“Let Food be your Medicine and Medicine be your Food” (Hippocrates 400 BC)
In our own facilities Vertical Farm Systems uses Bioponics so that crops can be produced with significantly increased levels of nutrients and minerals that are essential for all of us to achieve optimum health and performance.
The term Bioponics was first coined in 2005 by the American hydroponics veteran William Texier when he patented the process.
Bioponics provides an organic alternative to normal hydroponic growing that uses synthetic fertilizers, and it’s been catching on as more and more growers enjoy the challenge of combining growing techniques in the search for healthier, tastier results.
Bioponics uses beneficial microbes, bacteria and fungi normally only found in the very best farming land and combines these with pure sustainable organic nutrients.
With bioponics, an organic environment is created by adding beneficial microbes to the growing area, which then colonize plant roots and grow media to dramatically boost the bio-availability of organic nutrients.
The primary benefits of this type of gardening include a reduction in water usage, improvement in crop growth and eleimination of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Edible plants grown with bioponics taste better, keep longer and have significantly higher levels of essential nutrients and minerals when compared with hydroponic cultivation and some organic produce.
In recent years, nutritional science has found that high nitrate and low mineral levels in the human body are a major cause of many health problems, including many mental and cardiovascular diseases.
Unfortunately, food with high nitrate levels and low mineral content is a common result of modern farming methods in use since the introduction of NPK super phosphates and nitrate based hydroponic horticulture. Hydroponics is typically based on a mixture of 17 high purity chemicals while Bioponics uses sea kelp with 73 minerals.
Advantages
Bioponic farming has many advantages:
- Nutritional food with high levels of minerals.
- No use of chemicals and pesticides.
- Nitrate-free produce.
- High crop yields in reduced growing areas.
- Lower water use.
- Competitive branding for commercial growers.
