What a city dweller lacks is green. We save ourselves as much as we can: we walk in parks, go out once a year to nature, buy homemade flowers... But this, to be honest, is not enough. Today we will talk about how to bring into your life a little more true “green”. The company Vegebox specializes in compact home farms for growing all kinds of herbs — and no, do not be afraid: no weeding, insect control and fertilizers are not at all. From a user's perspective, it's just a matter of pressing a single button.
Table Farm
The Vegebox Farm model we are now considering is a miniature tabletop device that automatically grows organic herbs quickly and without any problems. A variety of plants — dill, lettuce, sage, mint, strawberry, kohlrabi — grow with little or no intervention. Right in your room. At any time of year. Without extra fuss. Miracles, aren't they?
No need for pots and soil: The Vegebox looks like a modern futuristic gadget and fits even into the interior of the high-tech. The device feeds plants with concentrated solution and provides them with necessary portions of light and oxygen. In short, the device that came to us directly from fantastic films. Let's take a closer look at the table farm.
Design
As I said, the visual device is as far away from the usual earth pots as possible and looks like an electronic device (which it is). The design is very minimalist: the sleek, streamlined, white panels are connected by a metal tube.
The bottom panel is the main component of the Vegebox. The parallelepiped with rounded edges and corners has dimensions of 370 × 160 × 12 mm. It is here that the seedlings will be born and then converted into adult plants. The panel has 9 round holes for each individual. On the verge is a touch button to activate the device - everything else we see is complete laconism.
A metal tube with a swivel bracket at the top is attached to the end of the unit. The bracket holds the flat panel parallel to the “farm” itself. The panel is equipped with LED lamps that supply light to the plants.
It's as simple as that. All the sophisticated electronics are inside the device, and now I will tell you how it all works.
Principle of operation
Plants in the process of growth receive “food” from microelements in the soil and fertilizers. This is a complex process and usually a person helps the plant by watering the ground and fertilizing the soil. The Vegebox makes it as easy as possible for the plants: they are fed from a concentrated solution in which all the trace elements are already balanced.
Vegebox does all the “black” work for us: it is certainly a pleasure and aesthetics to grow plants, but not everyone has the time and skills to do so.
This technology is called hydroponic technology — it allows plants to grow much faster than in pots, and it is really visible and palpable. In addition to the micronutrient concentrate, plants need oxygen, which is supplied by a circulation pump. It works automatically, so the user does not need to water the seedlings.
The last important component for growth is the light, which provides the plants with fuel for photosynthesis. The LED lamp simulates real sunlight and supplies extinct and precise amounts of sunlight.
Usage
So, it takes only a few minutes to get your Vegebox up and running. The bottom panel with holes is removed and a special complete sponge is installed inside the “farm”. There are notches in it — here it is necessary to put seeds of a plant and to fill in the container a certain quantity of water. Close the sponge with the panel and wait for the appearance of sprouts (for different plants the process may differ in nuances).
After that, there's only one step to take. When the sprouts appear, the panel should be removed and transplanted (without any soil) in the germination tank. The latter are small pots in which the concentrated solution should be filled in beforehand. Then connect the Vegebox to the power supply and press a single button on the body. That's it, the device works!
The device is an intelligent system, so there is no need to control the lighting. The lamps shine at the right intensity and turn off when needed. The only thing to adjust is the height of the lamp. A bracket allows you to grow a variety of plants of different sizes.