Chapter 1

Vertically Inclined: An Introduction To Vertical Farming

Chapter 2

The 4 Factors of Vertical Farm Success

Chapter 3

How Vertical Farming Works To Maximize Crop Output

12

Chapter 4

The Top 3 Reasons Why Vertical Farms Fail

15

Chapter 5

Gardening Up High: A Guide To Rooftop Growing

19

Chapter 6

How To Grow Your Own Food Tower

21

Chapter 7

Introduction to Green Walls

24

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 Chapter 1

Vertically Inclined: An Introduction To Vertical Farming

Takeaway:​ ​With agricultural lands becoming scarcer and scarcer, commercial farmers are looking up
for ways to maximize production in a limited growing space. Here’s where vertical farming started,
and where the technology could take us in the future.

Introduction
There are a lot of strong opinions on whether vertical farming is viable and sustainable, but
one thing everyone can agree on is the basic definition: vertical farming is growing within a volume of
space instead of on a single horizontal plane. By that definition, vertical farming has actually been
around for a long time. And regardless of where and when it has made an appearance, its goal has
always been the same: maximizing production within a given growing space.

Historically, farmers growing within a small space have used tall, vining crops, which naturally
use vertical space more efficiently than short, statured crops. These early vertical farmers include rice
farmers terracing paddies in Southeast Asia, and the architects of ancient Babylon, who built one of
the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Hanging Towers of Babylon. These are some of the
earliest examples of farmers looking at vertical space and imagining ways to use it for growing.

Vertical Farm Production | ​Source

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Vertical Farming Today
Modern vertical farmers are looking at vacant warehouses, the sides of buildings and, in some
extreme cases, skyscrapers, to produce crops in large volumes relative to the square footage of the
growing area. Almost all of these farmers use hydroponic systems to minimize the weight load and,
therefore, the amount of infrastructure needed to support the equipment.

These farms are already incredibly capital-intensive and using soil or heavy, water-logged
media would increase the amount of expensive steel and structure necessary to support the growing
equipment. Hydroponic production using nutrient film or vertical plane techniques helps reduce these
start-up costs for vertical farmers. Some farms also use aeroponics or deep water culture, although
the costs of the support structure for raft production tend to be higher.

Vertical Farm Technology

There are two main camps in the evolving vertical farming community: stratified, or stacked,
producers and vertical plane producers.

Stacked Production
Early vertical farmers took horizontal production techniques and stacked them up using pallet
racks or other support systems. These stacked, horizontal systems were an obvious first step towards
vertical farming, as most producers were already familiar with conventional, single-plane equipment.
As a result, adapting conventional equipment in a new, stacked, layered configuration felt very
natural.

This adjustment, while convenient, has caused many farms some issues. Most have
consistently struggled with air circulation, heat removal, humidity and disease issues, and CO​2
depletion in the plant canopy. They often also experience increased labor costs associated with
tending and harvesting plants from a scissor lift. These issues have arisen from a failure to redesign
production equipment for the unique variables that come with indoor, high-density growing.

Stacked producers have had to invest increasingly large amounts of money in automation,
sensors and other systems in an effort to improve the performance of equipment that is often not
designed for vertical farming applications. Despite this, some of these growers are gaining traction
and finding success in their markets. The question that remains, however, is will they be successful
as the market becomes more competitive?

Vertical Plane Production

Born from the frustration of dealing with the plant health issues and labor costs associated with
stacked production, a few producers began to use a new orientation called vertical plane production.

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Vertical plane production involves growing crops sideways out of towers or panels, back-to-back, with
aisles in between sections.

These aisles give producers easy access to crops from the ground and allow lights to be hung
vertically between the two growing faces. This configuration achieves the same level of production as
stacked producers, while lowering both capital and operating expenses.

In some ways, this style of production is similar to conventional greenhouse tomato production
that uses inter-lighting, where crops are lit from the side. In this orientation, intense light is used to
modify the orientation of the crop. Vertical plane production allows producers to operate from the
ground, simplifying logistics and reducing labor costs significantly.

This production technique is rapidly gaining traction in confined growing environments like
greenhouses, warehouses and even shipping containers, on both small and large scales.

The Future of Vertical Farming

Both techniques are being practiced in a growing number of vertical farms. Stacked farms
have been around for longer, and as a result are typically better capitalized and more accepted in
traditional vertical farming circles. However, vertical plane production is catching up quickly.

This is especially true of large numbers of smaller farming start-ups, which need to be more
flexible. In fact, the most growth in the vertical farming industry is happening on a relatively small
scale, in operations with less than 2,000 sq. ft. of production.

One thing is for sure: vertical farming is quickly becoming the most talked about and explored
growing technique by new and existing farmers alike, regardless of scale. For smaller-scale growers
(2,000 sq. ft. or less), emerging technologies and the increase in accessible educational resources
are helping to lower start-up costs significantly.

While most people imagine that vertical farms will closely resemble the mega-farms of the
past, it is more likely that in the future, these farms will be smaller, more widely distributed and more
connected.

Equipped with the right know-how and tools, today’s vertical farmers have a lot going for them.
New developments in modern farming practices, including innovations in LED lighting and
environmental controls, have reduced the cost of production and increased the quality of produce on
the market.

Culturally, local markets are also primed for what the modern vertical farmer has to offer. By
leveraging their ability to grow in warehouses, on the sides of buildings and in other environmentally

5
constrained areas, vertical farmers can bring a fresher crop to market and build a happy customer
base.

However, truly accessible vertical growing still faces some constraints. Access to capital is a
huge problem for large growers. Because of the capital-intensive nature of starting a vertical farm,
large producers often have to raise many millions of dollars to get started.

The solution is to focus on small farmers and teach people how to farm vertically on a much
smaller scale. The small-scale, distribution approach to vertical farming is finding significant traction
and is rapidly eclipsing the traditional “bigger is better” mentality regarding vertical farms.

Education is the second major hurdle vertical farmers face. This is a new industry, and staffing
vertical farms with knowledgeable, capable growers is a constant challenge. This is being overcome
with the increasing availability of affordable, online courses and teaching platforms built specifically
for modern farmers.

These services are teaching more people than ever before not only how to grow their plants
better, but also how to run a business, raise money and manage personnel. Soon, master growers
will no longer have a monopoly on growing knowledge. Democratizing the knowledge of how to grow
is an important step towards a network of distributed food producers.

With emerging, software-based growing technologies, artificial intelligence, sensor

technologies and the rising popularity of urban agriculture, as well as the general consumer trend
away from conventional products towards local products, the future of vertical farming is bright. I
believe vertical farming will be a powerful force for moving production closer to consumers,
eliminating food deserts and reducing the environmental footprint of the crops we consume.

Credits: ​Bright Agrotrech​, Nate Storey

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 Chapter 2

The 4 Factors of Vertical Farming Success

Takeaway: ​With a glut of information and experiences about vertical farming crowding farmers on all
sides, it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Vertical farming​ can be a confusing space. There are hundreds of farms having a go at
farming, dozens of methods being used, and endless voices discussing, questioning, and criticizing.

With such a variety of vertical farms being started, it is difficult to sort out the best practices. It’s
nearly impossible to wade through the forums, YouTube videos, and case studies to figure out what
works and what doesn’t.

This leaves many aspiring farmers left wondering what they can actually do to ensure their
farm’s success. Although many have discovered good practices, many farmers overlook one
enormous factor of a successful vertical farm: economics.

This leads to mistakes like starting a farm without market research, choosing crops with no
demand, or creating a system with crippling labor costs. Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of
walking many farmers through the start-up and scaling phases of their businesses.

To follow up on our article ​Top 3 Reasons Why Vertical Farms Fail​, we broke down the
intimidating goal of economic viability into four sections—the four factors of vertical farm success:

Factor #1: Space-use efficiency and productivity

Since starting in the industry nearly a decade ago, we have discovered that categorizing farms
by the orientation of the growing plane (horizontal or vertical) completely transforms the approach for
each factor.

Some farmers stick to the horizontal growing plane and create vertical farms by stacking one
plane on top of the other. Others break the mold and rotate the plane vertically to grow their crops.

The most obvious advantage of vertical plane production is that it maximizes space use.
Vertical farming not only uses one layer of the growing space, but utilizes the entire ​volume​ of space,
from the floor up.

Both types of vertical farm aim to increase space-use efficiency by using a volume of space.
However, the first iterations of vertical farms—stacked farms—forgot to pair space use efficiency with

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usability. As a result, many a stacked farm has failed, weighed down by usability and air movement
issues.

To remedy the problems experienced by stacked vertical farms, equipment designers began
considering vertical planes. The first area brought into consideration was the amount of usable
surface area in a volume.

To maximize space use (expressed simply as density), growers must maximize growing
surface area within a volume (growing specific surface area).

In horizontal plane growing such as stacked systems, only one side of the plane is usable.
Plants can’t grow upside down very well. They can grow on top, however, and they can grow on
vertical sides. Stacked systems waste one side of the growing plane.

Look at a horizontal growing plane. You can only use one side of the plane. Growers have only
partially redeemed the wasted space by hanging lights on the other side of the plane, but ultimately
are limited in their growing space. Flip the horizontal plane on it’s side, however, and you now have a
more usable growing surface area.

Usable growing space isn’t the only important factor in space use efficiency, however. Farms
require both growing and access space; these areas are two more opportunities for growers to think
strategically about how their farm is set up.

Stacked production should configure both growing space and access space separately, while
vertical production combines growing space and access space into one. Crunching the numbers?
Quantify wasted space and space use efficiency with a ratio that compares production space to floor
space.

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 Cucumber Harvest | ​Source

Factor #2: Labor Costs

To reduce labor costs, a farmer should maximize both the ease with which workers can access
crops, and the number of workers that are able to access a layout simultaneously. This cuts out
waiting time and increases efficiency.

Labor accounts for much of the cost of production. Streamlining and simplifying the process
will have a tremendous impact on labor costs, especially in larger facilities.

Another benefit of growing on a vertical plane is that compliance processes and safeguards
are easier to create and maintain, because all processes can be applied in a very targeted way.

Vertical plane farms are easy to make modular. Because they are usually modular and
lightweight, each part of the vertical farm can be moved and consolidated for treatment. Farmers are
also able to log more accurately on a unit by unit basis. This is better for compliance, better for food
safety, and better for pest management.

Farming as a Manufacturing Process

What if we started treating vegetables, greens, and other produce like a manufactured
product? If we did, the product would be moved to and through processes like planting, trimming, pest
control and maintenance, harvesting, etc., instead of staying stationary and having those processes
brought to the product by workers.

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 In a typical greenhouse, workers and processes move to the growing area. In a manufacturing
process, the product is moved from process to process until it is done.

Streamlined Maintenance of the Vertical Plane

Vertical plane growing also streamlines the maintenance process. In vertical plane farms,
workers can see and identify problems easier than with horizontal plane production. Workers can also
physically access and treat problems easier with vertical plane production.

It’s important that your workers are enabled to easily interact with the plants, because
workflows and ease of labor affect product quality, and ultimately profit.

This introduces “opportunity costs”—the costs of the tasks not done. For example, if a worker
skips monitoring the top levels of a vertical farm, a fungal pathogen may go unnoticed for longer. This
causes crop losses, and inventory is lost.

Any business owner, manager, employee, etc. knows that when a task is very inconvenient,
corners are cut. If it’s difficult for people to do things, they won’t do them, and quality suffers as a
result. This friction makes labor quality a product quality issue.

Factor #3: Profitability

A false assumption prevalent in the vertical farming industry is that more volume equals more
profit. In reality, more volume is not always better.

Filling a volume of space with growing equipment a more complex goal than just getting as
much equipment in there as possible. How you fill your space dictates labor costs. If done poorly,
then more volume could represent costs rather than profit.

Vertical plane production sets fewer limitations on the ability to fill up a volume of space, as a
function of labor use.

Most commercial horizontal plane growers use six to seven tiers, but horizontal plane
production typically breaks even around the fourth tier, with each additional tier losing money as costs
accumulate.

This is not because building tiers higher costs more; the reason for this is that the cost of labor
for taking care of those higher tiers increases with each tier. In other words, capital expense might not
change much with more tiers, but operational expense does.

Combine these facts, and you’ve got a situation in which the law of diminishing returns is
evident. As you build a horizontal plane operation higher, for every dollar invested, the return on
investment shrinks.

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 Most commercial horizontal plane growers use six to seven tiers, but horizontal plane
production typically breaks even around the fourth tier, with each additional tier losing money as costs
accumulate.

You can see this by examining the typical productivity. Net margin decreases by tier, finally
dipping below the market standard. You might still be making a margin at this point, but if faced with
pricing pressure from your competitors, you will lose—you will not have the room in your margin to
lower prices.

Factor #4: Environment and Plant Health

Heat is removed more easily through vertical space. Lighting interacts with plane orientation
and affects airflow. Historically, lights have been attached to the growing plane itself. While overall
revenue increases as tiers are added to a system, associated costs grow as well.

Often, costs grow at higher rates per tier than revenue. This limits airflow, which is needed to
remove heat produced by lights, remove humidity, and circulate gases such as CO2.

An alternative way to arrange lights is by placing them in the center of a chimney. This
facilitates instead of blocking airflow. Air can be moved less aggressively than in horizontal plane
production, which requires more intensive equipment and ventilation systems.

Vertical Planes Facilitate Airflow

Airflow is responsible for heat removal, humidity removal, and CO2 penetration to the plant
canopy.

An efficient farm layout should facilitate air flow, not work against it. The higher we go, the
more plant production problems occur. Pest issues tend to be worse (heat and humidity are typically
higher) in the upper growing space, and treating those problems is inconvenient.

Moreover, removing heat from stacked techniques is more difficult, which exacerbates the
problem.

Farmers from South Dakota to South Africa are finding that vertical plane production increases
profits while reducing costs. The technique consistently offers better space use efficiency (and
therefore, productivity), labor costs, profitability, and plant-friendly environments. But is it always the
right choice?

Every farmer has a unique situation and unique goals. While stacked production almost never
pans out in the long run, there is a place for horizontal planes in the farming industry. Sometimes, real
estate is cheap.

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 Sometimes, the market demands large crops or root crops that aren’t suited to vertical plane
production. In cases like these, farmers must weigh all the variables to choose the production method
that can offer long term success.

Credit: ​Couleur​, Amy Storey

Chapter 3

How Vertical Farming Works To Maximize Crop Output

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Takeaway: ​There are both technical and economical challenges associated with feeding the world:
uneven wealth distribution, shifts in climate patterns, and diminishing amounts of arable land. We've
been growing our food using the same general approach for as long as we can remember, but luckily
we live in an age where technology can address these issues.

Vertical farming is one of the hottest things to happen to agriculture, showing tremendous
potential for revolutionizing the field. It is a method for growing crops indoors in a highly controlled
and simulated environment. The crops are grown in a very space-efficient manner, utilizing a vertical
structure and stacking shelves of produce on top of one another.

Vertical Farming in Practice

AeroFarms

AeroFarms is located in New Jersey and it's one of the most amazing vertical farming facilities,
with a potential for producing more than two million pounds of greens annually.

The facility operates as a separate ecosystem, without the need for soil, pesticides or sunlight.
There are powerful LED lights doing the job of the sun, but with incredible efficiency and adjustability.
Plants benefit more from light in the blue and red spectrums and these sophisticated lights can deliver
exactly what the plants need for during each growth stage.

As the term “vertical farming” suggests, the greens are grown in trays stacked on top of one
another, reaching a height of 30 feet. The growing environment is filled with sensors monitoring it at
all times and providing valuable data. One might even say that it is more science than actual
agriculture.

There are many cleverly engineered devices around the plant that aid in the plant`s growth
process. As the crops grow, there are hoses providing them with carbon dioxide and additional
devices for adjusting humidity and temperature. The process is also partly automated with the help of
conveyor belts that move the greens to a pruning device that removes the roots.

What Makes a Vertical Farm Tick

What is the technology that sustains such a complex plant growing facility? There are a few
detrimental factors that we'll examine.

Closed Space

Vertical farms are closed facilities where the weather is artificially created, so to speak. This
makes them independent from the weather conditions outdoors. Crops can be harvested at least a

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few times a year, regardless of snow, rain, or any other potentially disruptive conditions. In the case
of growing strawberries, there can be close to 30 harvests a year!

Space Efficiency

As we mentioned earlier, the vertical nature of growing the crops makes it incredibly efficient.
This also makes it implementable in dense urban locations where the products can be immediately
transported for consumption.

Automation

Some companies push the frontiers of vertical farming with their innovation. One such
company is Spread in Japan, which uses robots to maximize yields and minimize labor costs. The
robots have the incredible capacity of harvesting 30,000 lettuce heads on a daily basis. Of course, the
term robots is not used in the meaning of human-like mechanic creatures, but rather they will be more
like mechanized conveyor belts with hands.

Hydroponics is an advanced nutrient-delivery system that utilizes water and different chemical
solutions without the need for soil. It is a highly efficient system because it reuses the resources,
which means using 95 percent less water. Furthermore, there is no need to add any pesticides.

Aeroponics

Some vertical farms like AeroFarm utilize aeroponics, which is the more advanced version of
hydroponics. It is a simple concept, yet very effective, as it consists of a closed-loop system for
reusing the resources and uses 40 per cent less water than hydroponics. What's great about this
system is that it stimulates the growth rate even further.

LED Grow Lights

Although not using the power of the sun might sound impractical to some, there are many
benefits to using full-spectrum LED grow lights. They can deliver light in the exact spectrums the plant
needs and stimulate it to grow faster and stronger. As they boast at AeroFarms “We're growing in 16
days what otherwise takes 30 days in a field”.

Limitations of Vertical Farming

Naturally, there is some criticism and downsides involved. Carbon emissions and the overall
cost of running such a facility are considerably high. There are many expenses related to electricity
and labor that make the end product pricey. The high energy consumption also leads to undesirable
CO​2​ emissions that harm the environment.

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 These are all issues that may be solved in the near future, with the right advancements in
technology, but at the moment they are here to stay. In the end, it's a matter of weighing the pros and
cons and deciding what's best in the long-run.

Although vertical farming has certain limitations, the potential outcomes are tremendous and
with continuous effort and investments it can be developed even further. Especially considering its
implications for producing bigger yields regardless of weather conditions, it is not something that
should be overlooked as being too “futuristic”.

Credit: Luis Rivera

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 Chapter 4

The Top 3 Reasons Why Vertical Farms Fail

Takeaway: ​The road to victory is often riddled with failure, especially if you’re trying to learn
something new.

Vertical farming, the practice of growing crops in high density configurations in controlled
environments, is the Wild West of modern agriculture. In the past decade, hundreds of vertical
farmers around the world have sidelined the concept’s sci-fi roots and built facilities capable of
growing high-quality crops closer to market in resource-conscious ways.

But like any new industry, failure is inevitable. Though tragic, the failed farms offer one glowing
benefit: they allow future farmers to learn and avoid potential missteps.

The world got a valuable glimpse into three failed farms in February during the first annual
Aglanta Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The industry commentator blog ​Agritecture​ hosted a unique
panel titled “An Examination of Shuttered Vertical Farming Facilities.”

The panel provided a platform for three unique case studies with one overlapping theme: tales
of why they failed. The panelists included representatives from fallen vertical farms:

● Paul Hardej, co-founder of FarmedHere

● Mike Nasseri, harvest supervisor at LocalGar​den
● Matt Liotta, CEO of PodPonics

The three took turns weighing in on several questions regarding the history and ultimate end of
their farms. In this article, we’ll examine each panelist’s perspective to illuminate three important
reasons why vertical farms fail.

1. They try to do too many things at once.

A common pitfall of many vertical farms is attempting to both grow food for market while
productizing and selling the technology they’re using to grow their food.

New farmers must understand they have only one goal: Sell good food. Everything else comes
second. The more time, attention, and money spent trying to productize the system, the less time a

16
grower has to delight their customers with fresh, local food. The same goes with decisions about
equipment used to accomplish this goal.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen dozens of hard-working farmers invest their time, energy, and
financial resources into half-baked ideas that fail, taking their money and dreams of starting a farm
down at the same time.

The bottom line: Farmers can either grow food or develop technology, but they shouldn’t do
both. Attempting to do both, as shown by all three panelists, ends poorly. Farmers wasting time on
unproven systems or tinkering with their own tech instead of acquiring customers will ultimately end
up out of business due to losing sight of their core objective: Selling food.

2. They forget that labor is always the biggest cost.

Reflecting on their own shuttered operations, each of the three panelists echoed this warning
about labor: Don’t overlook your labor costs. All three panelists express similar challenges regarding
the workers on their respective farms. While the wages were relatively low (ranging from $9-15 per
hour), labor costs added up quickly thanks to the farms’ growing techniques.

Many of the failed farms ignored ergonomics and were not designed for efficient manual work.
Multi-layered systems with grow beds reaching to the ceiling meant that farmhands had to travel up
and down on a scissor lift to perform basic farm operations like planting, inspections, maintenance,
and harvesting.

The mere mention of the phrase “scissor lifts” sparked a heated conversation on the clunky,
expensive, and unclean nature of the machine. “Scissor lifts are not an ideal solution,” states Nasseri.
“Don’t use scissor lifts. Find another solution, please.”

The key to workable systems is accessibility. Vertical farms must be seen and touched easily.
That means no scissor lifts, no leaning or climbing to get to plants, and no peering through racks to
see what’s going on in the system. These systems enable growers to spend more time working with
plants or getting more customers. You can find this type of accessibility in vertical planes, which are
easy to access visually, and modular systems, which are easy to access physically.

Of course, the question of automation came up. Won’t automation solve a lot of the farm labor
issues? Maybe, but probably not. At least not for the majority of small producers. The fact is
automation equipment requires massive capital investments to build and highly skilled labor to
operate—both of which are in short supply at most local farms.

And why rely on automation to make farming economically viable? Instead of asking how we
can use machines to minimize the cost of human labor, we should be asking how we can design a

17
system that doesn’t need automation to function economically. Again, it all circles back to
accessibility.

The bottom line: Farmers should implement a growing system that reduces labor costs and
does not require expensive automation technology to be economically viable.

3. They don’t treat the farm like a process.

All three panelists at Aglanta touched on the importance of creating an efficient farm layout
and workflow.

In today’s technology-based modern farming world, production is not the problem. Growing in
controlled environments and with proper plant nutrition allows modern farmers to produce crops with
astounding consistency and quality. Instead, the real issue these three farmers faced was how to run
their growing operations efficiently while minimizing cost.

Hardej says he thinks about any future vertical garden farm as first and foremost a
“manufacturing and production process.” Treating the farm as a manufacturing process, as opposed
to an art form, means treating it like an optimization problem.

The conventional way of vertical farming using stacked layers puts farm owners and their
laborers at the mercy of expensive machinery to access their crops. These production methods are
complicated, inefficient, and costly because they require so much time spent traveling up aisles and
between layers to do everything from the initial planting all the way to the harvest.

The bottom line: When evaluating farm equipment options, look past production. Every system
can grow crops, but not every system can optimize workflows and maximize labor efficiencies.

The vertical farming industry is just starting to take off. Every day, there are new companies
promising to deliver exciting solutions in growing equipment, lighting technology, climate controls,
data, sensors, automation, consulting, and much more. And some of these companies will fail.
However, if one thing is clear from the Aglanta panel, it’s that we can learn from each other’s
mistakes.

We now know that exerting more control over the growing environment, making better use of
our resources, and implementing smart, labor-efficient growing technology can help us take big
strides toward farming success and giving greater access to better food.

Through more collaborations like the one at Aglanta, I believe we’ll keep pushing the boundaries of
vertical farming and achieve amazing things.

Credit: Chris Michael

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 Chapter 5

Gardening Up High: A Guide To Rooftop Growing

Takeaway: ​Urban farming is increasing in popularity as people become more concerned with where
their food comes from and how they can have a positive impact on the environment. One option for
the space-challenged is to go up.

Rooftop gardens are becoming more common these days, as an increasing number of people
seek closer connections with their food and try to reduce their carbon footprints. Growing on the roof
makes use of a space that’s not typically used for anything, helps insulate your home, offers a place
to garden with good sun exposure, is protected from some pest animals like deer, and is in the
perfect location to absorb rainwater, thereby reducing runoff.

Rooftop Gardens: Where to Start

While rooftop gardens offer plenty of benefits, there are some steps that need to be taken
before you start. First off, determine if you are allowed to garden in this space. Contact your landlord
if you do not own the property, and the city to see if there are any local building codes that prohibit
this type of garden. Then you should have a professional examine your structure. Large, raised beds
or multiple pots will put a lot of strain on your roof—you need to ensure it can handle the extra weight.
You also need to determine how you will get gardening materials to the roof.

Rooftop Gardens: Watering and the Elements

Access to water is a must for your garden. Can you get a hose to the roof? You may want to
add a rain barrel or two with some drip irrigation for your garden. The number of barrels needed
depends on the size of your planned garden. You also have to consider drainage. Where is any
excess water going to go?

A rooftop can be more exposed to the elements, so it is a good idea to create some shade for
you and your plants from the heat and sun. Even plants that thrive in full sun may suffer from the
urban heat island effect. A fence could act as a wind break, along with adding some privacy.

Storage
You’ll also need to ensure you have a place to store pots, nutrients and other gardening
materials. This can be as simple as a few shelves or as elaborate as a greenhouse or shed,
depending on the weather in your city. If you’re in an area with cold winters, you need a plan to
protect your raised beds, perennials and other aspects of your garden, so your storage area should
be big enough to accommodate tarps, burlap, hay and other things needed to winterize your garden.

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Materials and Plants
To avoid putting too much pressure on your rooftop, you may want to consider using a growing
media that is lighter than ordinary garden soil. Compost and recycled materials are great places to
start. You will want to use enough material in your planters or raised beds to allow plant roots to take
a sturdy hold. Consider adding supports for some plants if you are in a windy area.

Some types of plants may grow better than others in your rooftop environment. Herbs, shrubs,
flowers, vegetables and fruits are all great choices for your rooftop garden, with a little planning. For
instance, if you love carrots, choose short varieties that will grow better in a container environment.
Also, you may want to invest in drought-resistant plants, as they may be better adapted to deal with
rooftop conditions. Experimentation will help you determine what works and what doesn’t on your
rooftop.

Even if your budget doesn’t allow for your dream rooftop garden, you can start small and add
on as you go. Create little goals to work towards building your dream oasis. Drawing up a diagram is
a good place to start. Rooftop gardens are a beautiful addition to any space. They offer a wonderful
space for growing flowers, herbs, shrubs, fruits, and vegetables. This type of garden can be a lovely
blessing for anyone who wants their own little rooftop oasis.

Credit: Shannon McKee

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 Chapter 6

How To Grow Your Own Food Tower

Takeaway: ​For those with limited space but the desire to grow, a tower garden may be the answer.
Tower gardens come with stackable growing pods and usually include their own irrigation systems,
nutrient reservoir and other features that help gardeners get straight to the business of growing,
rather than spending lots of time on setting up a system. Read on to learn more.

The typical hydroponics set-up, while amazing and exciting for those who own them, is not
something you would usually set up in your living room to add a splash of living color to your decor.

Fortunately, there are some indoor growing options that are compact as well as attractive, so
instead of growing houseplants, you can grow vegetables year-round in your living room. Enter the
tower garden system.

Benefits of Food Towers

Besides providing a way for apartment dwellers to grow their own food, tower garden systems
can offer increased growing capacity over traditional growing techniques. Home gardeners also need
not deal with weeds, and growing indoors extends the growing season. Many of these systems are
marketed as perfect for novice growers with little-to-no gardening experience.

Tower gardens don’t typically require much space, with many systems only taking up 2-3 ft.,
and many units start small but can be expanded as you become more comfortable with growing
indoors. Hydroponic and aquaponic systems (soilless systems) eliminate the potential mess you
could experience when growing in soil, and they also produce faster-growing plants, which leads to
more frequent harvests.

Choosing a System for Your Food Tower

Before choosing your system, you’ll want to consider details such as lighting, hydration,
cleaning and expandability before you make your selection. You can also choose between
hydroponic and aquaponic systems, and some systems use regular potting soil.

Many tower garden systems are used outdoors with natural lighting, but can be used indoors
as long as proper lighting is used to allow for optimal plant growth. Some units may require T5, T8 or
T12 fluorescent grow lights. Some may use incandescent bulbs and some may even use LED grow
lights.

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 Also, be sure to find out if the lighting requires a separate kit, or if you need to come up with
your own lighting source, in which case you’ll also need to consider reflectors, ballasts, timers and
other gear to make your lighting system work.

Another important consideration is irrigation. Soil-based systems will require normal watering
and may have an irrigation reservoir. You’ll need to fertilize as needed, depending on what you are
growing. Aquaponic and hydroponic systems will need appropriate nutrients as well as a growing
medium. You may also need a pH meter, water pump and other gear specific to the system you have
chosen.

Expect to clean your system at least yearly. After plant matter is removed, most systems can
be cleaned with soap and hot water or a cleaning solution. Also, be sure to conduct regular weekly
maintenance such as checking water levels, keeping roots away from pumps and cleaning pump
filters, checking nutrient levels and rotating your grow tower as needed to allow for proper lighting.

What Can I Grow in a Food Tower?

The best plants for growing indoors include leafy vegetables such as:

● Swiss chard
● Collard greens
● Kale
● Lettuce
● Mustard greens
● Pak choi
● Radicchio
● Spinach

Other vegetables that do well indoors include:

● Broccoli
● Brussels sprouts
● Cabbage
● Cauliflower
● Leeks

Herbs also do well indoors:

● Basil
● Catnip
● Chamomile
● Chives
● Cilantro

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● Dill
● Garlic chives
● Lavender
● Lemon balm
● Mint
● Oregano
● Rosemary
● Sage
● Stevia
● Thyme

Fruit-producing plants like tomatoes, peppers and squash can be grown indoors as well, but
they are a bit more challenging. You’ll have to do the pollinating since there are no insects indoors to
do the job for you. Self-pollinating plants, such as tomatoes, beans, peas, strawberries and peppers,
can be shaken or swabbed with a small paint brush to transfer pollen to the pistil of each flower.

For plants such as melons, cucumbers, and squash, which have male and female flowers, use
a paint brush or a cotton swab and brush the inside of the male flower (the one with a slender stem
instead of a “bulb” under the flower) to load it with pollen. Then dust the pollen onto the pistils of the
female flowers. This will need to be done every 2-3 days until you start to see fruit developing.

As with any gardening method, start small with your tower garden and let your garden grow as
your skills grow. Most companies offer plenty of advice in the form of articles, newsletters, customer
service numbers and even training classes to get you going. The final step is sitting back and
enjoying that indoor oasis you’ve created!

Credit: Kathleen Marshall

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 Chapter 7

Introduction To Green Walls

Takeaway: ​It might sound like something from science fiction—but in the very near future most
skyscrapers will probably incorporate greenwalls in their design to reduce heating and cooling costs
and provide fresh, healthy air for the people inside.

The use of greenwalls and phytoremediation in interior landscape design is not a new or
revolutionary concept—since the earliest civilizations, gardens and plantings have been used to
visually enhance interior walls and provide places for growing value-added plants. In our own time the
use of plantings on vertical spaces has been found to provide aesthetic and economic value and to
promote the improved health and mental well-being of building occupants as well.

The historic challenge with trying to use greenwall systems has been the difficulty of growing
on a vertical plane versus a horizontal one. In order to deal with this issue most early designs (dating
from the 1970s) incorporated a step system to go vertical, basically using a series of offset planter
boxes stepping back one on top of the other to allow light and service access.

The problem with this system is that although the plants are going up the wall, the visual
appeal is lost once the line of sight is above the height of the viewer. Vertically-growing plants can't
be seen, so plants with low-growing vine habits like ivy were typically used to grow over the edge of
the boxes and cascade down the sides for visual effect.

Maintenance of these systems was pretty daunting—with limited access to the highest steps,
the plants were difficult to access for pruning, fertilizing or watering. Few systems in the ‘70s or ‘80s
included automated watering systems, either, so crews had to be sent in regularly to water and clean
the plants.

A box two stories up a wall was just not feasible to maintain—typical atrium plantings of potted
or raised bed-planted tropicals on a horizontal format became common and unless vertical plantings
were in easy proximity for maintenance these systems were usually eventually replaced with artificial
treatments.

Phytoremediation only began to gain credibility in the last 25 to 30 years. In the 1970s, NASA
conducted studies on the use of plants to clean air in confined spaces—the idea was that as the plant
transpired, it would take in carbon dioxide (CO2) and other airborne volatile compounds and respire
oxygen (O2), thereby ‘remediating’ stale air.

The studies gave birth to a ‘plants for clean air’ campaign, promoting the use of indoor plants
to help clean the air in old buildings with limited air-exchange capabilities—and the term
‘phytoremediation’ was coined to describe the process.

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 The development of phytoremediation systems as a process to reduce VOCs (volatile organic
compounds) and CO2 in the air of enclosed buildings like skyscrapers has been an exciting new
frontier for architects and horticulturalists. These systems combine the aesthetic appeal of a
greenwall plant system with the useful function of plant transpiration to absorb and break down
airborne contaminants while reducing energy use.

The process of using plants as a bio-filter—where old air passes through plant leaf and root
systems and is cleansed, then is recirculated into the building space—provides a number of benefits.
Regulations require the introduction of fresh outside air into a building’s HVAC (heating, ventilation
and air conditioning) network and the venting of old air out.

The ‘fresh’ air—which is sometimes actually dirtier than interior air—then has to be either
heated or cooled, depending on the season. If stale interior air could be remediated and recirculated,
though, building operators could save significantly on the costs of heating and cooling fresh air.

In addition, studies have shown that ‘sick building syndrome,’ thought to be caused by dirty air,
is deleterious to the health and mental well-being of building occupants—with the use of
phytoremediation systems, however, worker sick days and medical claims decrease and worker
productivity actually increases, both from the health benefits of breathing clean air and the comfort of
having plants in the workplace.

So how do you build a plant bio-filter? The engineering challenges related to this task start with
having a system that can integrate into the buildings HVAC system. Much like an air handler in a
home’s central air system, a bio-filter system would require old air to be drawn into a common area,
forced through the bio-filter and then recirculated through the building. Under this model, the best
candidate for the location of the bio-filter would be the building lobby.

The next challenge is to design a bio-filter that will maximize the surface area of both leaf and
roots so the air can pass over and easily flow back into the building. One solution is to build a wall,
with plants growing on the vertical plane. Imagine a multistory honeycombed structure where the
holes in the honeycomb have plant chambers installed and the surface of the growing medium is
actually on a vertical plane. Old air could pass through the leaves, into and through the medium, over
the roots and be channeled back into the HVAC system.

While this sounds like a simple solution, growing plants successfully in this manner presents a
number of challenges. For instance, it requires a plant stabilization system—including a removable
container that allows air movement—as well as a growing medium that allows high air-filtration
without decomposition and irrigation that works effectively on a vertical plane.

Fertilization, maintenance, light, airflow and several other variables need to be considered too,
along with choosing appropriate plant varieties to use in the wall. These challenges are currently

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being addressed by a number of companies attempting to enter the relatively new and burgeoning
building phytoremediation market.

Although there are more than 20 varieties of plants that perform well at capturing VOCs and
other air-based compounds, not all will work well in a vertical format and some are not aesthetically
pleasing. The growing medium needs to be lightweight and very stable with no decomposition, good
water-holding capacity, high porosity for air movement and the ability to harbor beneficial bacteria and
microbes.

Plant stabilization is required to hold the plant in place vertically and the medium must be
contained as well so it does not fall out of the container or the front. The plant containers themselves
need to be structurally rigid enough to hold 30 to 40 pounds of plant irrigation system and growing
medium, but have to be open enough to allow airflow. They also have to be easily removable
(plug-and-play, if you will) so individual containers can be installed, replaced or maintained without
too much difficulty.

Irrigation is a big issue as well—water will flow down, pool or puddle and it can harbor mold,
algae and mildew as well as promote humidity in the recirculation system. A vapor system will deliver
water in a warm vapor, allowing it to rise through the growing medium and condensate for plant
availability, but its delivery must be frequent enough to prevent the media from drying out.

Lighting must also be addressed—not all systems will face the existing lighting, so
supplemental lights will be required.

All in all, the benefits of integrated phytoremediation systems for buildings far outweigh the
challenges scientists must face in developing them. There are a number of companies and
researchers with systems in the development and pre-launch stages now, with clients ready and
waiting to install them into their facilities when all the bugs are ironed out.

The health advantages to be gained from breathing better-quality air as well as the long-range
economic returns from saving on heating and cooling costs make these systems very attractive to
building owners and managers. From skyscrapers to mobile homes, phytoremediation systems can
be scaled to any size of facility and should eventually be affordable for any budget.

Credit: Chris Pianta

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 Epilogue

Special Notes

The information in this guide has been gathered from public third party resources and curated.
Urbanvine.co does not claim ownership of research or content produced originally by third parties
cited in this guide. Views and statements of third parties cited in this guide are not necessarily the
views and statements of urbanvine.co.

For more information, please visit ​www.urbanvine.co/terms-of-use​.

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