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1. High yield of crops
2. High quality of crops
3. High flexibility
4. Low energy use
5. Low water use
6. Low maintenance
7. Low labour
8. Environmentally friendly

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Photoshop done by lorenzo

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Basic concept of skygreen vertical farming

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Basic concept of skygreen vertical farming

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The skygreens patented vertical farming system consists of rows of crops that rotates in a cycle mounted on an A-shaped aluminium frame. The frame can be up to 9 meters tall with 38 rows of crops growing simultaneously, regardless of the plant's growing medium or whether it is hydroponics. These troughs of plants rotate around the A-shaped frame to ensure uniform sunlight, irrigation and nutrients as they reach certain points in the cycle. As the structures can go up to 9 meters tall, vertical farming makes use of space much more efficiently than traditional farms, thus increasing land productivity and potentially increasing yield of crops by 10 times.

The structure for vertical farming is a modular system, where height can be varied and the size of plants can also be varied. Thus they can be built in space constrained urban areas, to maximize usage of space.

These structures can also be tailor made to suit different kinds of crops, growing medium and natural conditions, and is able to grow crops on non-arable land, thus being able to grow crops above lakes, rivers and reservoirs by building these structures above them.

References:
https://www.skygreens.com/technology/

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Through this field trip, we have learned a lot about how vertical farming can potentially revolutionize the agricultural industry as it can produce a yield that is higher and cheaper than conventional farming. We also learnt about the many other advantages vertical farming had over traditional farming.

We learned how innovative ideas can help to reduce the environmental impact of farming, such as the use of hydraulics to rotate crops so that they can still receive sunlight despite being elevated and blocked by other rows of plants. This also minimizes the use of water and electricity to power the lifting mechanism, and requires very little water.

We also learned about the importance of sustainable agriculture in Singapore. Since Singapore has limited land, it is important to maximise and optimise the space used for farming. This can be achieved easier with use of vertical farms such as skygreens. If Singapore were to encounter a lack of food imports from other countries, we would need to rely on our own farming industry to sustain us. The Sky Greens vertical farming technology is a good step towards the optimisation of farming space in Singapore.

We learnt about skygreen's mission, which is to innovate whilst impacting the environment as little as possible, and yet help cities like Singapore achieve their goal of food supply. This is important as most farms have chemical pesticides and have a high agricultural run off which is very harmful for the environment and the fishes living in the areas that the water flows to. Their motto of not using chemicals is respectable in a economy where everyone else is using it to improve their products.

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The farm integrates a fish pond to the water collected from watering its plants in their towers. Whilst only employed in 2 towers at the moment, the concept is being tested to see if both olericulture and pisciculture  can be integrated together. Water is used by the fish as a habitat, whilst the waste products of fish are used as fertilizers for the plants. This kind of farming is also known as aquaponics, in which water is used to keep fish and plants. The waste produced by the fishes acts as a fertilizer for the plants, while the plants purify the water pumped back into the pond.

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Citronella plants, containing citronella oil, is used around the perimeter of the farm to act as a deterrent to pests. This is a form passive pest management employed by the farm.

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Sticky pads were placed around the lower region of tower to capture any pests flying around. Lights were also installed at the top of the tower to attract insects such as moths to the top and away from the crops.

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After about 35 days of growing. the vegetables are then harvested by the farm's farmhands. The vertical farming method makes collection convenient, as shelves can be easily moved for collection.

The vegetables are immediately sorted by their quality upon cutting. Vegetables deemed to be of good quality are immediately packed in bags, ready for sealing and shipping. Those that do not meet standards are collected by the farm for composting.

This overall ensures that the quality of the products are kept to a high standard, whilst ensuring that nothing goes to waste.

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The farm places dirt and compost piles next to the towers  for convenience. At the same time, these troughs are used as compost piles. The compost material largely comprises of organic wastes from the farm itself (rejected vegetables) and other organic wastes from the nearby farms, such as rejected tauge.

These compost piles are then used as fertilizer for the the towers, and are incorporated into the soil.

This is another way that the farm practices sustainable farming, by maximising the usage of waste materials.

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Less maintenance and manpower required. Environmentally friendly.

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Less maintenance and manpower required. Environmentally friendly.

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The structures are made of aluminium, which is light, durable and non-corrosive. Thus low maintenance is required, with the only maintenance required to wash off the algae that will have grown on the outside of the walls to improve the amount of sunlight reaching the plants. This

As there are systems that alternate the plants in a 16h cycle to allow all the plants ample sunlight, and a water irrigation system, the only manpower required are to harvest and plant the plants. The water irrigation system is a closed loop system, thus causing no agricultural run off. The whole cycle also only required 40W of electricity and 0.5L of water, which makes it a very efficient system as well.

This water system is achieved by making use of gravity and a pulley system. Water flows from an overhead tank into a pulley system to rotate the system, then into a generator to generate energy to bring the water back up to the tank above. The water used is collected from rainwater, and excess water from irrigation goes to the fish pond. Thus, pesticides are not used so as to not poison the fishes.

References:
https://www.skygreens.com/technology/

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Food standards are high as the structures are housed in a controlled environment, where the workers can manage the water and nutrients given to the plants to ensure that the crops harvested is of highest quality.

Skygreens directly harvests and packs the vegetables grown, reducing double handling where the vegetables harvested would need to be transported elsewhere to be packed before going to the shelves in stores. These harvested vegetables are also stored in vacuum cooled trucks in order to reduce contact with air to ensure freshness of their vegetables. The cold trucks are set to the optimal preservation temperature according to the type of vegetable.

Skygreens also ensures that the harvested crops stay fresh from the farm to the stores. They have another patent called the Cold Chain Management System where cooling, storage and transportation are all merged into one single container. The vehicle reduces handling by workers while streamlining other processes and improves space efficiency greatly. This is also in line with the skygreen principle of achieving maximum functionality with least impact on the environment

References:
https://www.skygreens.com/sky-greens-cold-chain-management-system/

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There are many different types of vertical farming. One of the mostly commonly used models is hydroponic vertical farming.  This kind of farming does not require soil and thus is an easier and more accessible method to vertical farming as compared to using soil. Another kind is aeroponics, which was developed by NASA as a response to the problem of efficiently growing plants in space. This vertical farming method uses very little water and no soil. The third kind of vertical farming is aquaponics. This farming method improves on the hydroponic farming system by adding fishes. In this way, the waste produced by the fishes is used to fertilize the plants as the waste produced is nutrient-rich, and the plants in turn purify the water sent back into the fish pond. This is the farming method used in Sky Greens.

-Daniel Cheng
References: https://attra.ncat.org/calendar/question.php/what-are-the-different-types

Picture source: https://makezine.com/projects/aquaponic-garden/

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Another new kind of vertical farming is a kind of farming technique called Zipfarming. In Zipfarming, the plants are literally vertically grown, with crops being grown vertically on towers. This has many advantages, such as being exposed to more light. This also saves more space, and is very efficient, allowing farmers to easily move and expand their farm as they please.

Reference: Zipfarming - http://www.zipgrow.com/
Source: http://www.zipgrow.com.php7-34.ord1-1.websitetestlink.com/zipfarm/