity, with interns to be hired this summer. Mooney said the team should reach ten people.
Nebullam partnered with LongView Farms in Nevada to create a 300 square foot model farm.
“Hardware is tough and the more pieces you have in a product, the more that can go wrong,” Mooney explains. “In our model farm location, we have just under 5,000 parts total. And that’s across four growing units.”
But Mooney said they’ve streamlined the process to get it to 5,000 parts.
“For the 13th prototype that was our entire focus, how do you reduce the required labor?” Mooney asks. “We think we’ve figured that out. We see ourselves as a technology provider to new, indoor growers.”
He said the hardware, software and inputs such as nutrients and seeds are bundled into a monthly price. And over an 18-24 month contract, the grower pays off the hardware and reoccurring revenue comes from seeds, nutrients and an annual licensing fee for the software.
Mooney said they are in negotiations for a second model farm that would be nearly 1,500 square feet and serve as a showcase for potential customers.
“Do we see corn and soybeans being grown aeroponically? Not at this time,” Mooney says. “But leafy greens, herbs, micro greens, flowers and cannabis, we feel pretty good about those segments.”