Creating a vertical farm (any feedback, advice, ideas, criticism is very welcome)

Hi everyone,

we are designing a automated indoor vertical farm for leafy greens specifically targeted for areas where ether the environment is harsh or the water is scarce (parts of Africa, India, country inside the Polar circle...).

Our idea is a modular system where each tray/rack bay is in the dimensions of 1500 x 3000 mm (5 x 10 feet), and the system can consist of more than 2000 of these modules (the size of the modules is still up for debate - at the moment this is what the selected LED light configuration can effectively cover but we can change the configuration if the aeroponic system would benefit from it).

To ensure our water source is consistent we plan to use a pre-filter, sand filter and reverse osmosis, we would love to also recycle the used water. We are aware there are multiple forum posts describing why recycling the water is "not advised", having said that if there are any ideas how to achieve this, we are willing to experiment (example: ultraviolet disinfection, heating the recycled water, ...?).

To minimize water consumption, we are of going with aeroponics, but we are still deciding between hydro and air atomization (leaning towards the latter).

What we have gathered so far (about aeroponcis):

• hydro atomization would be the cheaper option (based on the number of nozzles needed and cost of each nozzle),
• air atomization would give us more control by lowering the number of components, reduces the nozzle clogging possibility and lowers the operating pressure (compared to hydro), but there are fewer people we can talk to about it,
• we need a fog of 5-50 microns,
• the fog must be dispersed into the air (not on the roots),
• the roots must not touch the bottom of the tray,
• we must make sure to leave enough time in-between sprays to not "drown" the roots,
• the spray and pause cycle will vary based on the plant life stage,
• we should control the temperature around the roots,
• we need to closely control the water acidity (5.5 to 6.5 pH).

We are also considering securing some air flow over the plants (to get O2 away from the leaves and make sure the plants "get some exercise") and simultaneously adding CO2.

At the moment we are planning on making a smaller setup with four modules to test out everything since we are completely new to indoor farming (as soon as we get a parts list together).

Thank you in advance, JP

@Jimdamick well played

https://www.montel.com/en/applications/vertical-grow-shelving-for-leafy-greens-or-microgreens

https://brightersideverticalfarms.com/vertical-rack/

@rkymtnman thank you for the two references, I have not seen these two but there are many others (I can not post links since I am new here, but put this into google):

"innovatus inc"
"aerofarms"
"boweryfarming"

The list goes on and on, we are under no illusion that we are the first. But we are looking to automate the complete process for the toughest climate using the least amount of water, by automate I mean you put seeds into the system and collect packaged produce (of course there are some other requirements for a system like this to function, which are done by trained personnel like: topping off the different nutrient solutions, making sure that there is enough rock wool for the batch, replacing filters, maintenance... but that is something we have covered on our end).

i'm sure there are automated versions of this already in place. i would imagine the netherlands , sweden and japan would already be doing this for years now. i know philips has images of these setups on their website. ABB and Siemens are huge in Europe for automation.

i'm hardly an expert but i would think floating trays on a shallow water culture setup would be much cheaper and much more reliable vs. aeroponics on such a large scale.

good luck on your quest!

@rkymtnman you are correct there are already working farms with a high level of automation using NFT and DW, and yes these methods reduce the initial investment. Now I think that aeroponics especially air atomized aeroponics can be as reliable or even surpass any other system (using drain to waste) but this is something that @Atomizer is the authority at and I am hoping he joins in.

We are unaware of any other system like ours and even if there is it does not affect us (unless there is a system like this and they would like to show it to us, then it affects us greatly ). As you can see from me posting on this forum, we are trying to be transparent and wish to spred the knowledge (it is my hope that we find a suitable solution and parts for it together, after this we will report on our findings, first with the prototype system and later with the real one).

yep, i'd say Atomizer or @dstroy are the best sources for aero help.

i'd love to see some pics when you guys get soemthing built. sounds pretty cool.

A small update, we have decided to go with air atomization and pressure fed water.

Some things we would like to hear your thoughts on:

Internal vs external mixing nozzles:

• internal mixing nozzles seem to make best use the water and air pressure,
• internal mixing nozzles have (in theory) a higher chance of clogging (tho we could counter this by flushing the system with hydrogen peroxide and isopropyl alcohol - when the plants are not present).

Hollow cone vs flat fan nozzle spray patterns:

• since we do not wish to spray the roots directly (is this correct?) it seems to me that a flat fan spray would be best (less space required under the roots).
• there are claims that the hollow cone nozzles are the best and least likely to clog, but I can not find any tests or proof. If anyone can provide first hand experience, this would be greatly appreciated.

Is controlling the root area temperature enough or should we (closely) control the temperature around the plants as well (there will be no extreme temperatures, the whole "farm" will be air conditioned - to extend the life of components and provide a safe working area for people)

• We are thinking of creating two pressurized tanks for water and air (one with warm and one with cold water/air) and using them to control the root area temperature.

Does anyone have any experience with "pH Perfect®" since they make some pretty amazing claims (tho I am concerned with what happens after one week...).

In the attachment you can see sort of what we are thinking off.