Former Army tech Larry Johnson has spent his career improving computer and telephone systems so when he saw inefficiencies in how we grow our food, he decided to create a new system for farming your yard. His EZGro garden uses aquaponics, stacked towers, and custom pots to create a high-density vertical garden (HDVG) on as little land as a deck, rooftop, or parking space.
Johnson says the system will grow 700 plants, using 15 towers, in a space of just 2 by 18 feet. Today, he sells kits ranging from single tower patio gardens to 10-tower deck gardens to commercial-sized set-ups like those being used by a Miami football stadium for concession meals, by a Whole Foods Market in New Jersey, and by rooftop farmers in Lagos, Nigeria.
It all began in 1995 when Johnson began tinkering with his quad pot design, crafting a custom container strong enough to hold tomato plants with over 100 pounds of fruit. He then developed an irrigation system that feeds nutrient-rich water from the top of the towers, drips through the pots, and filters out through tubing below to be reused. This closed-loop system uses less than 10% of the water of a traditional garden.
To create a system robust enough for even off-grid farmers, Johnson has spent the last 2 decades developing his trihelix solar windmill. Solar panels are mounted on top of three turbines, known as the “Tri-Helix”, which are twisted like DNA strands to catch even inconsistent wind (turbines start turning in winds of just 2mph).
On *faircompanies: https://faircompanies.com/videos/vet-creates-high-yield-homestead-all-food-in-under-1-4-acre/
41 Comments
If you're interested in these types of vertical-axis windmills, be sure to search a bit for: "Savonius wind turbine". This will show you examples of similar turbine designs, which can you even make as a small science project using e.g. a Pringles tube or a (a bit more "serious") using a small section of rainwater pipe. 🙂
Note: make sure you stay safe though! When there are high wind speeds. Under high load (and when no braking/safety mechanism is present) parts can go flying when a wind turbine hasn't been designed/constructed properly.
not in business to get rich, but in business to grow food and help people………now that is a man i respect…….i have the exact same idea…God will bless you for that…
He still has to buy synthetic nutrients for the towers. He's not using fish aquaculture water, afaik
How can he claim no yearly inputs?
6:50 best answer to the Question !
Kirsten come see what we’re doing.
what to do if the pots you offer are small and the peppers plants you grow are supposed to grow large as in nature e.g. chiltepin
At the 7th minute in I thought to myself, what a beautiful life we'll have if most persons had the same desire to help people become successful.
God bless You! You doing right
amazing and inspiring!
God bless this man and Americans better protect this man ! Before ur big brother goes after him . Take care
Is it just me or isn’t PVC really toxic
Love it!!
Anyone not liking the $13 price tag for the planter should understand that you are buying one strong enough to last for years. I’ve spent close to that price on a planter and had it start to crack. I would rather pay a few dollars more for a planter that will last.
Not-so-mad scientist?
I got some nice pots before. They really are worth it. Then look really good.
The pots im talking about ive had for 9 years at least. So if yours are better then those well. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them last that much longer.
Can we get this man a manufacturing engineer? Looks like he's making everything himself one at a time.
The world needs more of these people. Passionate innovators not businessmen.
Have a similar setup. I don't even care about doing a good job because the reality is I end up with more tomatoes than I'll ever be able to use. Like all my food taste like tomato now because I throw it in every dish.
Oh?
My grandpa has been using these pots on his property since the mid 2000s and is still using them.
That man must have some good plant genetics
Very interesting system I would like to try it in my garden
These gardens need to be everywhere.
Look at the Quantity of plastic and electric machines in the name of healthy life…
Finally. Youtube is feeding the right addiction!
Thanks, I've been looking for this video since you first posted it thank you algorithm gods
You can't cook your money….
This guy needs to really help this country feed the people and I have the land to do that. I need this.
WHY is this not happening in THIS COUNTRY. ?$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$4
The only problem I see is that this output of food can only be sustained by adding mineral fertilizer, which isn't necassarily very sustainable because there isn't an unlimited amount left to use. To be truly independent and off grid you'd have to have a much greater volume of soil and dead biomass in order to sustain the level of humus and microorganisms needed to filter out enough minerals and make them available to the plants. One would maybe be able to replace the artificially added fertilizer by composting of dead plants and utilizing the sewage generated by eating the food grown in this system in order to make it a truly independent cycle. But then the effort of liquifiying the fertilizer would maybe outway the benefits on such a small scale and a horizontal garden would again be more favorable to make it easier to spread the fertilizer.
So you use indeterminate tomatoes?
I really love this idea I do organic gardening but even on a smaller set up I could premix organic feed into the water butt and pump it through. So much less waste of water and feed as well by collecting back what drains out of the bottom of the pots. That is one very clever man. Our governments could do with buying wind/solar systems like that and putting them on roofs everywhere. They are so much more compact than the big wind turbines and I would think double the capacity of any given space to produce electricity.
It's obvious this is the way forward
First I had to laugh when he claimed most tower hydroponics systems just let the water seep into the ground. Yeah, right. Then 10:00, sorry I couldn't get past the stupid vertical wind turbines sitting practically on the ground nestled in the trees standing still and at the same time he's complaining the sun isn't available at night. There's no way he actually runs anything from those when they can't capture more than a slight breeze between the trees and generate maybe a watt or two let along 400W each. He's got one old maybe 220W solar panel that might be doing something. Then I tried to look up his business and it has lots of nice pictures on the web site with a bunch of 1 star reviews of people not getting their stuff. 😞
this is so cool, Thanks for making such interesting videos. so nicel whatching your channel with such interesting peoples telling their storys. Much blessings to you!
Where can I buy these things?
A small modification for the mineral tanks I would do is to add a simple arduino tied in to level sensors rather than introducing food dyes.
Love Love Love to do something like this! Been wanting to do something like this for over 10 years. One day maybe…
I tried ordering the set of 25 pots on line and it tells me to choose a mother selection so I added to the cart the mini grow pots and it still wouldn’t go in the cart; I’m just a back yard / deck gardener, and I’m just getting started, so I don’t need and can’t afford to buy his hold beginner system; is there a smaller Set or how do i just order the pots????
Thank you for all your hard work Kirsten! There is so much to learn and I am learning so much through your channel. Human potential is extraordinary and when we work with nature, we can truly create sustainable living spaces that promote the well-being of all.
This man gets room in the bunker, fo sho.