Soil-free cultivation, automatic irrigation, LED supplemental lighting: a vegetable-growing expert develops a smart home garden
After a year of practice, Duan Lijun and his team developed the smart home garden. A household smart garden is generally a four-tier folding rack holding 8 pots. "The growing pots are filled with prepared nutrient soil, and a special fertilizer mixed with water in a set ratio becomes the nutrient solution. The specific LED lights above the growing pots are the light source. Once you set the times for watering the nutrient solution and supplemental lighting, it will do it for you. Even if you go away for five days or a week, you don't need to worry about the vegetables' growth," Duan Lijun said.
According to Anhui Business Daily “This is the smart home garden developed by our team.” In Cuigang Village, Sanshigang, Luyang District, Hefei, Duan Lijun devoted a full year here to working with various soil types, fertilizers, seeds, LED lamps, including racks and flower pots. A lover of agricultural production and planting, he came to Anhui Agricultural University from Shandong five years ago, and in the very year he graduated he went straight into this small vegetable garden. “More and more people like growing vegetables at home. The smart garden lets them realize their vegetable garden dream while not requiring too much effort, and the vegetables' quality and taste are also better.” This is the province's first smart home garden.
On the country lanes of Cuigang, at the base of an agricultural technology company, Duan Lijun led the reporter into his small vegetable garden.
Inside the glass house, nearly two and a half stories tall, a three-tier spiral staircase is very eye-catching, and growing pots of various vegetables spiral upward along it; by the window on the first floor, five or six folding racks are also placed, full of lettuce, small greens and so on. “This kind of folding rack is quite suitable for home use. It is generally four tiers tall and holds 8 pots.”
Each pot has a growing area of about 0.12 sq m, and the growing capacity is roughly: one pot can grow 12 crown daisy plants, and two pots are enough for a plate of stir-fried crown daisy; one pot of lettuce can also hold 12 plants. One folding rack can become a family vegetable garden. Duan Lijun first focused on product development, “I just made a simple wooden shelf, which looked rather low-end, and the price for a set was 2380 yuan.” Now the upgraded and improved second-generation product is about to debut at the September agricultural fair.
Give it nutrient solution and it thrives; give it light and it shines
The vegetable garden is not only flexible in location and arrangement, but its foolproof operation is also especially worry-free. “Even if no one tends it for a period of time, it can still live well, so it is called a smart garden.”
In Duan Lijun's words, even without soil, water or light, you can still grow vegetables at home. “The growing pots are filled with prepared nutrient soil, and a special fertilizer mixed with water in a set ratio becomes the nutrient solution. The specific LED lights above the growing pots are the light source.” The reporter saw irrigation and lighting timers on the vegetable rack. “Once you set the times for watering the nutrient solution and supplemental lighting, it will do it for you. Even if you go away for five days or a week, you don't need to worry about the vegetables' growth.”
How much water and fertilizer to use and what kind of lighting to provide, Duan Lijun had basically been studying all of this before. “The irrigation experiments alone took three months; for supplemental lighting, more than a dozen kinds of LED lamps were selected. Different spectrum ratios and different lighting all affect the tenderness and taste of the vegetables.”
Wanting to upgrade the family vegetable garden into a family farm
Previously, there were also gardens cultivated in boxes on the market and those grown in traditional ways. Family vegetable gardens and balcony vegetables are much loved by residents, but this kind of garden combining smart features and flexibility is still the first of its kind in the province. “A friend of mine has a child who, ever since getting a family vegetable garden, not only kept writing a planting diary but also got over the habit of being a picky eater.”
Though it is said to be foolproof, there are still some small planting tips that Duan Lijun wants to share with residents. For example: flour paste can treat small spiders, and soapy water and garlic water are the nemesis of aphids; during the seedling stage, vegetables need a higher temperature, so you can cover the growing pot with a plastic bag or plastic film; in summer, textiles can be used to make a sunshade to protect the seedlings.
He also dreams of a larger space: extending the smart model to the entire balcony, “with racks for placement, vertical hanging, and also vines, upgrading the family vegetable garden into a family farm.”