It is interesting to find this Inka Biospheric System going to sea on the Plastiki. The Plastiki is a catamaran made from reclaimed plastic bottles and other recycled plastics that is sailing across the Pacific from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia with stops along the way.
The Inka system would have been ideal to demonstrate on the WaterPod last summer. Chalk that up to the failure of our local horticultural institutions to communicate much about anything other than top-watered dirt gardening and drain hole planters. They were the primary growing methods used on the WaterPod.
Addition of the sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) I donated was helpful but somewhat of an after thought that was probably too little too late. We can learn from the experience however. There will no doubt be projects of similar nature in the future. As a matter of fact I have an idea for a project that should include a system like the Inka. Stay tuned.
via www.moremarin.com
We saw one worker tweaking the rotating hydroponic garden which will provide fresh greens for the crew. The garden, created by Inka Biospheric Systems, can be rotated to follow the sun providing optimum growing conditions.
From the Plastiki website.
The ‘rotating cylinder garden’ was developed to grow as many plants possible on a small footprint and still expose all the plants to sun light for photosynthesis. We developed a suspended version of this concept for the plastiki, the garden is clamped on to the mizzen mast and the cylinder is enclosed in a clear covering of srPet to create a greenhouse effect and to keep the saltwater off the plants. The top of the cylinder was designed to capture rain water to help replenish the reservoir to minimize adding fresh drinking water to the plants. The garden will grow chards, kale, spinach, bok choy, mustard greens and other leafy greens for your trip.
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