The first system for fully automated hydroponics
There are no excuses for not growing fresh produce at home, or for lack of space to install a domestic urban garden, or lack of experience or time to care for crops. To do this, a Spanish startup has created Niwa, a hydroponic cultivation system that transports high-tech greenhouse to an automated domestic installation of very small dimensions.
"Put the world to cultivate". It is the motto of this company and, with your idea, it seems that you can get it. And they have shaped the first system for fully automated hydroponics, connected and managed through a mobile phone. "Anyone, even without knowledge of gardening, can cultivate as an experienced farmer".
This is so because all you will have to do who has one of these equipment and install it in your home will be to plant the product you want to grow and report it to the mobile phone application that accompanies this system. With that, a specific program for that type of plant will be automatically loaded. Then, the team will activate the lighting, the irrigation sequence and the appropriate conditions for each species and, also, for the growth phase through which it crosses.
Take care to water, nourish crops or make sure they have enough light, will be things of the past for those who bet on these systems. "You will never have to worry about the state of your garden", says the startup. Never, except to respond to the application, since according to the cultivated products that are growing, could ask some data to the owner to see if he has to adjust its parameters.
Niwa, uses sensors and other equipment with which it manages to simulate the real environmental conditions, it is initially offered in three versions and although the idea of the creators is not only to increase the possibilities in terms of size, but to incorporate its technology to shelves, tables or cooking islands.
The available models are fully designed to fit the needs and trends of urban life and to be able to be installed in any corner of a house. Thus, the Niwa Owe Mini has a maximum of 68 centimeters high, 49 long and 35 background; while the standard slightly expands the smart cultivation zone without land, with measures of 91x49x58 centimeters. For those who wonder how much space this space can give, Niwa has calculated it. In the case of the standard size, the system would give between three and five tomatoes a week, two or three peppers and a lettuce.
The solution can be booked through the web by U.S. dollar 375 for the standard version. But the road to get there has been long. In order to shape this intelligent system, years of work have been needed. The starting point was none other than the thousands of greenhouses that stretch through the Spanish province of Almeria, where Javier Morillas, creator and responsible of the company, began to explore how to transfer to the population all the power of the technology of industrialized horticultural crops.
With the participation of a group of experts, the first prototype was ready. The recognition of Niwa's potential by the accelerator HAXLR8R, which allowed the team to improve their idea in the United States and China, or the massive support for their idea in a crowdfunding campaign launched some time ago, helped kick-start the initiative . This, in addition, ended in December its participation in the IKEA Bootcamp, another startup support program that received 1.200 applications for 10 places, one of them for the creators of this system. In addition to giving shape, this team aims to promote a large community of producers, farmers, restaurants, schools and anyone who is interested in producing their food in a homemade, sustainable, healthy and intelligent way.
Source: ecoinventos.com
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