Congratulations on taking your first step towards healthy food and healthy Earth. Woolly Farms is a social enterprise with a vision to make fresh nutritious food available to all and reduce the impact of harmful agricultural practices on the environment. We are trying to achieve our goal by bringing farming inside the city and enable the new generation to grow their own food. To do so, we settled on hydroponics. Hydroponics is the way of cultivating plants without using soil. In hydroponics, plants are grown in nutrition enriched water with or without a supporting inert medium like coco peat or perlite. Among the many advantages, being space and labour efficient are some of the principle points that make hydroponics most suitable for urban farming. Here is your guide to start your hydroponics grow unit.
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Congratulations on taking your first step towards healthy
food and healthy Earth. Woolly Farms is a social
enterprise with a vision to make fresh nutritious food
available to all and reduce the impact of harmful agricultural
practices on the environment. We are trying to achieve our
goal by bringing farming inside the city and enable the new
generation to grow their own food. To do so, we settled on
hydroponics.
Hydroponics is the way of cultivating plants without using soil. In hydroponics, plants are grown in nutrition enriched water with or without a supporting inert medium like coco peat or perlite. Among the many advantages, being space and labour efficient are some of the principle points that make hydroponics most suitable for urban farming.
Here is your guide to start your hydroponics grow unit.
I. Wick system In this system, a plant is placed in a pot or tray with grow substrate and is attached to a wick made from an absorbing fabric. The wick is immersed into a tank full of nutrition solution which absorbs the water gradually upwards to the root.
III. Nutrition Film technique (NFT) The plants are placed in channels and a thin film of nutrition solution constantly runs through the roots. The channels are slightly tilted to maintain the flow of water. The water is collected back in a reservoir and is pumped back to create a continuous cycle.
IV. Ebb and flow (flood and drain)
V. Drip system This is the most widely used system in hydroponic farms. Plants are placed in the suitable media and a drip line supplies nutrition solution to the plants as per the requirement. The media can be chosen based on the crop and availability. One can choose the fast-drying media like clay pebbles or a media with a higher moisture holding capacity like cocopeat.
VI. Aeroponics
We at Woolly farms mainly use NFT and the drip system. The information below will provide an essential overlay for you to choose amongst these two systems.
Pros & Cons
Crops
Suitable for small plants with short crop-cycles. e.g. all the green leafy vegetables like lettuce, spinach, bok choy, coriander, etc
Suitable to grow all kinds of plants. e.g. green leafy, fruiting plants like cucumber or tomatoes or root vegetables like radish or carrot.
Pros
i. High aeration for roots ii. Faster growth in limited space
iii. Can be installed vertically, hence space-efficient
i. Relatively cheaper than other systems
ii. Easy switch from automatic to manual in case of a power cut
Cons
i. Relatively expensive system ii. Not suitable for bigger or
fruiting plants iii. High dependency on
power-supply
i. Might have nutrition solution run-off
Commercial Farms Woolly Farms is proposing a set of Grow-systems for those who want to venture into the commercial aspect of farming and are interested in selling their produce. We at Woolly farms categorize anything above 1000 sqft as a commercial farm. We will extend expert service for - Support in -
Designing the grow unit Providing help with the infrastructure Fabrication, wherever required, for setting up the farm structure Providing guidance for the complete growing process (considering the level
of involvement our partner seeks) Training - Woolly Farms will help the partner by facilitation of training to any individual that the partner desires to hire for day-to-day maintenance and operations at the partner farm. Investment - All the investment will be from the partner’s side. Woolly farms will extend investment in terms of providing years of experience and excellence in growing techniques. Buy-back Policy- Our partnership program also offers a buyback policy, details of which will be discussed once we settle on the size of the grow unit and the crop that you would choose to grow. The prices of the buy-back will be revised every two months to keep up with the market.
Prices Here is a breakup of prices for all products that constitute the growing systems - General -
Grow bags with irrigation drip lines- Rs. 60 per sq. ft. NFT system- Rs. 92 per sq. ft. or Rs. 300/m Shade net- Rs. 150 per sq. ft. Polyhouse with Rain shelter- Rs. 200 per sq. ft.
1 Acre or Above -
The Process After the initial communication, the partner is advised to visit our Community Farm. Our Community farm is located in the midst of the busy HSR hive. It brings a very clear perspective and provides a real-life experience of how a hydroponics farm looks like. If you are unfamiliar with the idea of hydroponics, this is especially suggested for you. Another prospect associated with a farm visit is to showcase our setup and grow techniques. The suggested timings to visit our community farm-
Monday-Friday - 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM Weekend Visits - Has to be scheduled at least 2-3 days prior to the visit.
Site assessment - If you require our team to visit your proposed farm site prior to officially partnering with us, we will be happy to assist you with it. However, this visit will incur a fee (refundable if the partnership is sealed). The team will visit the site and take necessary information to design a proposal for the partner.
Proposal After gathering all the necessary information, we will provide you with a customized proposal entirely modelled according to the partner’s requirements. This proposal covers these point -
Proposed design of the grow unit Expected Pricing of setting up the unit Monthly operational costs Woolly Farms consultation fee Details of the suggested or Desired crop Expected revenue - based on an assessment of grow area, crop, and present
market value ROI
Hydroponics is the way of cultivating plants without using soil. In hydroponics, plants are grown in nutrition enriched water with or without a supporting inert medium like coco peat or perlite. Among the many advantages, being space and labour efficient are some of the principle points that make hydroponics most suitable for urban farming.
Here is your guide to start your hydroponics grow unit.
I. Wick system In this system, a plant is placed in a pot or tray with grow substrate and is attached to a wick made from an absorbing fabric. The wick is immersed into a tank full of nutrition solution which absorbs the water gradually upwards to the root.
III. Nutrition Film technique (NFT) The plants are placed in channels and a thin film of nutrition solution constantly runs through the roots. The channels are slightly tilted to maintain the flow of water. The water is collected back in a reservoir and is pumped back to create a continuous cycle.
IV. Ebb and flow (flood and drain)
V. Drip system This is the most widely used system in hydroponic farms. Plants are placed in the suitable media and a drip line supplies nutrition solution to the plants as per the requirement. The media can be chosen based on the crop and availability. One can choose the fast-drying media like clay pebbles or a media with a higher moisture holding capacity like cocopeat.
VI. Aeroponics
We at Woolly farms mainly use NFT and the drip system. The information below will provide an essential overlay for you to choose amongst these two systems.
Pros & Cons
Crops
Suitable for small plants with short crop-cycles. e.g. all the green leafy vegetables like lettuce, spinach, bok choy, coriander, etc
Suitable to grow all kinds of plants. e.g. green leafy, fruiting plants like cucumber or tomatoes or root vegetables like radish or carrot.
Pros
i. High aeration for roots ii. Faster growth in limited space
iii. Can be installed vertically, hence space-efficient
i. Relatively cheaper than other systems
ii. Easy switch from automatic to manual in case of a power cut
Cons
i. Relatively expensive system ii. Not suitable for bigger or
fruiting plants iii. High dependency on
power-supply
i. Might have nutrition solution run-off
Commercial Farms Woolly Farms is proposing a set of Grow-systems for those who want to venture into the commercial aspect of farming and are interested in selling their produce. We at Woolly farms categorize anything above 1000 sqft as a commercial farm. We will extend expert service for - Support in -
Designing the grow unit Providing help with the infrastructure Fabrication, wherever required, for setting up the farm structure Providing guidance for the complete growing process (considering the level
of involvement our partner seeks) Training - Woolly Farms will help the partner by facilitation of training to any individual that the partner desires to hire for day-to-day maintenance and operations at the partner farm. Investment - All the investment will be from the partner’s side. Woolly farms will extend investment in terms of providing years of experience and excellence in growing techniques. Buy-back Policy- Our partnership program also offers a buyback policy, details of which will be discussed once we settle on the size of the grow unit and the crop that you would choose to grow. The prices of the buy-back will be revised every two months to keep up with the market.
Prices Here is a breakup of prices for all products that constitute the growing systems - General -
Grow bags with irrigation drip lines- Rs. 60 per sq. ft. NFT system- Rs. 92 per sq. ft. or Rs. 300/m Shade net- Rs. 150 per sq. ft. Polyhouse with Rain shelter- Rs. 200 per sq. ft.
1 Acre or Above -
The Process After the initial communication, the partner is advised to visit our Community Farm. Our Community farm is located in the midst of the busy HSR hive. It brings a very clear perspective and provides a real-life experience of how a hydroponics farm looks like. If you are unfamiliar with the idea of hydroponics, this is especially suggested for you. Another prospect associated with a farm visit is to showcase our setup and grow techniques. The suggested timings to visit our community farm-
Monday-Friday - 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM Weekend Visits - Has to be scheduled at least 2-3 days prior to the visit.
Site assessment - If you require our team to visit your proposed farm site prior to officially partnering with us, we will be happy to assist you with it. However, this visit will incur a fee (refundable if the partnership is sealed). The team will visit the site and take necessary information to design a proposal for the partner.
Proposal After gathering all the necessary information, we will provide you with a customized proposal entirely modelled according to the partner’s requirements. This proposal covers these point -
Proposed design of the grow unit Expected Pricing of setting up the unit Monthly operational costs Woolly Farms consultation fee Details of the suggested or Desired crop Expected revenue - based on an assessment of grow area, crop, and present
market value ROI
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