Inside the greenhouse
The only farm where you can see the roots.
Hydroponics is not a shortcut. It is the same plant, given the same minerals, with the two variables a field cannot control — water and light — held steady. Here is what actually happens between the seed and the box.
45 days
Seed to cut, step by step.
Day 0
Sowing
One pelleted seed per rockwool plug, in a germination room held dark and humid at around 18°C. Rockwool is inert — it holds water and air in the right ratio and contributes nothing else.
Day 3
Germination
The coat splits and the radicle pushes out. Plugs move under light as soon as the first shoot shows, before the seedling can stretch looking for it.
Day 12
Into the channel
The plug is set into a net pot in a nutrient film channel. From here the roots sit in moving, oxygenated water carrying a measured mix of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and trace elements.
Day 12 – 45
Grow-out
The plant is spaced further apart as the canopy widens. Electrical conductivity, pH and water temperature are checked daily; the water itself is filtered and returned to the tank rather than drained away.
Day 45
Harvest
Cut to order, in the morning, with the root ball left on wherever the pack allows. Packed cold and out the same day.
The questions we actually get
Straight answers.
Why no pesticides?
The building is sealed and screened, and there is no soil to carry soil-borne disease. Pests that never get in do not need spraying. Where something does get in, we use predatory insects rather than chemistry.
Is hydroponic produce less nutritious?
The plant is given the same mineral nutrients it would take up from soil, in known quantities. What changes is the delivery, not the plant. Freshness does more for nutrient content than growing medium does, and a head cut this morning beats one trucked in last week.
What about the water?
It recirculates. A field loses most of what it is given to evaporation and drainage; a closed channel returns it to the tank. That is where the roughly 90% saving comes from.
Is it organic?
No — organic certification is tied to soil, so a soil-free system cannot hold it however it is grown. What we can say precisely is that nothing is sprayed and no herbicide is used. TODO: confirm the exact wording with whoever handles certification.