Growing crops by letting the roots hang in a dense, nutritious mist and that way lowering the water usage and CO2-emissions. That's the goal of the UK start-up LettUs Grow. Plants are grown within aeroponic grow beds and all data gets uploaded to the Ostara™ software platform, which reduces unnecessary labour and optimises conditions for each individual plant species within the farm.
LettUs Grow, launched in 2015 in Bristol, wants to bring affordable food growing to the modern city with integrated farm management software. The start-up designs efficient irrigation and farm control systems for indoor farms. "The systems deliver higher crop yields, reduce production costs and make farmers’ lives easier", they explain.
Soil-free aeroponics
The technology uses the methodology of soil-free aeroponics, where nutrients and water are delivered to plant roots as a mist. "Not only does this allow greater oxygenation of the roots, delivering better flavour and faster growth, but it also uses up to 95% less water than traditional agriculture."
The technology uses the methodology of soil-free aeroponics, where nutrients and water are delivered to plant roots as a mist. "Not only does this allow greater oxygenation of the roots, delivering better flavour and faster growth, but it also uses up to 95% less water than traditional agriculture."
Green Challenge
For their achievements, the company has been nominated to the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge, one of the world's largest competitions in the field of sustainable entrepreneurship. They've made it up into the final five. The winner will be announced in September and will receive €500,000 to further develop the product or service, and to bring it to market. "LettUs Grow’s novel technology represents a step-change in efficiency in this fast growing global market, predicted to be worth over $13bn by 2024", the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge explains.
According to LettUs Grow it is amazing to see their team recognised for the fruits of their labour after months of hard work in the LettUs Grow lab. "Winning the green challenge would unlock so many doors and enable us to bring our innovative agricultural technology to a global audience much faster than is currently possible."
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