Vertical farming involves using vertically stacked layers and other innovative resources to help you plant your crops vertically. Traditionally, most farming involves growing plants on a horizontal surface in a garden or a farm.
However, this farming method has numerous disadvantages, especially for small house owners. First, it takes up a lot of space, leaving small house owners without the convenience of having their garden and may require a lot to keep up with.
Vertical farming comes in handy to give you the best of both worlds without causing any strain to your living arrangement. You get to grow your plants while utilizing the small space at home. This post will cover the benefits of vertical farming for small house owners and explore its impact on full-scale farming.
Benefits of Vertical Farming For Small House Owners
1. Less Water Usage
Watering a vertical garden is easy, simple, and uses less water than traditional gardens. If your plants are grown in the soil, you’ll only need to use little water to keep up with your plants’ health. Additionally, if you invest in hydroponics or aeroponics, your water usage will drastically reduce water wastage.
2. Saves Space
As a small house owner, space is a big concern for you that requires you to take your time to ensure that you optimally utilize it. Having a garden means you need to work with the space available.
Vertical farming ensures that you can create a garden in your home and fully enjoy the experience. Furthermore, since you’ll plant vertically, you’ll get to utilize walls and spaces that would otherwise stay idle. So, if you aim to save space in your home and still have a garden, vertical farming is perfect.
3. Consistent Food Production
Vertical farming is mainly done indoors and requires you to keep up with the optimal conditions to help your plants thrive. With commitment, you can continuously ensure consistent food production despite the seasons.
Your plants will depend on you to water them, offer the necessary nutrients, and allow sunlight as needed to help them grow. Vertical farming is an excellent choice for you to cater to a fruitful garden all year round.
4. Reduces Labor Costs
A vertical garden in your small house only requires you to put in the effort to take care of your plants. You will not need to enlist any help from workers to help plant, maintain, and harvest your crops. You can easily do this yourself and enjoy the gardening process.
Additionally, vertical gardens don’t require a lot of labor and tiresome tasks. Planting is easy, you can water in a central place, and harvesting works over time. Investing in a vertical firm will help you reduce labor costs and allow you to invest in a system that is easy for you.
5. Reduces Use of Chemicals and Pesticides
Vertical gardens will not require you to invest in pesticides and chemical fertilizers to keep your plants alive. In addition, pests will not have easy access to your plants since you’ll be gardening in a controlled environment.
If you invest in hydroponics, your plants will continuously have the necessary nutrients to keep growing. However, if you invest in planting your crops in soil, you can swap out fertilizers for plant foods. These foods will keep your soil nutrient-rich and allow your plants to grow fast and healthy for consumption.
Impact of Vertical Farming on Full-Scale Farming
Full-scale farming involves growing food for sale on a large scale and can apply vertical farming methods. Vertical farming has incredible benefits on a large scale that more farmers continue to embrace in their farming strategies. Some notable impacts that vertical farming has had on full-scale farming include;
Introduction of Diversity
Vertical farming is an excellent farming solution that offers a lot of diversity to help you choose the best method to meet your needs. With vertical farming, you have different approaches to consider alongside growing your plants in the soil. These approaches include;
- Hydroponics: Hydroponics is a method of farming that involves suspending your plants’ roots in a nutrient-rich solution. The solution features the necessary nutrients that you would find in the soil. Hydroponic gardening is an excellent method that requires expertise and great attention to detail.
- Aeroponics: Aeroponics features suspending your plant’s roots in the air and misting them with water as they require. The moist environment allows the roots to absorb nutrients helping the plant to thrive.
- Aquaponics: Involves a mutually beneficial relationship between your plants and fish in an aquarium. Your plant roots absorb nutrients from the waste in the aquarium and leave the fish with cleaner water.
Increased Food Production
With vertical farming methods, full-scale farmers enjoy a steady increase in their food production. Indoor vertical farming allows you to control the environment and ensure that you adequately meet your plants’ needs and that production continues to increase. An increase in production often results in an addition in earnings.
Organic Food Produce
Vertical farming introduces technology that does not require chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The foods grown are organic and safe for consumption, making them an excellent choice.
Full-scale farmers bring organic produce to the market, allowing them to get more customers and sell their products fast. Investing in vertical farming gives you access to the best solutions when growing food for consumption.
Reduced Transport Costs
Most vertical farms serve the markets around them, reducing the cost of transporting produce far distances. In addition, selling to a local market allows you to provide fresh produce without refrigerating them.
Reduced transport costs are significant for business, but you also reduce your carbon emissions, which impact the environment. So vertical farming allows you to save your money while reducing your carbon footprint.
Credit: Nicole McCray