Virtual Farm Out: Plant Lighting Lets Every Family Have a Real Green Mini Farm
People born in the 80s and 90s must have played the "QQ Farm" game, where the joy of growing vegetables and stealing crops ran through the editor's entire school years. After growing up, some people lease a vegetable plot in the suburbs to return to nature and eat safe produce. But now, with air, water, and soil pollution becoming increasingly severe, people are starting to worry about the health and safety of vegetables and fruits, and a vegetable plot is no longer enough to fully dispel these concerns. As a result, the "plant factory," which has the advantage of being free from pesticide and pollutant residues, has emerged as a new agricultural cultivation method showing commercial value in China and many other countries. However, plant factories are currently not highly commercialized, mostly consisting of small factory-type and laboratory-type operations, making it difficult to eat vegetables and fruits cultivated by plant factories, and the prices are high. So, is there a way for us to quickly and safely eat healthy food now?
The answer is — home micro-farms! A home micro-farm refers to growing crops in spaces within the home such as indoors, on rooftops, balconies, terraces, and courtyards. This not only greens the space, increases indoor oxygen levels, effectively absorbs harmful indoor gases, regulates air humidity, but also lets you enjoy the joy of home cultivation. And for less than one yuan per day, you can eat organic vegetables every day. Below are various home micro-farms compiled by the editor for your preview.
Grove Mini Ecosystem
Recently, GroveEcosystem has applied the principle of aquaponics, combining hydroponic vegetables with fish farming, to create an indoor self-sufficient mini ecosystem. With this device, the vegetables, flowers and other green plants grown by users can use fish excrement or other waste as nutrients needed for growth, while being illuminated by LED lights that mimic sunlight to stimulate photosynthesis.
Although this ecosystem is mini, the planting density can be higher than that of soil cultivation. In other words, an average of 8-10 lettuces can be harvested every 20 days.
Users can also connect the device to a mobile app via WIFI to monitor its energy consumption, microbial levels, and the operating status of each component.
However, when it comes to the price, you may need to spend a bit more.
iGrow Fully Automatic Plant Growth Machine
The "iGrow Automatic Plant Growth Machine" series launched by the iGrow team claims to allow urban dwellers to grow flowers, fruits, and vegetables indoors in a hassle-free, easy, clean, and effortless way. From seeds and seedlings all the way to blooming and fruiting, you only need to add water and nutrient solution once or twice a month—no other professional agricultural knowledge or labor required—just wait for the plants to bloom and bear fruit.
y006.jpg
Cai Wanqiao, founder of the iGrow team, said they are developing new smart planting equipment and matching plants based on application scenarios, such as living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, balconies, or even walls at home.
In addition, they have independently developed an embedded smart planting system suitable for homes and offices. Taking offices as an example, by planning different office areas and configuring different planting methods (single-layer planting, terraced planting, staggered planting, cabinet-style planting, etc.), and then using integrated control systems for overall and zone-based control, the temperature, humidity, light, nutrient supply, water level, and even pH value required for plant growth are automatically controlled. Users can use the APP for remote control and smart interaction.
IKEA's Hydroponic Farm
In June, IKEA launched its latest indoor gardening product, the Krydda/Växer series — a type of hydroponic farm developed in collaboration with SPACE10. The Krydda/Växer series enables you to grow plants and vegetables without soil or sunlight, supported by a hydroponic system and low-energy LED lighting. Of course, it can also be placed on a windowsill to take advantage of natural light. The key point is that it allows you to grow anywhere, at any time.
The goal of this project is to demonstrate more possibilities for food supply, rather than transporting food from thousands of miles away. Currently, IKEA plans to use the ingredients produced by its hydroponic farms in IKEA restaurants around the world.
Of course, this setup isn't only for IKEA — they plan to promote this model to more people in the future, including restaurant owners or homemakers, helping them build their own indoor farms. Perhaps soon, you'll be able to buy this product at IKEA.
Japanese Micro Home Ecological Garden
To satisfy residents of this island nation who love rural living, a Japanese company has introduced a home garden called Foop, allowing people living in high-rise buildings to enjoy the pleasures of farm life.
Foop grows plants through hydroponics; vegetables such as lettuce and cilantro can all be cultivated. It features built-in dedicated LED lights, adjustable fans, and CO2 sensors to create the most suitable growing environment for vegetables.
It also comes with a dedicated growing app, allowing users to monitor and adjust the vegetables' living environment at any time, becoming little farmers themselves.
When it's time to harvest the mature vegetables, the phone will send push notifications to users, allowing them to enjoy the freshest vegetables.
Mama Hui Angel Garden
Angel Garden is a smart home garden designed and launched by Mama Hui. Its size is just right and doesn't take up too much room space, but the produce it grows is more than enough for a family of three to enjoy.
The Angel Garden uses a hydroponic growing method that is clean and sterile; it features an intelligent lighting system that provides the most suitable LED light source for plant growth, creating highly natural-looking illumination. At the same time, it is equipped with a nutrient solution that meets drinking water safety standards, providing plants with ample nutrition.
It can also be used in conjunction with the companion APP to monitor plant growth status in real time, understand growth cycles and optimal nutritional combinations, and remotely monitor water levels for greater peace of mind and convenience.
In addition, it features educational and entertaining functions, allowing the little ones at home to take part in the fun of growing vegetables, learn about plant growth and other knowledge, and cultivate the habit of appreciating the hard work behind every grain.
Calla Smart Mini Garden
4Senses company offers an indoor mini garden for white-collar workers who love self-sufficiency and pursue health: the Calla Smart Mini Garden.
Calla looks like a small mushroom, with a round top that resembles a mushroom cap. Around it there are six small pot modules that can grow six different plants respectively.
Simply put, it is a smart desktop hydroponic vegetable garden. In the center of the six modules, nutrients required for growing vegetables can also be added. Combined with its built-in LED light, it can mimic natural light, providing all the sunlight needed for plant growth and ensuring the health of the vegetables.
In addition to growing vegetables, this product can be used to cultivate different plants.
Window farm in the concrete forest
Different from the home micro-farm mentioned above, the system introduced below can be completely self-made, greatly reducing the cost.
Simply put, this is a vertical hydroponic platform that allows you to grow plants in city windows: the inventor used recycled materials to assemble a hydroponic gardening system, hanging it vertically in the window to grow vegetables and fruits. The entire system mainly operates via an "automatic irrigation device connected by an air pump," requiring no soil. The pump at the bottom periodically transports liquid nutrients to the top, which then trickle down through the plant roots drop by drop.
This system was first tried by an American girl named Britta Riley, who grew up on a farm in Texas but now lives in a big city.
With just simple materials and tools, you too can have your own window farm! Here are the steps:
1. Prepare materials: mineral water bottles, storage bottles (jars), curtain cords, opaque tape, insulating tape, an air pump (one used for fish tanks will do) and matching water pipes, T-connectors, check valves, vermiculite, gauze, vegetable seedlings (or seeds), and black soft pots.
P.S.: Use tea beverage, juice, or mineral water bottles as the basic framework. The bottoms of carbonated beverage bottles are harder, so they are not recommended.
2. Cut a hole at the bottom of each plastic bottle large enough to fit the bottle mouth; at the same time, cut an oval hole in the bottle body to place the plant.
3. Without a bottle cap, water may splash everywhere. It is recommended to keep the bottle cap, then drill a hole in the middle and insert an air tube; water will be directed down directly.
4. Wrap opaque tape (spray paint is also acceptable) around the area from the bottle mouth to the middle of the bottle body to prevent light from entering the bottle and promoting algae growth.
5. Cut a round opening at the mouth of the water storage bottle (jar), with the size determined by the water pipe.
6. Use a rope similar to curtain string to string 3-4 plastic bottles together, and fix them on the curtain rod. (Choose a sunny windowsill)
Below is the most critical step—how to pump water up to a higher level and achieve circulation. (Only refer to the circulation system)
7. Connect the air motor (3.5 watts as specified below), the check valve, and the T-type tee in series between the water inlet pipe and the drainage pipe.
8. To prevent the motor from running continuously, a timer can also be installed, set to pump air for 15 minutes and rest for 30 minutes.
9. The water storage bottle (tank) should be positioned higher than the air motor to test whether the water circulation runs smoothly.
10. Place the seedlings into a black soft pot, fill the gaps inside the pot with vermiculite that has good drainage (a soilless planting sponge can also be chosen), and insert it into the bottle.
Britta Riley also established a communication website, where she shared her self-developed production process, sending out invitations to the world and calling for like-minded partners to perfect the system together and develop window farms. Some suggested using air pumps instead of water pumps, some installed LED lights for the window farms, and others adjusted the organic nutrient solution, enabling strawberries to bear fruit for 9 months of the year...
▲A Finnish netizen, due to limited local sunlight, provided an LED lighting solution after testing.
▲Some pursuing ultimate frugality
According to Ji Peng, founder of Mama Hui, the family micro-agriculture market in China is still basically in a blank state. Therefore, it is a viable choice for some plant factories to break into the "family micro-agriculture" market by launching small crop cultivation products for households.
Perhaps, every day in the future, we will spend it like this——
After a busy day at work, returning home, you are greeted by a flower wall exuding a subtle fragrance;
Cook the green vegetables you grew yourself for dinner — fresh and healthy
The tranquil lavender at the head of your bed accompanies you to sleep with its fragrance night after night
Just imagine how wonderful that would be!