Those rotating ferris wheels look fancy, but it really isn’t much different from regular greenhouse operations found in the Netherlands since decades. Maybe a bit more robotics involved, but the video isn’t so clear on that (the strawberry picking robot doesn’t look like a production ready version to me).
Of course many vertical farming efforts were and are equally stuck in traditional mass farming paradigms, but the real promise of vertical farming is IMHO small decentralized units in urban areas.
I’ve always wanted to create a low-tech version of this concept.
The problem (for me) is that many crops like lettuce can’t handle full strength summer sunlight. The normal solution is shade cloth, but I always feel like that’s just throwing away energy. I’d rather devise a method where rather than having 50% shade cloth over 1 square meter of plants, I somehow split that same amount of light over 2 square meters of plants.
Thats effectively what agrivoltaics do, with some energy taken up by solar panels, but I’d like to sort out a plant-only version that works on a small scale. You could have 2 grow beds stacked on top of each other, and use a one-way mirror and some other optics, but i don’t think there’s a low tech way to keep the sun tracked.
That is effectively what I do (with “bushes” meaning tall annuals for the most part). The problem there is the salad and bushes are in competition in the soil.
I suppose the smartest method would involve “alley cropping” with the shorter plants in planters.
Monoculture is a terrible idea, even in a robotic vertical farm with sterilization. Decentralization is key, but brexit tyrants like Dyson will never share their automation technology or research with the public. Open source sharing is the only way to bring the price down to the point it can be decentralized.
Also, his vertical farm would not be profitable without his biodigesting power plant that gets free high-quality fuel from his non-vertical farm empire.
Those rotating ferris wheels look fancy, but it really isn’t much different from regular greenhouse operations found in the Netherlands since decades. Maybe a bit more robotics involved, but the video isn’t so clear on that (the strawberry picking robot doesn’t look like a production ready version to me).
Of course many vertical farming efforts were and are equally stuck in traditional mass farming paradigms, but the real promise of vertical farming is IMHO small decentralized units in urban areas.
I’ve always wanted to create a low-tech version of this concept.
The problem (for me) is that many crops like lettuce can’t handle full strength summer sunlight. The normal solution is shade cloth, but I always feel like that’s just throwing away energy. I’d rather devise a method where rather than having 50% shade cloth over 1 square meter of plants, I somehow split that same amount of light over 2 square meters of plants.
Thats effectively what agrivoltaics do, with some energy taken up by solar panels, but I’d like to sort out a plant-only version that works on a small scale. You could have 2 grow beds stacked on top of each other, and use a one-way mirror and some other optics, but i don’t think there’s a low tech way to keep the sun tracked.
Or you grow salad under bushes.
That is effectively what I do (with “bushes” meaning tall annuals for the most part). The problem there is the salad and bushes are in competition in the soil.
I suppose the smartest method would involve “alley cropping” with the shorter plants in planters.
Monoculture is a terrible idea, even in a robotic vertical farm with sterilization. Decentralization is key, but brexit tyrants like Dyson will never share their automation technology or research with the public. Open source sharing is the only way to bring the price down to the point it can be decentralized.
Also, his vertical farm would not be profitable without his biodigesting power plant that gets free high-quality fuel from his non-vertical farm empire.