Had an embryonic (ie very young) salad wall at a show called “the Future of Retail” aka “Everything must go?” (it seemed to have two names) in Shoreditch, run by the Marketing Store, to look at the next 25 years of retail. They figured that hydroponics and aquaponics would play a big part in future urban environments, and I can’t disagree with them.
The idea of the wall was to produce crop of “baby leaf” salads, so I created a wall with 330 plants per m2 – there were over 2000 on this wall. Due to time constraints we had less than three weeks growing time, and another two were really needed to get the leaf size big enough to fill the wall and harvest. Once they were big enough, you’d be able to pick off individual leaves, leaving the plant to keep growing. That way, plants can last for several months, with intermittent replacement as required.
I’m not sure they understood the true implications of energy security and the effects this is going to have on future trade, though they did seem to think the world will be less globalised, which it certainly will be. It was an interesting event however and good to be a part of.
The wall is back at the nursery and I’ll post up some pics of it in a few weeks time.