Cars are not the only things under shelter at a multi-story carpark in Hougang. Vegetables such as bayam (Chinese spinach), chye sim, and kale are grown at the Greenhood vertical farm situated on the roof of Block 946A Hougang Street 92, which was opened to the public on Sunday.
Besides maximizing land use, Greenhood stands out from other rooftop farms because its vegetables are grown in a climate-controlled greenhouse. This means the vegetables on the 1,808 sq m farm are not exposed to the elements of weather, and pesticides are not needed.
Greenhood, a commercial company, won a government tender three years ago to run the rooftop farm, which began operations in June. Seedlings are first grown on an ebb and flow table, where they are watered and the water drained for three weeks until they are about 5cm tall. They are then transferred to vertical aeroponic panels and fed nutrient-rich water for another three weeks until they are ready for harvest. Engineer Niven Ang (below), 27, harvested some bayam at the end of a farm tour.
“The harvesting was a lot easier than typical soil harvesting because you can just pluck (the vegetables) off the columns. Whereas in soil harvesting, you have to uproot the entire thing from the soil,” he said.
Read more at straitstimes.com