Stop by the MVCC Green Booth at the Mar Vista Farmers Market on Sunday March 20th to see two sample aeroponic garden towers, designed for residential use, that can grow dozens of lettuces, strawberries, tomatoes, squashes, peppers, eggplants, herbs and other foods in a stack from 5 ft. high to 12 ft. high, taking up less than 9 square feet of floor area!
Meet Rafael O. Quezada, founder and president of The Waters Wheel, LLC, a foundation that employs water-conserving, non-polluting, soil-less aeroponic growth systems to enable safe, nutritious, organic farms and gardens in food desert communities and places where shortage of water, lack of space, lack of yards and soil, toxic soil or other conditions make in-ground gardening and farming difficult or impossible.
Aeroponic growth systems conserve water, using about 5% of the water and nutrient needed for in-ground gardening. They recycle water and nutrient constantly, discharging nothing into the environment besides evaporated water. The vertical configuration of plant growth is 6 to 10 times denser than in-ground gardening. The immediate oxygen-access to roots of plants cultivated in air charges growth and increases harvests from 2 to 4 times. No tilling of soil is necessary, no weeding either, and no pesticides needed. The system uses minimal energy (2 to 5 watts) and can be solar powered. Harvests are conducted standing upright, yet it’s the only garden accessible to wheel-chairs and other disability conditions.
