This apartment high-rise concept won a sustainable housing award recently in China. It integrates a vertical greenhouse into the high-rise. Designed by Knafo Klimor Architects, the “agro-housing” concept allows the residents to produce their own food, reducing commuting needs and providing a green neighbourhood. The greenhouse is a multi-floor structure for cultivation of crops such as vegetables, fruits, flowers and spices, equipped with a drip irrigation system that re-uses grey water. (more…)

SmartGardens are specially designed gardens that automatically water and feed plants without the need for pumps, timers and nutrient monitoring. They incorporate a watering system called a SmartValve, which enables the plants to be gravity fed, instead of through a pump. This means there is no need for a reservoir below the garden to capture runoff. There are some more details here. SmartGardens can be placed on the ground, on racks or even on shelves.

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LED grow lights are a good choice if you are interested in growing indoors without a lot of hassle. Traditional grow lights generate a lot of heat and use large amounts of electricity, which raises your monthly electric bill by noticeable amounts. These LED grow lights stay cool, and use only a minuscule amount of energy.

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Apparently red LEDs are 60% more efficient than fluorescent light when growing vegetables hydroponically.

According to IEEE Spectrum Online: Of all the colors of the rainbow, red is lettuce’s favorite. Chlorophyll, the electrochemical engine of photosynthesis, runs on red photons. So if you are growing the vegetable indoors in a factory, why waste energy on colors you don’t need?

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We don’t usually feature products that are prototypes or not yet on the market, but this aeroponics system looks quite intriguing. It is due to be released in the next month of so, and it is aimed to take aeroponics to the mass consumer market.

Aeroponics is similar to hydroponics, but the roots of the plants are exposed to the air and a nutrient solution is sprayed on to the roots.

The Aerogrow System is designed to be a “plug-and-play” system for growing. It uses a humidifying chamber regulated by electronics. The details of the technology are here.

We are curious to know if the system will live up to it claims.

The basic model is priced at $99.

Home Page: AeroGrow