UK: A new vertical farming concept from HydroGarden

Manufacturer and distributor of hydroponic equipment, HydroGarden, has developed a new vertical farming concept, currently known as Project Urban Grow (Urban Grow). A versatile and fully-controlled environmental system, Urban Grow, is set to establish a new industry standard in vertical farming.

Adaptable to most environments, Urban Grow has a modular internal design using mobile racks fitted with gully trays designed for easy crop growth and harvest. Valoya LED lights have been installed on the racks above each level of gully to offer optimum lighting conditions for crop growth. Each gully is on a slight incline to ensure thorough circulation of water and nutrient solutions which are fed into the gullys through an irrigation system.

Controlled via tablet or PC, the system is fitted with fans, ventilation equipment and the room is fully insulated for temperature control. This versatile system is non crop specific meaning it can be adjusted to suit most salad crops.

Stephen Fry, commercial hydroponics specialist of HydroGarden comments, “Urban Grow is an exciting development for the vertical farming industry. We have been developing and fine-tuning this project for nearly two years and it is a reliable, accurate, easy to use and technologically advanced system.

“We know how important the future of vertical farming is, to be able to use otherwise unused spaces and have the option to grow crops in urban environments will be an essential part of the farming industry, especially since the latest announcement from the government to increase spend on locally grown food by £400million in 2017.

“We’re convinced that we’re only beginning to see the potential for vertical farming and Urban Grow is a great place to start. We are continuing with extensive trials on different processes to see where we can take it next, the continued rapid advances in technology mean that the possibilities are endless.”

Urban Grow was launched this week (9th – 10th September) at the Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture (VFUA) conference at the University of Nottingham. Kevin Frediani, a keynote speaker at VFUA and the head of sustainable agriculture at Bicton College commented on Project Urban Grow during his presentation describing it as; “As good as a system gets currently”.

For more information:
HydroGarden Wholesale Supplies Ltd.
2 Progress Way
Binley
Coventry
CV3 2NT
United Kingdom
Stephen Fry
T: 02476 608 097
www.hydrogarden.com