ZipGrow: Vertical farming/urban agriculture system

I own 20 ZipGrow towers and have become quite disillusioned with them across 3 growing seasons.<p>The biggest problem is that there is nothing to buffer moisture on the roots if there is an intermittent problem.<p>You might get a nice crop of basil growing and then a clogged emitter for 12 hours can be the death of those plants.<p>Here are all of the failure modes I have experienced:<p>- pump dying - Leak in base causing all water gone in 24 hours - clogged emitters - water choosing off route through tower and not hitting the plants on top - emitters getting blown off causing water to spray outside tower - circuit breakers trip from pump<p>Overall I’ve probably lost half of everything I’ve planted in a zipgrow.<p>A professional operation with a daily maintenance routine could probably use them, but they are no panacea.

I worked for the company that developed the technology. Personally not much of a green-thumb myself, but it&#x27;s great to see how much you can grow with vertical towers, either in a greenhouse or indoors with LED lights. You can grow about 3-4x what you would get with a flat grow bed for many plants [1]. While the towers are great, the real trick is the grow media as you want it robust enough to survive while not suffocating the roots.<p>For those interested in starting your own farm or just gardening I&#x27;d <i>highly</i> recommend &quot;UpStart Farmers&quot; [2]. A friend of mine help&#x27;s moderate it and is really focused on helping people learn vertical farming and aquaponics. They have an enormous selection of content regarding various aspects such as nutrient mixes, dealing with pests, etc. The community is also active and helpful to each other.<p>FYI: This is from the Canadian licensee&#x27;s of the original Bright Agrotech that was acquired by Plenty Ag [3]. I&#x27;m bullish that indoor farming will be a big boon in providing more localized and therefore <i>fresh</i> and nutritional vegetables and leafy greens for much of the world&#x27;s population. The economics are slowly improving with LED efficiency increases and capital infusion to scale farms.<p>1: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;search.proquest.com&#x2F;openview&#x2F;ccf876147b3e8a224da6770203e5fa4d&#x2F;1?pq-origsite=gscholar&amp;cbl=18750&amp;diss=y" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;search.proquest.com&#x2F;openview&#x2F;ccf876147b3e8a224da6770...</a> 2: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.upstartfarmers.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.upstartfarmers.com</a> 3: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.plenty.ag&#x2F;the-feed&#x2F;plenty-acquires-bright-agrotech-to-globally-scale-impact-of-local-farmers&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.plenty.ag&#x2F;the-feed&#x2F;plenty-acquires-bright-agrote...</a>

I don&#x27;t really understand the whole &quot;urban agriculture&quot; crowd.<p>People do often live in crowded cities, but there&#x27;s plenty of space to grow stuff on outside of cities. It&#x27;s the same kind of thinking that gave us the solad roads (which were, predictably, a catastrophic failure).

Get yourself some plastic containers, a Rain Bird starter kit, some LEDs, and you&#x27;ve got yourself your own indoor grow op for much cheaper.

I am skeptical about the reusability of the media. How hard is it to clean all the dead roots out of it? How do you sterilize it for reuse?

The economical value of growing veggies after paying city rents&#x2F;wages&#x2F; and infra investment doesn&#x27;t paint a good picture profit wise. The food business is mostly based on low wages paid to immigrant employees. It works because usually these people live in rural areas. Look at the milk price. I haven&#x27;t seen it increase in 5 years..

I remember seeing this one a while back and thinking it was a cool concept — I wonder if anyone’s tried on &#x2F; what’s become of it:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fastcompany.com&#x2F;3037719&#x2F;turn-your-kitchen-into-a-garden-with-this-mini-fridge-sized-electric-farm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fastcompany.com&#x2F;3037719&#x2F;turn-your-kitchen-into-a...</a>

$399 for $25 in plastic. Go to home depot and buy some rain plastic gutters.