Tag Archives: hydroponics

Hydroponic system lets you sustainably grow plants in your space

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I am not much of a plant person, in a sense that I unintentionally kill all the plants that are left in my care. But I am also one of those who complain that there are no green things in my immediate line of vision and that it’s contributing to my concrete jungle problems. If there was a way for me to have plants and not have my black thumb affect them, I would probably jump on that. Some have recommended hydroponics to me but I still haven’t actually tried it. This concept for a cultivation system seems pretty interesting.

Designer: LFD

The main product of turf is an energy-harvesting hydroponic product where you can cultivate plants without the usual things that you need with regular plants. You can have it indoors which is good news for those who live in buildings that don’t have balconies (like me). It is able to harvest energy through a built-in sensor that is able to detect ambient noise and touch. So you basically “grow” your plant by touching it and talking to it, with the help of the energy harvesting system and the LED lights.

The packaging is also part of the whole sustainable system as it uses biodegradable styrofoam from mushroom mycelium. The packaging for the seeds that you will plant are also recyclable since it’s made from water-soluble paper so you just put it in water for it to dissolve. The packaging also uses soy ink printing techniques to complete the circular system of turf, from the plants to the packaging to the hydroponic product to the space called Turf Azit to house the entire symbiosis.

Now I’m not sure if I’ll still be able to make the plants live using the turf system but at least I don’t need the traditional tools to take care of plants. Having something naturally green in your space can do wonders for your mental health so I should probably get started on learning about hydroponics and maybe if turf eventually gets made, then I can enjoy having a hydroponic green thumb.

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2-in-1 hydroponics device and night light helps kids appreciate plants and nature

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It’s never too early to start teaching kids about the cycle of life and the joy of taking care of plants. I wish my mom or grandmother taught me that when I was a kid but unfortunately, they also both had “black thumbs” so we couldn’t really keep our garden alive. But now there are things like hydroponics and other devices and ways for kids to learn about plant care and understand plant life. These things can be incorporated into their education in order to cultivate a love for plants and life.

Designer: Mona Safari

Spacecrop is not just a device where you can take care of plants but it also serves as a fun nightlight for your kid (and you). The design is modeled after a spacecraft, like the ones we see that land on the moon or planets but the difference is that there are seeds and eventually plants inside. There are buckets inside where the seeds will be placed and this space is filled with the lightweight hydroponic substrate Rockwool cubes. These cubes will help the plants grow and the air stones on top of the buckets will bring oxygen to the roots, along with the air pump included in the system.

The device also has something installed in it that will project the night sky in the child’s (or adult’s) room. They can also choose to play sounds like sea, wind, forest, rain, and other nature atmospheric sounds when you’re sleeping, reading, or meditating. This way, even if you live in the city and don’t have access to natural environments, the kids can still develop an appreciation for nature. They get to take care of the plants in a low maintenance and also have fun with the device.

I actually feel that while Spacecrop was originally designed for kids, it’s something that adults would enjoy. I’ve been considering hydroponics lately as I want to have plants at home but as previously mentioned, I somehow don’t have that green thumb. So having a pretty uncomplicated device to help me grow plants and also have pretty night lights seem like a good one to have at home, even if I’m far from being a kid.

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Oasis lets you grow and store vegetables in your home, creating a beautiful indoor garden

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One of the things that helped people cope with the pandemic for the past couple of years is gardening or at the very least, taking care of green things. It has helped people to destress and take care of their mental health. But not all homes are built to have gardens, but that doesn’t mean you can’t run your own mini farm where you are. This concept for a hydroponic smart farm is something that can fit in whatever space you may be staying in.

Designer: Hyeona Cho

The Oasis is a smart farm that’s meant for home, and it can grow your vegetables and store them before you consume them. The design is inspired by both mountains and desert oasis, hence the name. Some of the items that were used to create a concept design for it include blenders, coffee makers, smart speakers, etc. What the designer came up with is something that looks like a mini-greenhouse with a transparent cover. It kind of reminds me of a bread container, except we get plants and vegetables inside.

The main feature of course, is the space where you take care of your plants. It’s hydroponic so there’s no need for a big space to raise whatever vegetable you’d want to raise on your own. But there’s also a part here called Fresh Keeper where you can store the vegetables once you’ve harvested them without needing to move them to the refrigerator. This means your veggies don’t lose nutrients and you can record the storage date and set the right temperature to keep them.

The Oasis has a touch display with icons that can be easily understood, like the on/off button, temperature, light source, etc. And since this is a smart farm, there’s an app that you can use to monitor your plants and your water levels. You get a notification in both the app and the display when there is not enough water in the tank. The app tells you when things are good or need adjustments, as well as the other stats that you need.

For someone that can’t seem to keep plants alive, maybe a hydroponic smart farm like this is the answer. It would be difficult to kill vegetables in something like this, right? Right?

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This DIY hydroponic pot repurposes a glass goblet to grow avocado in your living room

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A hydroponic system is far better at growing plants without the use of soil by using a mixture of water and nutrients. Even better it can be used to grow herbs, veggies, and plants with the minimum amount of maintenance. Ideal for modern homes and apartments – hydroponic farming brings the goodness of therapeutic wellness to our busy lives. While more extensive hydroponic systems are being offered for homes, industrial designer Lautaro Lucero has germinated the idea of something simpler. He has conceptualized the Palto Hydroponic Pot that reuses old glass goblets to grow avocado.

Lautaro accidentally broke the bottom half of his glass goblet, and his basic instinct was to make something out of it. The big volume and the beautiful color of the goblet intrigued him to awaken the designer inside him, and hence the Palto Hydroponic Pot was born. The beauty of this concept is its practicability – anyone at home can take the design cues from Lautaro’s blueprint and recycle their broken or old goblet into a hydroponic planter. The creation not only germinates avocado right in your living room but looks so aesthetically pleasing. The mesmerizing caustic effect of the light refracting, as you see the plant germinate.

The open mouth of the glass goblet ensures maximum airflow for proper growth while the bottom half supports the glass in place. The hydroponic pot is so well designed you instantly want to buy one right away. Since this project is still not in the production phase, and just a prototype one-off creation for now – the next best thing is to create one of your own as a nice weekend DIY project.

Designer: Lautaro Lucero of Uido Design Studio

This indoor horticulture gardening table uses aquaponics to grow plants and cutout’s to create a functional sculpture!

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Horticultural therapy is practiced in a variety of healthcare, rehabilitative, and residential settings throughout the world. The benefits that come of horticultural therapy range from improved mood, stronger memory, and cognitive skills, to reduced stress and enhanced sociability. Combining hydroponics with aquaculture, Lively Greens is a horticultural therapy table, designed by Yu-Chin Gao to help the elderly population engage with the mental health hurdles that come with dementia.

Lively Greens is essentially a horticultural therapy table that uses aquaponics, a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, to grow plant life. Lively Greens is comprised of a fish tank and a cluster of five pots for growing plants. As the fish in the tank swim and grow, the water turns rich in nutrients, which feeds the hydroponic plant system, allowing the plant life above to thrive and eventually be harvested. Those who help cultivate Lively Greens only have to do the initial planting and watch the fish take care of the rest. Once the plant life and soil have merged with the water in the fish tank, nutrients from the effluent-rich water, as a result of the presence of marine life, help nourish the plants and sustain a healthy growth cycle.

Yu-Chin Gao created Lively Greens to offer a means for horticultural therapy that took into account some problems the elderly population faces when taking care of plants, such as memory loss and limited socialization. Reaping the benefits of horticultural therapy without having to rely too heavily on a person’s cognitive skills for the system’s upkeep, Lively Greens merges aquaponics with horticulture. Without the added component of having to remember to water the plants, those with mental struggles in relation to memory loss and limited socialization can still enjoy the benefits of horticultural therapy.

Designer: Yu-Chin Gao

Lively Greens consists of five potted plants, a table, and an integrated fish tank.

The plants are positioned so that their bottoms soak in the nutrient-rich water.

Fish can enter and exit the centered negative-pressure water tank freely.

The focal point of Lively Greens is the water tank’s center bubble to keep users engaged and entertained.

Horticultural therapy improves mood, develops memory and cognitive skills, and enhances socalization.

Yu-Chin Gao noticed how cluttered horticultural therapy tables could become. Lively Greens aims to declutter horticultural therapy spaces.

Through multiple ideations, Yu-Chin Gao settled on Lively Greens’ final, card table-like form.

The table’s exposed cutout allows users to watch and understand the practice of aquaponics.

Potted plants soak in the fish tank’s water as the bacteria and fish provide nutrients for healthy growth cycles to take place.

As the fish grow and feed, and as bacteria gets introduced to the aquaculture system, the plants are fed with nutrient-rich water.

The curved structure of Lively Greens allows bulkier transportation devices like wheelchairs to fit right in.

This indoor vertical farm relies on hydroponics to grow crops anywhere during any season!

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Since 2013, the Green Concept Award has functioned as a platform for networking and been awarded to designers who have made globally sustainable and innovative products. The awards recognize products already on the market or in their conceptual stages that stand out for their design, innovation, and commitment to sustainability. Each year, the Green Concept Award jury members finalize a pre-selection list before awarding the winning product with the year’s title. One of the products on 2021’s pre-selection list is Farmhouse, a hydroponic vertical farm conceptualized by designers at Kingston University’s School of Art.

Hydroponic vertical farming is a form of farming that ditches the need for soil, substituting in different root-supporting materials like peat moss or Rockwool, allowing plants to grow in nutrient-rich water. The five-tiered Farmhouse is stocked with trays that contain all the materials necessary for optimal hydro-plant growth, like filtered, nutrient-infused water, oxygen, and root support.

Additionally, the vertical farm comes equipped with bright lights, either LEDs or HIDs, to replace the natural sunlight outdoors so that each plant can receive special lighting according to its own Daily Light Integral (DLI). Hydroponics is a sustainable farming practice for many reasons, but a significant one might be that by tending to a hydroponic farm, like Farmhouse, crops can be grown anywhere, during any time of the year.

The food we eat on a day-to-day basis travels about 1,500 miles before reaching our plate. While picking produce up at the supermarket seems simple, a lot of pollution takes place behind the scenes, all before hitting the shelves. Delivering produce to grocery stores across the globe requires lots of plastic packaging and plenty more fuel for transportation, increasing levels of microplastic and air pollution in the process. The designers behind Farmhouse aim to cut those unsustainable practices by designing a hydroponic farming solution that can be used in any home, during any season.

Designer: Kingston University (Kingston School of Art)

The five shelves of the Farmhouse contain all the necessary materials required for hydroponic farming.

Outfitted with shelves, Farmhouse grows crops using metal trays that guide the plant’s direction of growth.

A water system, filter, and root-support material all work together to help produce crops through hydroponics.

Without the convenience of natural sunlight, hydroponic farming relies on LEDs and HIDs to feed crops with light.

Thanks to a ribbed glass pane and warm color scheme, Farmhouse can fit into any room.

Coming in denim blue, moss green, rose pink, scarlet red, and blonde yellow – the Farmhouse also comes with a simple frame and intuitive build.

A raised top shelf feeds the plants inside the Farmhouse with plenty of airflow and oxygen.

This smart indoor garden uses hydroponics to grow vegetables while matching your modern home!

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With the pandemic leaving most of us to our own devices, some of us knew we had no choice but to get good at cooking. My spice cabinet is overflowing because of it. Getting more and more familiar with herbs and the punch they pack in flavorful dishes, the popularity of horticulture has also increased. More and more people are installing indoor garden systems into their homes because they provide an easy, accessible way to bring the flavor of fresh herbs to every dinner plate. Grobo Premium is one such indoor garden system that utilizes smart technology and hydroponics to harvest vegetables and herbs inside the comfort of your own home.

Since Grobo Premium is a smart garden system, the weight of having to learn about horticulture is lifted from the user’s shoulders. All that’s required for plant cultivation with Grobo is planting the initial seed and filling/draining the water as the days go by. Since hydroponics generally takes a more hands-free approach to gardening, the makers behind Grobo Premium chose it for their smart indoor garden system. Hydroponics is a type of horticulture that grows vegetables and herbs without soil, opting instead for mineral-rich solutions, oxygen, and water to cultivate plant life.

Once the user plants the initial seed, an eleven-liter water tank that rests at Grobo’s bottom feeds the seed with water while a nutrient-dosage unit balances out the pH levels to achieve optimal sprouting conditions. Inside Grobo’s main body, dual intake fans keep the amount of air balanced for the plants to then grow towards the eight LED lights that provide ample sunlight and energy. Through an accompanying app, Grobo allows you to track your plant’s progress so even when you’re away, you can always come back home to fresh herbs and vegetables for dinner.

Designer: Grobo

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This futuristic Alexa shaped planter that lets you grow plants without any soil!

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Hydroponics isn’t a new science. It’s basically the ability to foster plant growth without soil. You can use nutrient-rich water to grow plants anywhere… indoors, in deserts, on the International Space Station. However, it’s always been a slightly complex and apparatus-intensive practice that just isn’t a practical thing to do unless it’s absolutely necessary – like in a desert, or a space station… until now. A certain planter design’s been doing the waves at the moment, and it promises the ability to allow you to grow plants without getting your hands dirty with soil, compost, and potting mixes. The Terraplanter allows a wide variety of plants to vertically grow on its textured surface using just water. Its innovative design provides exactly the right conditions needed by plants to grow without soil, and its porous clay construction ensures that plants are never overwatered or underwatered.

The one-of-a-kind Terraplanter was developed by Eran Zarhi, an industrial designer and botanophile who wanted to make hydroponics easy and accessible. The Terraplanter comes in an inverted conical format, and stores water inside while the plant grows on the textured vertical walls of the outer surface. The Terraplanter, however, isn’t a single planter. It’s in fact, a cluster of 1,400 tiny planters that let you grow nearly hundreds of plants in/on the same pot, like a micro-farm… all thanks to the Terraplanter’s textured design. The reverse-knurled texture on the outside walls of the Terraplanter actually play a very important dual-purpose. Think of each one as a miniature planter. They hold the seeds during the germination phase, and act as textured walls for roots to latch onto when the plant has fully grown. These cells leech water from inside the planter, supplying them in precise quantities to the plant outside, so your plant always gets the exact right amount of water it needs. Not only does this mean you never have to worry about soil, aeration, or fertilization, you literally don’t need to worry about watering your plant either! Just fill the Terraplanter’s inner reservoir with enough water and the porous terracotta surface actually does the job of distributing water to each plant individually and effectively.

Growing plants on the Terraplanter is pretty easy too. Instead of worrying about trivial things like the right soil-type, or accurate seed-spacing, or even how deep the seed needs to be in the soil, the Terraplanter just requires you to make sure the seed, spore, or the plant is in contact with its outer wall. You could rub spores on its outer surface, place seeds in its textured cells, or even wrap an existing plant’s roots to it with a rubber band. Once the plant’s roots self-adhere to the Terraplanter’s parametrically textured outer wall, you’re set. All you need to do then is make sure the reservoir is always filled with water, and that it’s kept in a place where it gets enough light. The Terraplanter allows you to grow a variety of small plants, from ferns to orchids, begonias, climbers, carnivorous plants and moss. The planter can be reused multiple times too, simply by peeling the growing plant away and adding seeds to a new plant. You can easily use the Terraplanter to sprout edible seeds like chia or flax, or to use it as a ‘booster’ planter to help sprout your bigger plants before transferring them to a conventional planter with soil. The Terraplanter is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, and its revolutionary design has gathered it a whopping $5 million in crowdfunding from nearly 45,000 backers!

Designer: Eran Zarhi

Click Here to Buy Now: $59 $80 ($20 off). Hurry, only 5/15570 left! Raised over $5,000,000.

terraplanter – Visibly Follow the Journey From Seed to Plant

The terraplanter is a simple, clean, low-maintenance and hydroponic planter without the use of any soil or dirt.

Just fill the terraplanter with water and the plant will take only what it needs to visibly grow & flourish on the exterior surface of the planter.

terraplanter works as a water bank.

The structure of the material is solid, yet porous… Water is slowly diffused through it, and is held by the cells giving the plant time to drink and allowing you to water less often.

Roots have constant access to water and air.

No soil or dirt… only water.

Reusable and made from 100% natural materials

Research & Design

Combining the idea of hydroponics and the concept of porous material was the key. They created their proprietary ceramic material that has just the right amount of porosity and hygroscopic tendencies to allow water to diffuse through the material and allow the plant to grow on the surface of the material.

The team wanted to design a piece that was aesthetically beautiful but it also needed to serve a function; it needed to be a good home for plants. For this they needed to produce a complex shape for the surface of the terraplanter to meet the needs of the plants. It needed to:

– Hold seeds on the surface while they sprout.
– Hold water for plant roots to drink.
– Provide a shape and texture that would allow plant roots to grip the surface.

They used parametric design to create the shape they envisioned, and created several prototypes to test with seeds and plants. After testing they looked for ways to improve the product and refined the algorithm and design to get to the optimal solution for plants to thrive.

How the terraplanter Works

The terraplanter is a vessel that acts as a water bank. The water is held in the vessel and is slowly diffused through the material to the cells on the surface for the plant to drink.

Enjoying the Journey

The terraplanter has a very visible timeline as you can see the process of plant growth on the surface – from seeds sprouting to roots grasping and growing looking for water, leaves extending towards the light, and flowers blooming. The process itself is the reward.

How to Grow

1. Rub spores onto the surface.

2. Wrap a climbing plant around.

3. User rubber bands to mount plant roots.

4. Cover it with seeds of your choice.

Create your one-of-a-kind piece.

Click Here to Buy Now: $59 $80 ($20 off). Hurry, only 5/15570 left! Raised over $5,000,000.

How to grow a quarantine garden when you’re tight on space

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Throughout both World Wars, the US government encouraged its citizens to “sow the seeds of victory” and plant War Gardens to assist in the fighting effort. Everyday folks were expected to convert every idle plot of land they could muster -- from back...