Hydroponics is a growing industry that has many gardeners and urban folk excited. There are new ideas daily and the advances such as the Japanese garden show just a portion of the benefit these indoor grow systems can offer. There was a recent development where a rotary hydroponic wheel originally intended to offer fresh vegetables to astronauts in space was refitted to work on earth. Our hydroponics supplies store wants to talk about the benefits of this new technology and its potential to change the current methods of hydroponics.

The rotating hydroponic setup looks something like a Ferris wheel with plants inside and a light in the center of the wheel. The idea is that the stress from going upside down causes the plants to stay short and compact for an increased nutrient intake resulting in a higher overall yield. This particular method is great for the cutting strategy.

One large benefit of this system is that it grows the yield of a 1500 square foot garden in a 150 square foot of space. That said the LED that sits in the center of this setup only “sips” electricity making it far more efficient. There is a claim that the Carousel will yield 3 to 5 times the weight of plant per watt of electricity used. If this is accurate then this system might even beat out the cost of growing naturally outdoors.

Indoor grow systems may never be the same again. Omega Garden’s claims that their product has many advantages over current Michigan hydroponic setups. They have provided a case study or three to support the claim. They state that while growing outside uses zero electricity, using the wheel reduces the fossil fuel input drastically. The area needed to traverse to gather the yield is much smaller. They also say that the system reduces water consumption by 99% and eliminates runoff. That said they claim that a phenomenon called Orbitropism. This is where the plants actually yield more due to being rotated upside down constantly. This allows a hormone called auxins to be evenly distributed throughout the plant instead of being in one spot. This strengthens the plant as a whole and allows it to bear much more weight and thus produce more flowers, fruit, or whatever it is that you are growing.

This entire concept has many skeptical, yet it might just be the answer. We have the basics for the process already but all that is left is to test, theorize, and prove new idea’s to make the process even better. Can you imagine this project allowing extreme urban cultures to grow fresh vegetables where they would otherwise have none? People in an apartment with very little space would be able to have their own garden within their home that didn’t take up a ridiculous amount of space and did not impact the electricity bill very much. Seems like a great idea no? This could be the future of our agriculture so keep an eye on it and watch for more updates.