Have you ever thought about growing plants without soil? Is such a feat even possible? What if you could do just that in an energy-efficient and space-efficient system that only takes up a 2.5’ x 2.5’ footprint?
One way to easily accomplish this exciting way of growing plants is to use a Tower Garden. The Tower Garden is a patented vertical aeroponic food production system that allows you to grow healthy plants using modular stackable growing pots and nutrient solution. You can grow your own seeds from any plant that is not a root crop and start them in natural rock fiber seeding cubes. When the seeds germinate in the rock fiber, the seedlings are placed in full light for one to two weeks to develop into hardy seedlings. The seedlings are then transplanted into the Tower Garden. You can grow up to twenty-eight healthy plants and grow them year round.
At the Tower Garden’s base is a 25-gallon reservoir that stores the mineral nutrient solution and a small low wattage submersible pump on the inside. The pump draws the nutrient solution up through the center of each pot all the way to the top of the Tower Garden where it proceeds to drip through a shower cap device that allows the solution to drip evenly over all the plant roots. As the nutrient solution flows back down to the reservoir, it feeds the plant roots and becomes highly oxygenated. To keep the plants alive and to allow them to grow faster than plants in soil, this process is repeated continually using a timer at set intervals. This process produces healthy plants that can be harvested regularly. The Tower Garden system is ideal for urban farms, patios, rooftop gardens, commercial operations and other situations with limited space.
The Tower Garden is a perfect example of using innovative research and ideas to solve real-world problems like lack of useable soil. Learn about ways that faculty and students at CAENS are researching solutions to challenges like these that our communities face daily.
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