In my last post I talked about how I got my Ph, water, and nutrient levels just right. Now it is time to transplant my sprouts into their new habitat, my Foody 12.
As always, the first thing we had to do was read the directions.
They’re actually pretty simple steps. First, check to see if the roots are coming out the bottom of the plugs.
The roots don’t need to be too far out the bottom. Just a bit, and they will find their way through the holes in the plant pockets. Next we place the hole plug in the plant pocket, and then put the hydrotonplant!t clay pebbles around the young plants.
For the plants on the bottom of the tower, above the reservoir, there is one extra step. We take a piece of the rope that is included with the tower, feed it through the cups, and cut it in half.
Rocky lost interest in what we were doing.
These ropes soak up the water and give the roots something to grab onto as they grow their way down to the reservoir. Then we just repeat the process of putting the hydroton around the plants until the tower is full.
We got Rocky’s attention when he saw the plants.Rocky is getting hungry.And there you have it, the plants are in their new home!
Today’s blog post will cover how to get your plants up and growing. To help get my sprouts started, I used these Rapid Rooter plugs.
The first thing I had to do was decide what to seeds to plant. I settled on tomatoes, peppers, and flowers for my girlfriend Katie.
I also selected romaine, lettuce blend, and Italian large leaf basil for my hungry sulcata tortoise, Rocky.
Using the Rapid Rooter plugs is super easy. All you do is put about 2 seeds about 1/4 inch deep in the premade hole. Then you pinch the hole closed, and add about 2 cups water to the bottom of tray.
Then soon enough I had my very first sprouts. Every 2-3 days I added more water, making sure the cubes stayed moist but not drenched. Once the sprouts’ roots are poking through the bottom of the plug, they are ready to be transplanted into the Foody tower. I’ll post about getting the nutrient and ph levels right next! If you missed the post on setting up my Foody, click this link.
Today’s rad and inspirational person is my buddy Garrett P.
Garrett earned this accolade for his recent mitzvah, helping me set up my brand new Foody 12. The Foody 12 is a hydroponic growing tower made by Foody Vertical Gardens. In these towers you can grow roughly 40 plants. You can grow tomatoes, peppers, kale, herbs, and more. Step one to growing these greens is assembling the tower.
Initially Garrett and I were a bit intimidated by all the parts that came with the Foody, but the directions were really helpful and we had the ball rolling in no time. The first thing we did was set up the pump and put it in the base reservoir of the tower.
One really cool feature of the Foody is that the tower rotates giving every plant an equal opportunity for precious light. The mechanism for this is that the tower sits on a ring of ball bearings.
Of course there is one more piece on top of the bearings, a gear that locks into an (optional) automatic pump that slowly rotates the tower.
The next step was to figure out how to get the plumbing worked out. Here is Garrett diligently reading the directions.
The plumbing actually turned out to be really simple. The pipes have wedged stoppers attached – all you have to do is push the stoppers into pre-fashioned holes in the tower trumpets.
Once you have all the pipes set up, you simply snap the growing pockets onto the trumpets.
Then stacking them up with the rubber hose through the pipes is easy as 1,2,3.
Lastly you pop a lid on the hose and another lid on top of the tower – then you’re done! All in all, a very easy assembly process. The directions actually made sense unlike the all too common product assembly nightmare we’ve all experienced at least once in our lives.
And there you have it, a fully assembled Foody 12.
The only thing stopping this tower from being a habitat for roughly 40 plants is that I haven’t set up the hydroton (growing medium) and that I haven’t planted my seeds yet. You’ll have to check back in a few weeks for an update on the actual growing!
The rad person highlighted in today’s post is a man I actually got to meet, the CEO of Foody Vertical Gardens, Greg Hendrick.
I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Greg through The Association for Vertical Farming. You might be wondering, why would the AVF introduce Greg to an industry outsider like Andrew?
It all started last month when I reached out to the AVF with a nice letter. Their Director of Engagement, Zjef Van Acker, a super great guy to have a conversation with, liked what I had to say and invited me to Skype. We had a nice call and at the conclusion, Zjef was willing to invite me to contribute to AVF’s October newsletter.
Now that the newsletter and interview are complete, here are my reflections on my first month of volunteering:
For the first time in my life, I felt like I was actually using my talents in some small way to service the 7 billion hungry people on our crazy planet. I felt like I was taking responsibility for myself, and my footprint. This is just the beginning, I know I can do more. We all can.
My grandma has a saying, “From your lips to God’s ear.” It means if you have a dream, you have to say it out loud. You have to live your dream with your mind, body, and life force. My dream is to follow in the footsteps of a man like Greg Hendrick. My dream is to do something meaningful in the world of vertical farming.
If you would like to read my discussion with Greg, the interview has been posted here on Agritecture.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for your support, love, and encouragement as I attempt to grow into this new dream.
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