The concept of microgreen is very prevalent nowadays. People are talking about the benefits of consuming fresh baby plants as an immunity booster and nutrient source. Besides microgreens, other plants exist that are known to provide a good amount of nutrients as well as act as a taste enhancer in any dish.
Many people around the globe are interested in growing such plants but due to a busy lifestyle, it’s becoming a challenging task. Since good plant growth requires proper care, it has become a difficult task to grow plants in less time.
So, what do we need now?
Is it possible to get a system where we can just sow the seeds and that system will take care of the plants for the rest of the time?
Well, such technology is now available for people who are interested in fresh produce but has less time to maintain it. In-home vertical farms are one of the innovative solutions that start-ups have presented for health enthusiasts. All the in-home vertical farms are based on the concept of hydroponics.
So what is hydroponics?
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil by using water and other nutrients dissolved in it. In a hydroponic system, water is the major source of nutrients for the plant. Seeds are sown in a pot and air is provided for oxygen. With sufficient light and nutrients through water, plants grow in less time, in less space, and a dirt-free environment. But providing the optimum conditions and nutrients for plant growth is challenging for unskilled people.
To sort out this issue, various companies have come up with their innovative solution of providing in-home vertical farms where a person needs to put the seed mat in the system and wait for the growth. The control system of the equipment is programmed to maintain the growth conditions on its own. The optimum lighting conditions, watering at regular intervals, optimum quantity of gases, humidity, and other factors are maintained by the system. The equipment by different companies differs in their functioning up to some extent but gives the same comfort to the consumers.
For example, Aspara provides a device that requires minimal space and equipped with LED lights, auto-watering features, and sensors to measure the humidity, temperature, and nutrient level in the tank. According to the plant variety, a different amount of light is provided to maintain the proper growth. The equipment is connected via an app that notifies the user when the water tank needs to be refilled and when the crops are ready to be harvested.
Similarly, Plantcube, a product by German Company Agrilution, looks like a wine-cooler and controls the farming conditions through a pre-installed program. The user can control the conditions of farming via the app.
Other Start-ups such as Rise Garden, GE Home Grow, and LG have also developed similar technology and are available for consumers across the world.
Since these plants don’t require soil, different seed mats or seed kits are made available by the companies. These seed mats/kits contain high-quality seeds at equal spacing and come in different varieties such as microgreens, herbs, baby salads, etc, so that a person can choose the seed mat according to the requirement. These seed mats/kits are needed to be inserted in the specified column and the system will take care of the plant growth by itself. Henceforth, there is no worry about the seed sowing. Moreover, the seeds are provided a GMO-free label and a 100% germination guarantee.
Presently, this technology is available for small plants such as microgreen (broccoli cress, radish cress, etc.), salad plants (lettuce, mustard, etc.), different herbs (basil, Thai basil, etc.), and small fruit plants (cherry tomato, radish, etc.) It is a point of research whether such technology can be used for other crops or not at home-level in terms of equipment size, nutrient requirement, capacity, etc. If such innovation is possible, it’ll be easy for the consumers to grow the plant of their choice at their home and get a high-quality fresh product without using any pesticide and other growth-promoting chemicals.
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