Inside Urban Green

Fish And Fresh Lettuce Growing In An Old Factory

Johanna (Jo) Hearron-Heineman checks the water lines on hydroponic butter lettuce, grown in a Racine industrial building on the fourth floor. The water for the lettuce comes from the tilapia also raised on site. Hearron-Heineman operates the business with her husband Joe Heineman, doing business as Natural Green Farms.

Having a love for old buildings, it's really cool to see them find a new lease on life as urban farms. From what I've read about these types of projects it's doubtful that they're making money yet but it's great to witness creative entrepreneurship at work. We need much more of it in the field of urban food production. There's much more to growing food in the city than digging dirt.

via www.jsonline.com

Old factory now home to tilapia, lettuce

Racine - Imagine raising vegetables in an abandoned, four-story manufacturing building. And doing it without soil.

An old JI Case building once used to manufacture plows for farm fields is being transformed into a dirtless vertical farm where fish and lettuce are grown in a symbiotic system.

The farm, in a part of the city that once was an industrial hub, potentially could produce the same amount of food as 40 acres of land without the use of pesticides or fertilizer, according to the entrepreneurs behind Natural Green Farms at 615 Marquette St.

This particular method of growing food, using treated fish wastewater to grow lettuce, is nothing new. But it could be a cutting-edge venture if it turns an obsolete industrial building into a local model for a new industry that creates jobs and produces fresh food close to the people who would eat it.

In Japan, obsolete auto manufacturing buildings have been converted into food-growing factories, said Joe Heineman, who owns Natural Green Farms with his wife, Johanna Hearron-Heineman.

The Heinemans say they could produce 4 million heads of lettuce and 1 million pounds of fish a year if they expanded their model to fill all four floors of the building. So far, they're using portions of two floors - about 10,000 square feet of the 200,000-square-foot building - to grow 7,000 heads of lettuce a month, plus about 24,000 fish at different stages of maturity. They've been in the building, experimenting, for three years.

News From Garden State Urban Farms

It's great to see Garden State Urban Farms (formerly Brick City Urban Farms) moving ahead with their business. They now have a hydroponic greenhouse in addition to their extensive EarthBox sub-irrigated planter (SIP) resources. I'm looking forward to visiting before the summer is over.

via www.gardenstateurbanfarms.com

The power is connected and the water is on! We’re very excited to post these first few photos from our very first greenhouse in Orange, NJ. We have some basil in currently, with plenty more herbs and greens propagating. Stay tuned.

via www.gardenstateurbanfarms.com

While our focus was working towards getting the greenhouse operational, we also planted in our Earthboxes on the greenhouse lot in Orange, NJ and in the Central Ward in Newark. Take a look!

VertiCrop Will Be Growing Fresh Salads In Hong Kong

I think of this VertiCrop hydroponic growing system as a giant "salad spinner". It doesn't really spin but it sure does rotate and it will soon be growing fresh salads in Hong Kong, one of my favorite cities in the world. It's New York east to me, make that Far East.

Valcent, inventor of the system, has signed an agreement with VF Innovations Ltd. (VFI) to install one VertiCrop demonstration system and then form a joint marketing venture. After Hong Kong, who knows where else the giant salad spinners will be growing fresh food in China.

via www.marketwatch.com

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Jun 16, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Valcent Products Inc.  today announces that its wholly owned subsidiary, Valcent Products (eu) Limited signed an agreement to supply a VertiCrop(TM) high density farming system to Hong Kong's VF Innovations Ltd. (VFI), a new company specifically created to foster innovation in vertical farming. Valcent is currently in discussions to form a Hong Kong-based partnership with VFI to manufacture and distribute the company's vertical growing systems for the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). 

Can Hydroponics Retailing Get Beyond Marijuana?

via www.kfbb.com

I don't use marijuana but I've been in many hydroponics stores to buy expanded clay pebbles, coir and nutrients for use with sub-irrigated planters (SIPs).

My observations about hydroponics retailers is that they know little about sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) and are primarily interested in selling more expensive equipment. Note the hydroponics bucket unit in the video. In my opinion, you can produce just as much fresh food in a utility bucket SIP with no need for an electrical connection. There was a side-by-side demonstration of this on the Waterpod last summer.

Valcent: Seeking Demonstration Project Funding

It will be interesting to see where this Valcent demonstration project lands. Will it be in the U.S.?

It is certainly possible with JFK, Jr. and Steven Kennedy Smith, Jr. influencing the decision from the inside. 

via www.businessgreen.com

Valcent Products seeking £300,000 (U.S. $427,290) investment to fund development of innovative vertical farming rig demonstration project

For years the concept of vertical farms has been consigned to the pages of architect's notebooks, but now a British-Canadian firm is poised to turn vertical farming into a reality – albeit on a smaller scale than the farm skyscrapers you find in science fiction novels.

Saipan School Garden Teaches Science And Technology

With shovels in their hands these kids may look like dirt farmers but read on and you will find that they are learning much more than how to dig dirt.

They're learning about using modern science and technology to grow food. They're also learning about recycling and upcycling.

Read the article and you will find words like hydroponics, aeroponics and scientific method.

Are these words characteristic of your kids school garden (or planned garden)? If not, speak up and speak out! Don't wait until you hear the noise of jackhammers or rototillers that are rarely necessary.

Using modern methods such as sub-irrigated planter systems (SIPs) you can garden on paved surfaces...and in classrooms!  All you need is enough sunlight.

via www.saipantribune.com

Want to know how hydroponics works? What are the best tomatoes to grow on Saipan? How about papayas or lettuce? Why should you watch out for ironwood trees? What's the hardest part of growing veggies? What kind of rats should you worry about?

What's better, hydroponics or aeroponics? Can I make my own hydroponics garden cheaply with recycled materials? What exactly are plants on steroids? Want the answers?

Valcent Launches AlphaCrop, A Smaller Version Of The VertiCrop System.

My guess is that we will see one of these AlphaCrop systems here in NYC in the not too far distant future. This version of the system may be a little too much for a row house backyard, but there are many other potential homes for them.

Evidently there are also smaller versions of the AlphaCrop system on the way. Stay tuned. Maybe you can be the first one in your neighborhood to grow fresh food in a space age vertical garden with no need for dirt.

Via Valcent.eu Scroll down to the bottom for a preview video of the AlphaCrop prototype.

AlphaCrop™ offers the advantage of High Density Vertical Growing to a wide range of producers from smaller commercial growers, to amateur gardeners, smallholders, community co-operatives or allotment associations. Larger commercial growers may also employ AlphaCrop™ to compliment their VertiCrop™ systems and to produce a wider range of crops including baby carrots, salad potatoes and strawberries.

This innovative new system enhances yields and provides excellent returns for a moderate investment:

Read the press release via CNNMoney.com

Valcent VertiCrop System Demonstration At The Paignton Zoo

via www.youtube.com

This is an excellent demonstration and explanation of the Valcent VertiCrop system at the Paignton Zoo in the UK. I observe that these plants are not quite as robust as those grown in artificial soil media in sub-irrigated planters (SIPs). What is not known, however, is their age. We need to know more about their life cycle.

What is clear is that these systems will be feeding people in the near future. It will be interesting to see where they appear. Stay tuned! 

Vertical Urban Agriculture Through Australian Eyes

This is an informative article about vertical urban agriculture from The Age in Australia.

The author makes much of New York City, and the publicity associated with Dickson Depommier and his sky farm ideas. In my view, New York is anything but the center of modern urban food production thought.

Of course my opinion is most likely warped by the overabundance of dirt huggers I encounter in my daily research. Widespread use of dirt gardening in the city is pure fantasy as a solution for urban food production and water conservation issues. 

via www.theage.com.au

As land and water diminish, innovative ways to feed the world may just save our lives, writes Richard Cornish.

IT'S 2049. Food security is of the highest concern. There are 9 billion people on earth and most of them live in cities. To keep the population fed, politicians, scientists and big business have joined forces to create new food sources where the line blurs between technology and farming.

Meet Inka Biospheric Systems

David Bealby of Inka Biospheric Systems from Lloyd Alter on Vimeo.

Inka Biospheric Systems is a San Franciso based company producing some very interesting hydroponic and aquaponics micro farming systems. I am particularly interested in their Bio Quilt growing media and am sure I will be posting more about them in the future.

The Inka Stretch Garden, is the "Bio Quilt" material that we use in all our vertical hydroponic gardens, produced in rolls, this 1 inch thick grow matrix and can be stretched over fences, walls, or stretched between poles. The Stretch Garden can grow plants vertically by cycling water through the Bio Quilt and using the same water over until it evaporates. This garden is considered "hydrocentric" because it cultivates the water resource as much as the plants. In this system, the water does not touch the ground, thereby making a great water recycling device for "grey water" or just getting the most of available water resources.

via www.inka.fm

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