The recently completed greenhouse at the College of Southern Idaho is the most modern educational facility in the state of Idaho. It grows plants using hydroponics and aeroponics, soil less systems that grow the plants faster than in soil.

A tenth of an acre of vertical growing pots equals to several acres of in soil traditional farming. Photo credit: The St. Augustine Record

Along State Road 207 near the St. Johns County Fairgrounds, rows of white stacked pots cause drivers to slow down and take a second glance.
Since a “U-Pick-Em” sign went up, some of those drivers have been turning in to the Riverside Farms property.
As it turns out, those pots are part of a type of hydroponic system for growing vegetables and fruits and a way for people to have fresh local produce. Rather than horizontal rows of plants, this operation is vertical.
Ronnie Griffin, who manages the operation, thinks you’re looking at the new way of farming.
“I believe this is the farming of the future,” said Griffin, who grew up in the Elkton area and has been farming “all” his life.

Click to read the rest of the Vertical Hydroponics In Florida story.

Aeroponics is a cutting-edge type of hydroponic technology that grows plants in a mist. The aeroponic mist most efficiently provides roots with the nutrients, hydration and oxygen needed. Graphic credit: AeroFarms

Aaron Munzer writes in The Ithaca Journal,

Ed Harwood wants to seed the cities of the future with thousands of indoor farms utilizing his new growing systems, based on the technology of aeroponics, which sprays a mist of nutrient-laden water on plant roots, instead of submerging them in water-like standard hydroponics.
Harwood’s company AeroFarms has engineered stackable, modular hydroponic systems that can be implemented into vacant buildings and vertical structures as a way to make urban areas more food independent, he said.
“In order to feed a lot of people, without transporting the food, this is the graduation that will happen for urban agriculture,” Harwood said.
His seedling company just got some fertilizer last month, when he received $500,000 in financing from The Quercus Trust of Newport Beach, Calif. and co-investor 21Ventures LLC, a New York-based venture capital firm.

Click to read the rest of the AeroFarms—Crops Without Soil story.

Students transplant small seedlings in the school's greenhouse during a meeting of the Germinators Club. Photo credit: Philip Kamrass/Times Union

Some students at Sand Creek Middle School (near Albany, NY) want their classmates to eat their vegetables.
That’s because the lettuce, tomatoes and carrots are their vegetables, grown by the school’s Germinators’ Club. For the first time this year, the club’s produce will be added to the sandwiches and salads in the cafeteria.
Greg Shafer, a seventh-grader and one of the club’s leaders, hopes students will learn that freshly grown vegetables usually taste better than ones from the supermarket.
“I feel very proud about how we grow all this stuff, and I hope everybody would like it,” he said. “People could experience different foods we grow.”

Click to read the rest of the Students Grow Veggies For School Cafeteria story.

Paul Okean of Palm Beach is one of the owners of Harvest Time Market in Lake Worth. Photo credit: Meghan McCarthy/Palm Beach Daily News

Roberta Sabban writes in the Palm Beach Daily News,

Palm Beach is the jewel in the crown of the largest of Florida’s 67 counties. Outside the urban areas in Palm Beach County, there are 468,000 acres of commercial agriculture. This represents 38 percent of the county’s land mass.
There are about 40 vegetable growers who, during the 2008-09 growing season, produced crops valued at $262 million wholesale. But no major growers operated a retail produce store until recently.
It started with Palm Beach resident Paul Okean, owner of Morning Star Nursery. He grew plants on two tracts of land in the county, one on 50 acres in Delray Beach and the other a 32-acre parcel at Hypoluxo Road and Military Trail.
With a client list that included Home Depot, Walmart and the wholesale landscaping trade, Okean had run a successful business.
Okean fell into the plant business by accident. Born in Hollywood, Calif., he graduated from Hollywood High School, and eventually moved to South Beach.

Click to read the rest of the Harvest Time Fills Niche With Produce Store, Hydroponic You-Pick Venture story

Photo credit: Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Soil’s popularity is eroding as hydroponic gardening blossoms among students.
Casa Grande Union High School’s agriculture program is embracing a modern technique of agriculture. Hydroponic gardening is the process of growing vegetation without the use of soil.
Instead, plants develop in one of four hydro methods. Steven Sipes’ students are growing lettuce and tomatoes through two of these techniques.
Lettuce is being produced through nutrient flow technology.
Tomatoes are raised using a drip system. Once the plants are big enough, they are moved into a bag filled with perlite, which is a basic growing medium.
The plants are on a timed drip and fed water four to six times a day.
In both cases, the plants are more likely to be healthy because the risk of soil-borne diseases is eliminated. Also, the hydroponic method uses less water, so the process is more efficient.

Click to read the rest of the Students Learn To Grow Without Soil story.

Dave Howe is growing tomatoes and strawberries in a homemade hydroponic garden at his home in Blue Springs, Kansas. The plants grow in plastic cups resting in a system of PVC pipes. Photo credit: Keith Myers/KansasCity.com

It’s spring in Dave Howe’s basement. Or maybe early summer.
He has already harvested a crop of romaine and buttercrunch lettuce, and his tomato plants are green, leafy and flowering. He recently started some strawberries.
Howe’s oasis at his home in Blue Springs, all the more notable during this winter’s harsh grip, grew from efforts he began in Florida as he was assisting his elderly parents there.
He got interested in hydroponics, systems that use circulating water with added nutrients rather than soil to grow plants, and then aquaponics, which throws fish into the mix. In aquaponics, fish waste is the fertilizer.
Howe did his research and started building, eventually creating an aquaponics system with 35 goldfish, big ones.

Click to read the rest of the Basement Hydroponics System Sprouts A Winter Garden story.

Floating garden made with water hyacinth. Photo credit: Aquaculture News

Rising environmental concerns and growing demand for different uses of production inputs set new challenges for aquaculture development. Increased productivity with reduced ecological impact, integration between production systems and reduced use of chemicals are just some of the leading principles that more sustainable fish production needs to follow.
In developed countries concerns about pollution issues have raised interest in aquaponics as a valid option to get rid of aquaculture wastes through the production of high value vegetables (Rakocy et al, 2006; Diver, 2006). However in developing countries this technology, run mainly in recirculation systems, is not often applicable to local aquaculture systems.
In Southeast Asia freshwater fish production is mostly carried out in ponds where constant fertilisation occurs to sustain phytoplankton and zooplankton growth. The presence of green algae and micro organisms helps maintain adequate oxygen levels and to sustain in-pond feed availability. However, if on one hand green algae help in enriching pond water on the other hand they prevent plant nutrient build up.

Click to read the rest of the Pond Aquaponics: New Pathways To Sustainable Integrated Aquaculture And Agriculture story.

Window Farms are vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield, edible window gardens built in a do it yourself style, using low-impact or recycled local materials. Photo credit: windowfarms.org

The ongoing buzz in various academia circles (architecture, design, landscape and agriculture) is all about vertical urban farms in and on the sides of urban buildings and skyscrapers.
But some creative folks are taking those large scale, high technological concepts, designing and dumbing them down into smaller scale systems and then building systems that can hang in large windows of New York City apartments growing food. Click for a PDF file of a do it yourself build of a window farm HERE and watch the video below…

Darzay Starling adds water to one of Calhoun Area Career Center's hydroponic gardens. Photo credit: Chad Ruhl/Battle Creek Enquirer)

Annie Martin writes in the Battle Creek Enquirer,

In the middle of the greenhouse, there’s a long bin of plants about 6 feet tall, with lush green foliage and bright red peppers the size of a fist.
Sue Smith puts her hand at mid-thigh to show the height of a typical soil-grown bell pepper. In this greenhouse, liquid nutrients replace soil, resulting in food that is more nutritious and has a longer shelf life.
Smith teaches environmental science at the Calhoun Area Career Center, which is home to a computer-controlled greenhouse. The shelter anticipates changes in exterior light and temperature and automatically adjusts conditions inside. Though the greenhouse is already environmentally sound with zero chemical runoff, Smith currently is writing a grant so the school can have a windmill to power the structure.
Inside the greenhouse, students grow hydroponic plants, which now include watermelon and Asian greens like bok choy. The crops depend on nutrient solutions rather than soil for vitality.
“It’s like giving a plant an I.V.,” Smith said. “It’s giving it exactly what it needs.”

Click to read the rest of the Students Cultivate Hydroponic Produce story.