Collaborations

In support of their 'Bee Lines Through the City' exhibition, we installed one of our growing units in the gallery and filled it with flowering and fruiting plants. This was to demonstrate the importance of bees and the destruction of their habitat due to unsustainable farming practices, and how hydroponic growing can help habitats recover. We also delivered a lecture on the importance of local food supply and talked about how we aim to make positive change in the world.

GROWCUP™ Was developed by GyroPlant and is a revolutionary new form of reusable growing fixture which removes the need for growing medium. As an emerging sector, vertical farming is finding its feet in todays world and waste stream management is one of the areas that need developing. Plants need some form of medium to propagate and grow, in hydroponics this is achieved with grow plugs which is mainly made from rockwool or coconut coir. At the end of a grow, commercial growers can find themselves with a large amount of waste which can always be composted. GROWCUP™ offers a completely reusable and eco-friendly solution. We have been running trial runs with GyroPlant to test, improve and distribute their reusable medium.

We all know that plants need light to grow but did you know that different wavelengths of light can have different effects on plant growth. We focused our project onto developing ideal LED conditions for hydroponic growing and use this data to drive up quality, efficiency and yield in our produce and equipment.

It was a pleasure to work with Rebecca Hannah, Dr George and Dr Prashar at Newcastle University, and will be working closely to develop knowledge in areas that are lacking in such a nascent sector.

Biochar is a method of carbon sequestration that can also be used as a soil additive to enhance plant growth. Earthly Biochar have been collecting wood and timber that would normally go to scrap, and turning into a great way of capturing carbon while creating a really interesting garden product. We have been working with Earthly Biochar to look into the potential applications it can have in the hydroponics and vertical farming world.

Botanique in Brighton is the best Vegan restaurant in the world, so naturally, they were our first customer. If you find yourself in Brighton, we recommend having a visit to their amazing on-site hydroponic vertical micro-farm, and find out how much is grown within 20m of the plate! Botanique’s city-centre hydroponic farm is a really special project to both of us.