Off 20 N of Aiken, SC there is an abandoned historic textile mill for sale and I went in 2016 with Jim and Will Brennan to assess and meet with a potential developer. It is 130,000 sf and has 26 million gallons of spring water hydro generation but will take 2 million dollars to restore the hydro turbine (Jim’s advisor suggested). Scott- Hydro- Ridgeway;
Jim had discussed our plan with Phillips and received a quote “Green sense” LED Lighting Proposal.
25,000 SF – 18′ tall;
100,000 SF of Growing Surface will produce 1.4million # of lettuce @ $2/#
Carleton and Gizman met with us and we walked through together.;
We would want to sell in loose RPCs;
Christian Long at Current Cultures H20 and I discussed in Fresno CA the UCPRO20, 22-site set down the middle of the container or in two rows along the outside walls. 12/9/16, email from Christian to Warren quoted that the Lids are interchangeable for multiple plant spacing and size options. Rough commercial pricing on this system is around $7k. They could also offer a 32-site, 2 rows 13-gallon system (XL13) for around $4200, attached is a drawing of the 24-site “Long Rifle”. Check out other commercial layout options sheet with pricing.
Equipment & Tools
We plan to work closely with Hort Americas for Hydroponic Fertilizer
They sell a 9-7-37 Hydroponic Fertilizer. It is specially formulated for growing leafy green, culinary herbs, microgreens and other crops in a hydroponic system. Hort America has designed this water-soluble fertilizer to deliver the essential nutrients for optimum uptake by the root system. It can be used as a constant feed or as a supplement. Hort Americas recommends that the grower have their source tested by a professional water analysis laboratory to determine the nutrients, pH, EC and total alkalinity of your source water.
Suggested Rates: .271-.455 lbs./100 gallons of water
1.23 to 2.06 grams/1 gallon
Sold in 25 # containers
General guidelines for hydroponic crop production: maintain a pH between 5.4 and 5.8 with an EC of 1.5 mS/cm once the cotyledons have fully expanded. (trademark “Cotyledon Containers”) have fully expanded.; derived from Potassium nitrate, Monopotassium phosphate, sodium borate, copper, iron, manganese, and others
Hort America recommended we use NFT and if we go organic, use their “Closed Bottom Organic Plugs”- hold the roots more and when combined with Terragenesis Organic Fertilizer for hydroponic systems, we theorize that you will see far fewer issues with the oversized roots clogging up the system (as Warren experience during his 6th hydroponic crop at Pelion Highschool.
we designed a system 5 feet wide and 12 feet long/ 5ft LED lights;
Germinating: the process of germinating is pretty simple and will only require a small table off to the side that can accommodate 6-8 of the 10×20″ trays.
We will wet/soak the media, seed and then cover them with a humidome to generate humidity. You may want to use a heating mat for the cilantro, as it requires a lot of humidity to germinate.
To prevent light contamination while germinating, we plan to cover them all on the table with a sheet.
Once they start to pop, we uncover them and place them in a propagation channel where they can be fully lit and fed with the propagation tank. Once the roots develop and begin breaking out of the cubes, they move to the nursery channels and once they fill out enough, they go up to the finishing channels where you can harvest from.
Rockwool is not organically approved- cilantro requires so much humidity to germinate, generally we could use a higher water holding material like rockwool.,
Coco is organic OMRI approved, made from Coconut biproducts.
The LEDs will be run 20 hrs./day to get the amount of light to the plants they will need, and they should grow quick.
Their racking needs room for a 5′ wide x 12′ Long x 12′ high,
Two water tanks for propagation and nursery/finishing
and a Table for germinating roughly 3×5′. We will want about 3-4′ of space around the racks to maneuver and harvest
Company Overview: Ownership & Structure
Matt & Will Brennan visited Clark Atlanta University.
Attendees were: Dr. Johnson, President of the University
MaryLynn- Harvard MBA, Wall Street Ex
Dr. Dunell Taylor- Integrating Sustainability
Dr. Roy George- Computer Science Department
Dean of the Business School
Dr. Chaudhary- Associate Dean
Dr. Platt
Interested in Solar Bots
Lots of discussion around the book, The Vertical Farm.
Watertronics
Immigration reform issues
Sodexo- food supplier to the university
they don’t have a foundation
timeline and schedule of the school was slow;
My goal with the school trial model was to:
- Build the business model
- Track Labor rates and job details commercially
- Figure out lighting, HVAC, and other electricity costs or panels needed;
Double ended fixtures- “the most widely used” 30% brighter than traditional lights; HID lighting : blue and red; 1000 w are traditional =>for 25 SF; Phillips Lighting would work with us as a trial; need to know PAR values; LEDs; Power and heat in 1/2
Traditional lighting – highboy fixtures
Call Ricky Espinosa for HVAC
Traditional Air-Cooled Fixtures
Water testing for our systems would be done on a once per month basis and sent off to Microbac or other 3rd party lab for food safety audits.
We can stack 3 containers (said freight farms; weights 7.5 tons; can run off a generator 10kw
they use Zip grow 256 zip grow towers
we need a drain tank
Agriteck
2″ pitch in the back of the container
the recordings of water system are in an app
Baby kale is not big kale
1 container 15-20 hrs./wk.
3 harvest kale and cilantro
organic mini-sized butterhead lettuces
bumper to bumper 1-year warrantee – $50 maintenance per month.
It would be interesting to see what kind of patents these freight farms companies have and what is publicly readily available to replicate
one unit uses 35,000 kwh / yr.
$85,000 – includes filtrations and dehumidify,
50,000 hrs./ LED;
COB- Chip on board lighting
Wastewater must be dealt with appropriately and with property documentation
chiller and water circulation
stress training – stressing the plants to train them to perform as needed (tricked to bloom by stressing)
Reduce the nodes by 10-15% reduction in yield;
Temperature and nutrients have been figured out by Ari and Paul with Freshly Grown Farms
Identify a Crop Specialist to manage
Excel in Agri-technology
try and see if organics can be grown mass market
Help determine markets for Coyotes based on location of demand
Have cameras set up to monitor and security
determine yields
develop curriculum
Matt traveled to Fresno California and met with partners of Current Cultures H20= they use 2-3″ PVC; look at the different diagrams and choose; Food grade plastics, 3, 13, 35 plants per top. Schedule 40 pipe; multiple lids; 35 neck cups;
Bloom rooms are set up differently from Veg room based on ___
change the temperature and there is less dissolved oxygen
spider mites, root aphids, and Botrytis, keep humidity less than 50%.
Predator mites are beneficial insects. Release the predatory mites.
Azamax – which is an oil/ apply weekly or biweekly to the crop
UV light in the water system;
Ozone and Ozone generator are needed:
Freshcut room for sterile harvesting with positive draining
Call WPRawl’s Wastewater Expert, Michael Geronomicous about wastewater
Three important elements: AC/ Heat/Dehumidifier;
