How to build a low-tech hydroponics system?
Building a low-tech hydroponics system is easy. All you need is a set of Growtubes, a grow light, and a water pump.
This type of hydroponics divides by ten the quantity of water needed to grow vegetables. It doesn’t require any pesticides or chemicals and you can be very productive in a very small surface. That’s the reason why some people started to use this technique in arid places on urban areas. We have been on the rooftops of Singapore to meet Darren and learn how to do. At Low-tech Lab we travel the world to find the best low-tech.
Inventions that are useful, sustainable, and accesible to all. We are having a hydroponics farm on top of a rooftop. This rooftop happens to be on top of a commercial shopping area here in Singapore and what we are doing is we are actually having a farm that’s growing vegetables for the community. Singapore is a very unique country we import about 90% of the food which means that our local farmers only produce about 10% of the food. So this means that most of our food is brought from overseas and this has a significant impact on our food security as well as the carbon footprint because of all the food has traveled So by having farms close to people this means that we can cut down on the distance that food needs to travel before it reaches the consumers.
On top of that, consumers also get to have fresher vegetables and definitely healthier vegetables. How much a rooftop like that produce? Well, we are on a very small sort of rooftop. We have about 3,000 square feet and within this 3,000 square feet of land we can grow about 12,000 vegetables at any one time. So as rooftop farm we believe that we are an integral part of the community and this means that on top of just providing food for the community we also make sure that we provide labor to the community So we look towards the people that are living around us for the manpower we work with people with disabilities we try and hire retirees and we try and make ourselves as inclusive of a work environment as possible so that everybody can now work on a farm and contribute meaningfully to the produce that is then sold to the community I hope that wherever we see a empty rooftop we can see how we can be converted into something meaningful for the community I’ll show you how to build a low tech hydroponics system.
Actually this is like a small ecosystem. You mix organic waste into this water this is a biofilter where bacterias transform those organic waste into nutrients This water is pumped up to feed the plants and it goes down through this filter back into the biofilter It’s very well adapted for leafy vegetables I prefer those you can plant directly like morning glory or mint or basil or spinach or sweet potato leaves. Just remove the lowest leaves and plant it. To feed the plants you have to add some organic waste. For example compost juice.
I like growing my own vegetables because when you eat it so fresh it keeps all its vitamins. In 2050 will be 9 billion people in the world. 80% living in urban areas. Growing highly nutritious organic food in such a small surface looks like a good idea you.
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