Grow anything from herbs, lettuce, strawberries & greens to full blown fruiting crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini even tubers such as potatoes, carrots and beet root!   

Here’s some inspiration 🙂 :
Beet Root |  Lettuce | Spinach | Kale | Capsicum | Tomato 

Cucumber | Celery | Beans | Herbs | Strawberries | Carrot 

Swiss Chard | Pumpkin | Bok Choi | Chillies | Snow Peas | 

Zucchini | Broccoli | Shallots 

You get the picture right!   🙂   You can pretty much grow anything.   Just ensure you’re providing enough sun…

Watch the above video for a detailed guide:
1) Expand the coco and then fill each planter with coco
2) Connect the solar or electric pump
3) Slide lid over center pole & stack up the planters
4) Open drain, and flush the coco with water
5) Close the drain, and fill with 60 litres of water
6) Configure timer (electric), or put panel in the sun (solar)
7) Add nutrient to the water every 2 weeks
*Step by step instructions come with the system   

The Smart Farm comes with quality hydroponic nutrient that is in 2 parts (A & B).   This nutrient is designed to grow various plants in all stages of growth.   So you don’t need to mess around with different ‘grow’ vs ‘bloom’ blends and complicated additives like some other systems.  

To use, simply fill the 1.25 litre bottles that come with the system with water, shake well, then once dissolved, add it to the reservoir at a rate of 5ml nutrient per litre of water for both parts A & B.   As the reservoir is 60 litres, you therefore can add 300ml of each.  This will last 2 weeks before you need to replace it in the tank.   
*Note: Less is more with this stuff as it’s powerful!   So half this dosage for seedlings

See this short video on how to use it.

Coco Coir is organic & made from the husk of the coconut.    Coco has exceptional water retention, oxygen holding and anti-fungal properties.  The compressed blocks expand 7 to 8 times in water and even when fully saturated, hold 22% air.   Coco has a PH range between 6 – 6.8 making it simply THE BEST hydroponic growing medium available.

Yes!  You’d be surprised what percentage of store bought produce is now grown hydroponically. 

Hydroponic nutrients are made form mineral salts.  These are the same 17 nutrients & elements found in the soil you buy from a nursery, the difference is they’re in a highly available form which plants utilize much faster.

Instead of the plants roots spreading out in search of nutrition, they are provided just the right amounts directly, which means smaller root systems and faster, more robust, nutrient dense growth allowing the plant to reach it’s full enetic potential.   

If you have your system in full sun and the temperature is 20 degrees celcius or more during the day, then let the pump run a good 4 hours p/day!   You may think you’re over-watering, but the coco/perlite mix retains plenty oxygen even when fully saturated.   If it’s cold or your not giving it full sun, then yes dial back the watering regime to approx 15-30 min per day.   

Under low light conditions, you’ll want to add an inexpensive air pump in the reservoir to ensure the water is oxyginated as it’s flowing less.  This safeguards against issues relating to still water.   

In actual fact the tower only truly needs about 2 minutes per day to hydrate fully, but you can’t really over water it (unless it’s very cold and/or very low sunlight).

No, with Mr Stacky it’s really simple!   To make it easy, we’re really just adding nutrient to the water and then watering your plants with it.  The coco coir is very ‘forgiving’ and is an excellent buffer against under or over watering.   As everything is automated, it takes all the guessing out and saves your plants from your unintentional neglect! 

Perlite is mined volcanic glass that is inert and has excellent airation qualities.   It’s commonly added to soil to asssit with absorption and aeration.  While it’s not 100% necessary (ie. the coco coir does a great job on it’s on), we do provide it at an 80/20 ratio (coco / perlite) as we find this ensures optimal results.   

Flushing the system every 2 weeks is a standard practice in hydroponic growing.   Over time, a build up of nutrient can increase PH and EC in the water which is detrimental to plants.  Basically, clean fresh water is clean water, so flushing a system every 2 weeks is standard.    In the case of the smart farm, once the plants are established, it’s likely they’ll actually suck up 30 to 40 litres p/week anyway, in which case you’d simply top up with water mid-way before flushing and adding clean nutrient every 2 weeks