Urban Farmer: High-Tech Hydro * Tips

This post may contain affiliate links. That means if you click and buy, I may receive a small commission. Please read my full disclosure policy for details.

Back to Back Issues Page
Urban Farmer: High-Tech Hydro * Tips
June 03, 2013

 


The Urban Farmer, Issue #058 * Hi Tech Hydro* Hydro Tip

June,
2013: 

            
                  


“The best fertilizer is the
gardeners shadow.”
 



 

Zero-gravity gardening takes urban veggies for a spin

Would-be urban farmers have found some very creative ways to create
gardening space out of nothing. But no rooftop farm or vertical garden
recreates the zero-gravity environment of a space ship the way the
Green Wheel does. The Green Wheel gardening concept by Italian
design firm DesignLibero quite literally turns the traditional
hydroponic system on its head.

The device’s outer case is stationary, hiding an engine that rotates
an inner ring, similar to a front loading washing machine. Inside, a
water reservoir and a pump provide automatic irrigation to vase-like
containers full of coco fiber, which would be located in the perforated
inner wheel. Full-spectrum lighting is provided by a tube-shaped LED
fixture, suspended in the middle of the ring.

Because the designers anticipate that the Green Wheel will be most
attractive to urban apartment dwellers who are short on both space and
time, it will come complete with a simple control interface that can be
managed through a smartphone or tablet application. Although it’s not
available to the public just yet, the designers claim they have every
intention of developing it commercially.

* Beth Buczynski, EarthTechling

   




Video of the Month:


Is this high-tech, or what?

A Web-based babysitter for your hydroponic garden

 

          

Bitponics has created a Web-connected device, about the size of a Wi-Fi
router, that operates a suite of sensors and uploads data from them to an
online service — as frequently as every five minutes.
 
“Anywhere that you have Web access, you can see how your garden is doing,”
said Amit Kumar, the co-founder of Bitponics, a small company based in the
home of tight living spaces, New York City.
 
The Bitponics Base Station, as it’s called, contains sensors to measure pH
(acidity), water temperature, air temperature, lighting levels and humidity
— “everything your plants care about,” Kumar said. It also has two outlets,
giving it the ability to turn on devices such as grow lights and pumps to
maintain the garden when you are away.
 
It’s obviously useful when you are away. But it also saves you from having
to take readings manually and keep track of them in a notebook or a
spreadsheet, Kumar said.  And Bitponics does more than track. It also
analyzes.
 
The online service allows you to set up a grow plan, as the company calls
it, to provide the right conditions for each stage of the plants’ growth.
You can see the status of the plan, with green indicating that conditions
are right and yellow showing that conditions such as pH and light levels are
off.

It aint cheap, but it might be just the ticket for you gadget freaks!

Click below to watch the video



http://www.technewsdaily.com/17941-bitponics-wants-to-automate-hydroponic-gardening-video.html

 



Hydro Tip of the Month-  Keep
bugs out of your garden.

Preventive Maintenance
is the key.




We hope you have enjoyed this issue of The Urban Farmer Ezine. Each month, we will bring you another inspiring photo, gardening quote or idea, plus fresh new hydroponics news, techniques & products.

Insiders tips to get you growing…

           

~Stella and Simon from
Hydroponics-Simplified.

Back to Back Issues Page

Reply