Vertical farming at home, also known as vertical gardening or vertical agriculture, is a revolutionary method of cultivating crops in a stacked, multi-tiered structure. It elevates the traditional gardening experience, allowing you to grow an abundance of vegetables, herbs, and even certain fruits, all within the confines of your living space.
What Is Vertical Farming at Home?
The term appears to be gaining popularity and attention in the media recently. So, what is it exactly? Vertical farming (urban or indoor) cultivates plants (typically food) in vertical layers. The entire manufacturing process may potentially be done indoors, under controlled conditions (i.e. indoors and vertical).
This allows growers to increase the amount of food produced per square foot of land, lowering the cost of fresh produce for consumers. Because most products may be sold within walking distance of where it was grown, vertical farms help reduce the energy necessary for transportation and refrigeration.
Advantages and disadvantages
Ten reasons why vertical farming is the best.
Compared to regular agriculture, it has numerous advantages:
- Vertical farms use less land than typical farms. This means less habitat degradation and deforestation.
- Food transportation expenses and carbon emissions from long-distance food shipments are reduced.
- Because no insects can thrive indoors, it reduces the need for insecticides.
- Produces fresh, nutritious, and chemical-free local organic food.
- Reduces the risk of infections, including salmonella and E. coli contamination.
- Vertical farming is a sustainable way to grow food.
- It’s environmentally friendly.
- Vertical farming uses 90% less water than conventional agriculture and produces more food in the same space as traditional farming.
- You can grow all year, even when other farmers are inactive in the winter.
- You can produce multiple crops at the same time.
Vertical farming at home
Vertical farming is an alternative to getting more produce from your tiny space. Growing your food is one of the most effective ways to ensure a healthy diet for you and your family. However, in a city, finding space for a garden cannot be easy. You might not have access to an outside area or wish to grow food without worrying about pests.
Hanging planters, vertical planters, and hydroponic systems are all examples of vertical gardens accessible today. There’s no excuse not to give it a shot with so many possibilities!
Types of vertical farms
Vertical farming can take numerous forms, but they all have one thing in common: they all involve growing food indoors.
The following are some of the most common vertical farming techniques:
Aquaponic Vertical Farming
Aquaponics is becoming increasingly popular in agriculture. It provides a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional farming by allowing farmers to grow crops without the use of soil or sunshine.
Vertical aquaponic farming provides the same benefits as standard aquaponics but at a higher efficiency.
Hydroponic Vertical Farming
Vertical hydroponic farming is not a brand-new concept. Although the technology has existed for hundreds of years, it was recently made commercially available. Most commercial hydroponics enterprises were once small-scale operations conducted by hobbyists or backyard gardeners who sought to produce their food without using soil as a base.
The fundamental advantage of hydroponics is its capacity to grow vast quantities of crops in a little amount of area. The disadvantage is that, because they are cultivated indoors, they require artificial lighting and temperature controls to mimic sunshine and seasons. Recent developments in LED have modified this problem by growing lights and climate control systems.
Homestead
Crops are grown on a small scale in urban locations such as backyards, rooftops, and balconies in vertical farming. Homesteads use space at home to give low-cost fresh vegetables to their families.
Most profitable crops for vertical farming
Which crops are best for vertical farming?
Vegetables like lettuce, carrots, radish, turnip roots, pepper, and tomatoes are ideal for vertical gardening.
The most prevalent crops grown on vertical farms are vegetables. These plants are simple to cultivate and harvest rapidly. On a vertical farm, vegetables require little room to grow and may be piled on top of one another. Farmers will be able to cultivate more veggies in less space.
Modern methods of growing crops
Wheat, rice, corn, soybeans, and cotton are the main crops produced by modern agriculture. Cereal grains or cereals are what they’re called. Potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and bananas are among the other crops grown.
Irrigation systems to hydrate the plants, artificial fertilizers to supply nutrients to the soil, and pesticides to eliminate undesired weeds and insects that might destroy crops are the major ways modern agriculture uses to cultivate these crops.
Crop production has improved with the development of modern agricultural technologies.
Tractors and other heavy machinery have also enhanced agricultural output by allowing farmers to cultivate their land more efficiently without relying only on physical labor. Tractors can drag plows or other equipment across fields faster than people can, allowing more area to be tilled in less time than ever.
Also Read: Best vegetables to grow for beginners
Final thoughts on vertical farming technology
Vertical farms can be built closer to where most people live, lowering transportation costs and carbon emissions associated with transporting food over vast distances by truck or plane. Furthermore, in Iceland, most vertical farms are powered by renewable energy sources like solar, wind power, or geothermal energy! Fewer fossil fuels are utilized in food transportation.
As our population rises, food shortages will likely become more prevalent, and climate change will likely make it more difficult for farmers to cultivate crops where they are today. Vertical farming can help fulfill rising demand by allowing more individuals to grow food near consumers who desire organic products without using valuable acreage or emitting greenhouse emissions from transit.
