“Automated and elegant by design, the PlantHive enables end-users to grow their favorite small fruits and veggies, flowers, and medicinal plants from the comfort of their home,” says Alexander Borner, CMO of Business Development at PlantHive.
PlantHive offers compact and modular growing solutions that fit in any apartment or home but can also be used by horticultural experts and researchers as a miniaturized indoor farm to run experiments. Based on MIT’s Personal Food Computer design, PlantHive integrates climate sensors, multispectral imaging, control modules, and high-efficiency LED lighting. Growers can monitor their plants through an interactive app, which also offers growing tutorials.
“It’s an easy-to-use system that doesn’t require a lot of knowledge on how to grow plants or how to operate IoT devices. Because of the system’s design, even inexperienced users can get great results. Our collection of tutorials further enhances our end-user’s urban gardening,” says Alexander.
Grow microgreens, ornamentals, and everything in between
The PlantHive Smart Garden is 39 cm wide by 39 cm deep and 52 cm tall. Users can also add column extensions to raise the height to 77 cm. With the PlantHive Smart Garden, users can produce nearly any type of plant year-round. Leafy greens and microgreens typically offer the shortest production cycle, while ornamentals, vegetables, and fruits take more time.
“We offer a modular system that can fit every need, experience level, and crop type, and at a starting price of €799, it is more affordable than many competitor products. This makes the PlantHive Smart Garden attractive for a large number of people and not just high-income users,” Alexander continues.
Plans to diversify manufacturing materials, design larger unit
As Alexander explains, PlantHive considers its current smart garden to be a beta version. The company plans to diversify its manufacturing materials, increase product sustainability, and encourage the vertical farming industry to follow suit.
“We are aware of the waste management problems in the hardware and consumer electronics industries, and thus are considering aluminum sheet metals for the mechanical structure of the shell,” says Alexander.
PlantHive also hopes to scale its smart garden to the size of a wall-integrated fridge or cabinet, allowing growers to produce even more food.
“People need to get used to operating such systems and harvesting the benefits of growing plants on a professional level at home and year-round. It is also important that real estate development companies start seeing the potential of these systems and integrate them into new buildings,” Alexander notes.
For more information:
Alexander Borner, CMO
Alex.Borner@PlantHive.com
PlantHive
www.planthive.com