As a soilless system, Aponic Aeroponic Farms mitigate all soil based pathogens, there are never any weeds to be sprayed off and the content of the nutrient can be adjusted to provide the optimum growing conditions for crops from anywhere in the world without having to steam sterilise soil, plough or harrow. The planting can be automated, as can the harvesting, this allows the food to be grown just yards away from where it is sold or consumed, saving millions of food miles too.
Being vertical, it saves space by turning your acreage into volume and is applicable for urban farming as well as rural applications. It can be sited on poor soil, contaminated land or concrete to make food production possible on cheap land unfit for anything else.
Farmers looking to utilise previously unusable land and buildings are able to grow low input, high value crops all year around with less labour costs and easily sourced, local workforce who are working in clean conditions, standing up.
Aeroponics is a disruptive technology that can completely transform UK, and global food production. Aeroponic production transfers water and nutrient to plants with a spray or mist environment around the roots removing the need for soil or large quantities of water. The technology has been used in small scale production capable of kilograms of supply since the 1980’s (NASA, 2006) but more recently largescale facilities built in the UK are capable of many tons of production per annum.
It has advantages over other systems in than it requires virtually no chemical control of pests and disease and there are no weeds present; it uses around 10% of the water of conventional production and far less energy, so much so that it can be run from solar power and a 12v supply.
The plant material requires minimal or no washing, thereby saving water use post-harvest and ensuring a safer crop. As a result, there is a significant reduction in the carbon footprint of production in line with the Government’s Decarbonisation Strategy (2021).
We are continuously improving the efficiency of these methods and making gains in the efficacy of this system and our mission is to continue to do so.