Thai basil and Chinese cabbage thriving in Orkney
Everything from chilis to cucumbers is being grown at UHI Orkney, as part of an innovative experiment in vertical farming.
At a polycrub on campus, nine towers are being used to grow fruit, vegetables, and herbs that would never normally be found so fresh and tasty in Orkney.
The Agronomy and Agriculture Institute, headed by Dr Henry Creissen, is finding interest from two local eateries for the creatively-grown produce.
The team are also hoping the hydroponic approach will help children take an interest in where their food comes from.
“It’s been a successful project so far,” said Dr Creissen, as he showed The Orcadian around the set-up on Wednesday, August 5.
A solar panel and battery system powers the pumps which run the vertical farm, which was funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
From two barrels, a nutrient solution is mixed with water and pumped to the top of each tower, from where it trickles down through to the plants below.
Everything apart from the strawberries started out as a seed, wrapped in rock wool.
Put in place in September, the tower farm’s results seem to speak for themselves, especially since no pesticides are used.
Dr Creissen reckons plants have grown between two and three times as fast as they would in a normal polytunnel.
An impressive variety is sprouting to success in the towers – from different kinds of lettuce, parsley, rocket and coriander to tomatoes, cucumbers and chili peppers.
There’s also Thai basil, Chinese cabbage, and amaranth (a superfood not to Dr Creissen’s taste!).
“You can grow pretty much anything in this system if you have the space,” the agronomy expert added.
The parsley and lettuce grown in the towers has impressed the chefs at the Lynnfield Hotel, while the Thai food van in Stromness has praised the produce as well, Dr Creissen said.
He believes that towers like these can be used to grow food that is either expensive to bring to Orkney, or loses its richness during travel.
The institute is hoping that, with grant funding, the tower farms could be used to carry out trials to determine how best the system could be used in Orkney.
It will also be looking to install a fan to optimise the temperature and air flow in the polytunnel.
For those wanting to find out more about vertical farming, a workshop is to take place during the Orkney International Science Festival.
Held at Westray Junior High School on Monday, September 7, the event will look at how the technology might be employed to the island’s benefit.
