Soil-less sky farming: rooftop hydroponics on NYC restaurant

[Lemon714bklyN]

I LIVE IN THE NYC AREA-IM A GRADUYARE STUDENTFINISHING MY MASTERS IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY AND TO BE A CERTOFOED bEHAVIOR ANALYSIST-hOWEVR THOUGHT MY 3 YEARS, AND NY BEGGINING WITH HYDROPONICS-ALL TYPES GOES BACK TEN-12 YEARS NOW---i ENVISION A FUTURE WHERE SKYSCRAPERS ARE GROWING DIFFERENT PRODUCE AND FLOWERS ON EACH FLOOR-USING LED TECHNOLOGY-AND THE MOST WATER EFFICIENT HYDROPONIC APPLICATION-aND LESS CAN GO WRONG-ebb AND FLOW-I WANT TO OPEN A PRE-K THAT WAS HORTICULTURAL BASED-ITS BEEN MY DREAM

[sg500]

!!! HOLY SHIT !!!

[FronbondiSkegs]

What an amazing system!

[stackoleebillylions]

Hydroponics is a kin to the topsy turvy tomato plant. The work involved doesn't justify the yield. Growing plants is easy folks stop complicating it.

[puketinho]

its good for fun and good for hobby, but i think its not economical for the restaurant, big investment, dialy expenditure, thunderstroms damages, repairs all together will be more than ,he buys stuff from the wholesale, they deliver at home also.

[OverlordOfEcchi]

>using Dead Space to grow vegetables.

>necromorphs

[rainerandglenda]

and winter time?

[kirstendirksen]

@rainerandglenda He hopes to grow 10 months of the year and to preserve food for those two coldest winter months.

[GZAthaGeniuz]

@rainerandglenda

this is the simplified version of sky farms, there is a possiblility to go further, where the roots of the plants are just suspended in air and get moistened by a little bit of water mixed with nutrients

[21centuryg]

this reminds me of The Venus Project

[decoYnR]

Yes! i love it! Grow ur own! help the local economy. I love what yall are doing! where are you guys located? i would love to check out the restaraunt. One love

[kirstendirksen]

@decoYnR They're in NYC's West Village at 141 West 10th Street. bbandcnyc . com

[cosmosanddemos]

I must go to this restaurant.

[AReptileMan]

Where can I buy the planters?

[kirstendirksen]

@AReptileMan They're not cheap. $500 a piece. They're called Tower Gardens and are made by the company Future Growing. Sold online: mytowergarden . com

[pahwraith]

Chicago has restaurants with earthboxes growing on their roof.

I love hydroponics, but I love aquaponics even more. It results in combining fish farming with vegetable farming.

[LUK0BA]

@pahwraith I'm thinking he can add fish for food in his system still. If the nutrients are not toxic and the he finds a way to remove debris in the water pipes.

[vention4wh]

First time I've heard of these garden towers. Thanks for sharing.

[szemen]

So i can assume that there's only 1 dosing machine. All plants require the same amount of nutrients?

[chelmo101101]

i love these videos. so inspiring

[srvvlhm]

How does he start the seeds? Does he use soil for that?

[kirstendirksen]

@srvvlhm Good question. He starts them in small containers with soil.

[rumpole33]

@kirstendirksen - he wouldnt need soil if he uses the tower gardens' seeding cube which comes as part of the tower garden kit.

"Seeds for the Tower Garden are started in a natural rock fiber seeding cube. Seeded cubes are placed in a covered bio-dome...The bio-dome is then opened and germinated seeds are placed outside in full sun for a week or two where they can develop into hardy seedlings ready for transplant into the Tower Garden."

[madmartee]

Looks like a good candidate for a No Reservations episode with Anthony Bourdain....if and when he does another NYC segment.

[1dutchgrl]

Awesome!

[pepperminttea42]

This is a lovely idea, but doesn't that mean the plants will have absorbed a lot of the city's pollution compared to organically grown plants on a conventional rural farm?

And incidentally, he needs to visit Europe. You'd be amazed what you can do with 100+ year old buildings. He talks about it as it's on the verge of collapsing.

[pahwraith]

@pepperminttea42

Not really, most pollutants are drawn from the soil by plants. Also, conventional organic farms can be infected by e.coli by infected organic fertilizer so it's not like they're 100% safe. But it's not like we don't need both urban and rural farms. Rural farms will remain, as always. But individuals will supplement them by growing their own food, in victory like gardens. Hydroponics and container gardens are the future of urban gardening.

[rumpole33]

@pepperminttea42 - it's not about the age of the bldg, but the strength of the structure, which is what i think he's worried about. in order to strengthen the roof's structure to hold enough soil to accommodate the amt of farming he's doing now, he'd have to invest more money to pay for the reconstruction of the roof to hold that much weight, create a new drainage system, & to make sure moisture doesnt seep thru the roof, etc.