Watercress grown on one of the island’s first Vertical Farms has sold out in hours at Hooton’s Homegrown, Brynsiencyn. James Hooton and his family are well known for growing quality fruit and vegetables and rearing their own livestock. Their latest project, watercress, was grown as part of Menter Môn’s ‘TechTyfu’ project, with James being one of three commercial growers in Gwynedd and Anglesey to trial an innovative vertical farm growing system.
The family received support from TechTyfu, a project created by Menter Môn, to establish a vertical farm at their farm shop in Brynsiencyn over the Summer. Anglesey watercress is grown in a vertical farm unit, which uses a flood and drain hydroponic system to pump nutrient-rich solutions to the plant crop, enabling efficient and clean growth without soil.
“My family have been farming here since the early 1960s,” explains James Hooton, “and watercress is the latest produce we are growing to supply our farm shop, Hooton’s Homegrown.”
“We have been using hydroponics to cultivate crops for many years, such as with the tabletop strawberries you’ll see at our ‘pick-your-own’ site. However this is the first time we’ve used a vertical farm system.”
Read more at AAFarmer.