PUSLINCH – Tight on space to garden? Wishing you could garden year-round?
If only you could grow plants out of thin air.
Dan Atkinson insists you can. His Puslinch-based company, Eden Aeroponics, sells units that allow the average person to grow food inside their home.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a mansion, an apartment or something in between. And it doesn’t even matter if you have a sunny window.
If you have a two-foot by two-foot space, you can grow enough lettuce to feed a family of four for a year, Atkinson said.
“I’ve grown inside since 2017,” Atkinson said in an interview. “People don’t believe it can be good. But it’s very good.
“Plants grow faster, food has more nutrients, and it can save you money at the grocery store.”
Atkinson said plants don’t really need soil to grow in – what they need is water and nutrients.
“Soil is only there to hold your plant up,” he said.
When plants grow in soil, the roots are searching for water, and they take their nutrients from whatever has leached into the water.
That’s why it’s hard to grow in compacted soil, where water has a hard time infiltrating the soil.
With hydroponics, plants are grown in water, not soil.
Aeroponics is a subset of hydroponics and in this case, not only is there no soil, but plants are not grown in water either. Instead, roots are misted with water that’s been infused with nutrients.
“Because they are not fighting for space or fighting against insects, they grow faster,” Atkinson said.
This kind of growing avoids things like root rot that can take out a plant that’s in the ground.
Atkinson sells two units for indoor vertical aeroponic gardening – the Eden and the Eboo.
The Eboo is made from bamboo and comes with full spectrum LED lighting, water soluble fertilizer and seeds, and an operating manual. The Eden is made from Acacia wood and comes with the same lighting, fertilizer and seeds.
The base is two-feet-square and stands about four feet tall. It can be tucked in a corner or take a position of prominence in your home.
They cost $800 to $900 but Atkinson said gardeners will recover the cost in about eight months by growing their own food.
After that, with hydro and water, it costs about $3.40 per month to run the equipment.
The best plants to grow this way are leafy greens, herbs and strawberries, although Atkinson said he’s experimenting with melons in his own unit.
Plants that rely on pollinators will have to be pollinated by hand, but that’s a simple task, he said, involving no more than tapping the plant to release its pollen.
Atkinson said nothing compares to the flavour of food fresh from the vine and with aeroponic gardening, the food you eat is healthier, less expensive and readily available.
“The kale – it’s so tender you won’t believe it’s kale,” he said.
For more information about aeroponic gardening or the Eboo and Eden, email Atkinson at dan@edenaeroponic.com or dan@gr365n.com.
