Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

home grow

FirstBuild is Making a Smart Mushroom Fruiting Chamber for the Home

One of my wife and I’s inside jokes is the reason we fell in love was our mutual dislike of mushrooms. When we first met, we both thought most forms of fungi that crossed our plates were gross. A few gray hairs (on my head, not hers) and years of marriage later, we can both be adult enough nowadays to eat the occasional mushroom when offered, even if we both would still prefer to hold the mold.

That said, I have come to marvel at the power of fungi in recent years and am all for people (except me) eating more mushrooms, so I was excited when I saw that FirstBuild is working on taking its mushroom fruiting chamber from prototype to product.

You can catch a glimpse of the new Mella Smart Mushroom Fruiting Chamber in action below in the video from FirstBuild.

Introducing Mella: The Smart Mushroom Fruiting Chamber

With sensors for humidity and temperature monitoring, the ability to monitor the mushrooms via a web dashboard and email alerts, closed-loop humidity control with a small refillable water basin, and air filter with duel inlet fans, the appliance has all the bells and whistles to help the aspiring fungiculurist create a high-tech fruiting chamber on their kitchen countertop. Plus it looks cool. The fruiting chamber is surrounded by glass, which lets you check out the your growing fungi.

So why is FirstBuild creating a mushroom growing appliance? The main reason is probably because weird and interesting new appliance concepts are largely the reason the organization exists. FirstBuild, which became somewhat well known with product concepts like its precision cooking Paragon cooktop and Opal ice maker, essentially acts as a product innovation engine for GE Appliances. The group crowdsources new ideas, builds prototypes, and occasionally – like with the Opal – will take the prototypes to full production.

FirstBuild has a microfactory that can do small batch manufacturing, so oftentimes the group will make small one-off manufacturing runs of products like the Forge clear ice system. Other times, the product never gets out of prototype, like it looks like happened with the Arden in-home smoker (bummer) or the Saucemaster 3000.

The move into a grow system for mushrooms isn’t the only sign that FirstBuild has become home-grow curious since earlier this year the company prototyped a smart garden system. It’s also possibly a sign the innovation group is following its parent company’s lead in exploring home grow systems as part of a broader home appliance offering.

If you want to get in on the mushrooom farming fun, stay tuned. FirstBuild says the campaign (which we presume will be on Indieogo) is coming soon.

Smart Garden Startup Click & Grow Raises $11 Million To Fuel Expansion

Estonian smart-garden startup Click & Grow announced this week it has raised $11 million to help accelerate growth for its hyperlocal grow systems into new markets.

Investors in this round include two strategic corporate investors in Swedish holding company Ingka Group (which owns and operates the majority of IKEA stores) and French conglomerate Groupe SEB, as well as Y Combinator and Shanghai-based Yunqi VC. The round brings the total invested in the nearly 10 year old company to $17.9 million.

Investor interest in one of hottest indoor-gardening startups is not surprising given the strong growth in the home-grow space as of late. Demand for smart-grow systems has surged as consumers embrace the healthy aspects of indoor farming and — let’s be honest — start their own mini ganja farms as cannabis becomes legal in parts of the US and other countries like Canada.

While Click & Grow was one of the first of a wave of startups bringing technology to indoor gardening for the home, there is no shortage of competition in the space. New entrants like AVA, Verdical and SproutsIO are working to to bring their products to market, while Natufia, another Estonian smart garden startup, just raised $1.2 million in funding. Even long-time market leader AeroGrow (over 1.4 million units shipped as of 2016) has also seen a resurgence as majority owner MiracleGrow freshens up the product lineup.

IKEA’s involvement is intriguing for a couple reasons. For one, there’s no doubt the home furnishings giant has increasingly embraced smart home technology in recent years and the Click & Grow investment will strengthen extend this tech push into the garden. The deal is also interesting because IKEA had already launched a home grow system a couple years ago, which they are apparently still selling.

Either way, the Swedish company sees lots of potential in its new partnership:

“We see this as another step forward in our journey to serve IKEA customers and our co-worker’s healthier and more nutritious food, and it opens up new opportunities for IKEA Retail markets to become more self-sufficient by growing fresh local produce,” explained Krister Mattsson, Head of Investments, Ingka Group.

The Estonian startup, which has sold 450 thousand total systems and 2.1 million plant pods since launch, said it plans to use the funding to expand into new markets.

Review: Setting Up A Smart Indoor Grow System

I am not a person who keeps plants alive. Two dogs and a human, I can manage but for some reason, remembering to water an indoor plant is not something that makes it into my daily routine. So when my mother-in-law got me a “Smart Garden 3” from Click and Grow, I was slightly skeptical that I would not be successful at growing lovely herbs in my kitchen.

But once I read a little more, I realized that the entire smart indoor growing system was designed to be idiot-proof setup and equipped with enough technology to barely need any human involvement or interaction at all. (This are the kinds of tech I am here for: devices that make up for my shortcomings. I’m one personal trainer robot away from living my best life.) Click and Grow is the Keurig of indoor gardens and took the idea of putting coffee in pods and instead, put a combination of seeds and nutrient-rich soil inside “plant capsules.”

The unboxing of my indoor smart herb garden

In addition to the three basil capsules that came with my Smart Garden 3 (you can get bigger gardens and therefore, grow more capsules at one time), Click and Grow allows users to order different herbs, flowers, fruits and vegetables from their site or on Amazon. It even has a subscription program where you can sign up to receive regular deliveries of pods.

The device itself was a little smaller than I expected – but also taller, and the shelf I planned to put it on was too narrow. The bottom of the garden has a holding tank for the water as well as three circular spots for each seed pod.

The overhanging handle at the top is the grow light – a completely automated light I might add that rotates when the light is on and the intensity of light based on best grow practices for the plant you are growing.

On the top of each pod is a QR code – this is where the “smart” part of the name comes in. The garden comes out of the box just like this, so the first step in the instructions is to download the Click and Grow app.

The app is easy to navigate and once you open it, it prompts you to choose what indoor garden device you have and then you’re able to add plants to your garden. The QR code on the top of each plant capsule is scannable in the app, and the above screen appears with the plant’s “birthday” and details. You can also rename them to help you remember which plant is which – helpful especially if you are planting three of the same kind. (They also give you the old fashioned garden tags you can write on that stick up from each capsule.)

If you click the water icon, you can record when you watered your plant, therefore giving the app the ability to remind you when it’s time to water again. But because the water tank underneath holds more water than each plant needs daily and doles it out according to the plant’s needs, you don’t have to water daily. Or even weekly. Every 13-14 days, you have to fill the tank back up, but the device itself has a visual cue in addition to the app.

(The app has additional functionality like an album where you can upload pictures of the plant as it grows and a grow icon where you can put in measurements. I…am not that involved in my basil’s growth. I know, neglectful. My son is the one who checks on it daily.)

Once you scan each plant into your app, you remove the tops to each capsule which reveals another white cover, this time with a hole in the middle. This is where the plant will inevitably emerge as it grows. The kit also comes with three plastic domes and the instructions say to take each dome and place it on the top of each capsule to create a greenhouse-like environment for the seeds and soil. Once you start to see greenery and the plants begin to grow, you can remove the domes.

The next step was to add water. There is a rectangular spot on the top of the garden next to the capsule spots and the indicator inside rises as you add water. I counted the number of cups it took to fill the tank and it was around seven cups for the model of indoor garden I am using (Smart Garden 3).

The final step of setup is to plug in the garden. The instructions do warn you that the light basically rotates – 18 hours on, 6 hours off – so if you don’t want your device to go on in the middle of the night, you should plug it in for the first time in the morning. I guess that would matter more if you were keeping your indoor garden near your bedroom or you lived in a small apartment. Ours is on the kitchen counter, far from our beds and not where anyone is usually in the middle of the night, so I plugged it in the afternoon. Sure enough, ours cycles off as I’m waking up for the day. The light is pretty bright though, it’s almost as strong as the overhead light above our kitchen sink.

RESULTS: We are only a little over two weeks in, but so far, it’s been one of the easiest plant-growing experiences I have ever had. I’ve watered it a total of one time and the plants are finally started to grow little basil leaves. They look incredibly green and healthy and my four-year-old son is fascinated by them.

Click and Grow says it can take 4-6 weeks to have fully matured plants but they can last for a while, and you’re encouraged to trim them in a way that promotes regeneration.

I’m looking forward to having fresh basil right from my own kitchen and I’m already trying to decide what to grow next – lettuce or strawberries or flowers?! Too many to choose from. I can definitely see the appeal of systems like these – they are budget friendly (the startup kit was $50 for the device and the basil capsules) at least to start – and they give you the option to have fresh produce in any season with little effort.

If you read some of the Amazon reviews, many people point out that the refills themselves are pricey – up to $20 for rosemary and tomatoes. Given that plant seeds are a dollar or two at any garden shop, that price might prove unsustainable. However, there seem to be plenty of online guides on how to take the pods and make your own capsules to work with the system.

I’ll post an update when we have fully grown plants and we taste our first harvest.

Amidst Coffee Makers & Cookware, SproutsIO Talks Personal Produce At Housewares

Amidst the coffee makers, cookware and bartenderbots in Chicago this week at the International Home and Housewares Show, SproutsIO stood out as the one and only maker of a connected microgarden.

The SproutsIO microgarden, which allows an individual to grow vegetables in their home without soil or sunlight, is headed to market this year after a successful Kickstarter campaign last fall in which the company raised over $116 thousand. The SproutsIO will retail for $799, a price company CEO Jenny Broutin Farah believes will come down over time as they reach more efficiencies through high-volume manufacturing.

Broutin Farah told me (you can view the interview above) that one of the major benefits of SproutsIO is it grows vegetables much more quickly and efficiently than traditional soil-growing. The reason, she said, is the device can fully tailor growing conditions to each seed type, something which is difficult if outright impossible in traditional growing environments. According to Broutin Farah, SproutsIO can grow vegetables with just 2% of the water required in a traditional soil garden and 40% of the nutrients.

The company, which was one of the 15 startup showcase finalists at the Smart Kitchen Summit last October, will also monetize through selling seeds through a subscription service to user of the SproutsIO device.

You can hear the full interview above with Jenny Broutin Farah.

IoT Innovator Smallhold Sees Minifarms as Big Business

Believe it or not, those mushrooms you had in your go-to restaurant’s nightly pasta special were grown in the back, between the walk-in fridge and the spice cabinet.

Home grow systems are the buzz, keeping in mind that not everyone is blessed with a green thumb or the time and energy to maintain an indoor herb garden or heirloom tomato plants. Sensing an opportunity that could be solved using IoT technology and a dose of innovation, Brooklyn-based Smallhold has brought remote-maintained minifarms to the food industry.

Smallhold was among the 17 featured finalists at the recent Food + City competition in Austin. Recently, Smallhold was also one of four companies selected for a new program, Techstars Anywhere, a virtual accelerator program that is an offshoot of its prestigious brick and mortar origins.

“We believe minifarm technology and distributed agriculture is the future of farming,” says Smallhold co-founder and COO Adam DeMartino. “We see fresh and nutritious produce as the new norm no matter where you are – be it in midtown Manhattan or in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Smallhold Networked Minifarms employ the concept of vertical farming. The units fit in small spaces and are outfitted with Wi-Fi, which are monitored at company headquarters. The service starts with the company shipping its clients produce that is 75% grown, to be housed in a self-contained chamber, equipped with advanced lighting and water recirculation. With this approach, deployed at two restaurants and a Brooklyn produce hub, Smallhold is able to achieve 40 times the output per square foot of a traditional farm with 96% less water usage. The produce hub also supplies area restaurants and stores with gourmet mushrooms.

Adam and co-founder/CEO Andrew Carter met as roommates at the University of Vermont and became best friends. Andrew was heavily involved in the urban agriculture scene in New York, and started developing technology around mushroom production. Carter went on to work with startups in ag/tech space while DeMartino’s entrepreneurial spirit took him to startups Ghostery, Datorama and Futureclaw where he developed marketing and sales strategies.

While its IoT technology allows scale, Smallhold is patient in its approach with a vision of moving beyond servicing restaurants and grocery stores and making a mark in the consumer space. “We are very selective with our initial customers,” says DeMartino. “We want restaurateurs that will appreciate the produce and give us valuable feedback in how to improve our service, system, and produce.  This information is almost worth more than the revenue.”

Smallhold is not alone in the home grow/IoT farming market. Farmbot is offering an Arduino powered, open-source robo-farmer that can completely automate the growth of enough vegetables for one adult in a year; Sprouts I/O has an app-driven personal produce system in the works; Edyn can track growth conditions with its remote sensor and Gro.Io has an end-to-end smart hydroponic system including lighting, grow pockets and sensors.

The Year in Home Grow Systems

I have a fantasy of plucking juicy, ripe tomatoes from the vine in my garden, snipping a few basil leaves off the plant, and making myself a fresh summer salad. The problem is, I’m not much of a gardener. I’ve killed so many cacti that I don’t even try anymore: My buying a plant is pretty much sentencing it to death.

That’s why I’ve been so excited to see the home grow landscape blossom this year, with tons of systems, apps, and other devices to make growing food at home easier for even the worst black thumb like me.

Here are the most notable happenings and advancements in the past 12 months.

Grow It All

The Edyn solar-powered sensor is perfect for the detailed gardener with a big backyard plot: It sends data about weather, soil conditions, light frequency, and moisture levels to your phone, where you can manage it all. Meanwhile using sensors, the Gro app can also put together that data and even give you suggestions about specific plants. If you’re more of a hands-off person, the Parrot Pot senses the water level in the pot and waters your plant accordingly. These three devices don’t have to be used solely for produce, but they would certainly make it easier to grow vegetables and fruit at home.

Then there’s the FarmBot, which launched earlier this year and is available for preorder now for delivery in early 2017. The open-source home-farming robot plants seeds, kills weeds, and waters plants individually for their precise needs. It’s controlled through an app and grows enough food to feed one person year-round. Sounds like it might be advanced enough to override even my black thumb.

Home farming robot

Home Garden Copycats

Throughout the past year, we’ve seen so many indoor garden systems that we’re not sure how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Sure, they’re cool, but they’re also copycats of one another, which at some point makes all of them indistinguishable.

Ikea launched its indoor garden for year-round fresh produce, SproutsIO kicked off its connected platform and app, Japanese company Foop brought its hydroponic pod to market, and Opcom launched its GrowBox. Still in the development stages, Everbloom conceptualized its grow fridge, Click & Grow raised funds on Kickstarter for its Smart Garden, and an entrepreneur at Purdue has created what’s essentially a Keurig for hydroponic gardening.

Then there are the 7Sensors Grow Box and Grobo, systems both designed to grow weed but that will work for any other plants too (yeah, like we’re gonna care about peppers when pot is in the picture).

All of these are designed for small spaces, perfect for big cities and tiny kitchens. They almost universally have some sort of pod (with or without soil) and an app to help make the growing process easier.

In short, we have a very crowded market with a lot of systems that essentially do the same thing. Over the next year or so we’ll see some of them weeded out, with only a few remaining: It will come down to the best interface, prettiest design, and most interactive and helpful support and community.

Farmbot Readies Shipment Of First Open-Source Robot Farming System

While we’ve seen lots of innovation in home grow tech over the past year, there’s been nothing quite as ambitious as Farmbot, a home robot farming system.

That’s because this Arduino powered, open-source robo-farmer can completely automate the growth of enough vegetables for one adult in a year. Of course, you’ll need to have your own yard in which to grow the veggies and add a whole lot of elbow grease to get one assembled, but the Farmbot shows we’re on the precipice of fully automated home-based microfarming.

One of the most exciting things about the Farmbot is that it’s open source, which means the creators have put all the design documents and software online and, as a result, people are making their own homemade Farmbots.

But if you’re like me and not that handy, you’d want a little help in the form of a pre-fabricated kit. Lucky for us, this is how Farmbot plans to make money. And according to an email update sent out this morning, the company has started the production of 350 of its Farmbot kits and expects to start shipping the kits to early backers by February.

Want to buy one of these robot farmers for the little plot of land in the backyard? You’ll have to wait. The company won’t take new orders to July of this year. Of course, you can always make one of your own, but my guess is since the company has open-sourced the documents, chances are other entrepreneurial makers might get into the automated farm manufacturing business.

You can see how the Farmbot works below:

Introducing FarmBot Genesis