Aquaponics on a global scale…
Aquaponics has the power to revolutionize agriculture. It is the greenest way to grow any crop, and the quickest path toward USDA organic certification. Food crops are being extensively investigated with this technology, however floriculture, cut flowers, have not been researched at all. We intend to develop this powerful method to produce millions of cut flower stems every year, and use the profitability of cut flowers to permit access of millions of underserved people to healthy, sustainably grown food.
We have focused on Lisianthus as the primary floriculture crop to produce in the aquaponics system, for a number of reasons:
Lisianthus has one the longest vase life of any commercial cut flower variety; 2 weeks in many cases.
Lisianthus can be grown tightly, with as little as 3 inches in between each plant. This maximizes how many stems we can produce per square foot of system space.
Lisianthus demands a relatively high price per stem, sometimes as much as $2-3 per.
While not devoid of any pests, Lisianthus have fewer natural pests in comparison to other high priced cut flower varieties like Dahlias.