US (CA): Aquaponics project in the pipeline at 4.5 acre site in Buena Park
The BP Gardens venture is an ambitious CEA greenhouse growing, marketing and distribution project designed to serve Southern California regional communities, restaurants and grocers with fresh, chemical- and pesticide-free produce and specialty culinary herbs. Within its greenhouse space, BP Gardens will grow four types of lettuce, basil, tomatoes.
"After months of planning and work, we have finally reached the point where we can begin development on this property in this year's fourth quarter," said James Haas, CEO of GreenGro Technologies. "BP Gardens will be Orange County's premier CEA facility."
The first-phase of the initial BP Gardens project involves prime real estate space strategically located in the heart of Buena Park, Calif. The property, formerly John's Wholesale Nursery, currently features 30,000 square feet of existing greenhouse facilities. In addition, an abundance of open area on the site is available for an additional 18,000 square feet of greenhouse structures for research and development (R&D) and future community activities.
The Buena Park project calls for remodeling the site's existing greenhouses, each of which will be refurbished or purpose built and will highlight the most advanced and cost-effective commercial growing systems in use today.
The greenhouses will be equipped with plant growing systems from Greengro Technologies in conjunction with The Waters Wheel, a Los Angeles firm that specializes in the design and construction of certified-organic, recirculating water farms (including aeroponic, hydroponic, aquaponic and aqua-bioponic systems).
In addition to using water in place of soil, these systems also use soil developed from aquaculture and specialized media. Besides accelerating growth of densely concentrated crops and making better tasting produce, recirculating water agriculture conserves as much as 95 percent of the water needed to farm in soil.