Aquaponic Greenhouse Business Model
From Open Source Ecology
Operations
- Based on Aquaponic Greenhouse prototype
- 7' Towers with 22 plants each
- 44 tower base model
- Shelves on walls
- Ponds with Tilapia for fertilizer
- 800 still base module, scalable to multiples
- Rain catchment for water provision and avoidance of water costs
- Deepot automated planting with Seedbot
- Entire structure is 3D printable with the OSE Terrabot including ponds, glazing, shelves, towers, plumbing, pumps
Ergonomics and Possible Economic Model
- Seeding - 5 minutes for 10,000 plants as time to deposit seeds n trays for Seedbot
- Planting - 100-plant trays take 5 minutes to place in holes
- Harvest - plants are delivered on trays, with pots, and customer empties pots. Harvest is 5 minutes for 100, 25 minutes for 500 biweekly plants
- Cleaning - Trays are pressure washed via another Universal Axis Bot with Plastic Rods. Or by hand in 10 minutes on wash table with ozonated water
- Soil fill table - single 100-trays in 5 minutes
- Delivery time - 2 hours for 20 clients. Every 2 week delivery. Plants keep growing as they are alive. 25 plant tray is delivered, and old one is picked up, with $5 tray deposit
- Total time - 5 hr 40 min per month time requirement
- $160/hr revenue with 1000 plants sold per month at $1/plant. This does not account for trays.
Economic Model
- Proof of above ergonomics results in a robust enterprise model - even if proven at 1/20 the productivity, it results in a $320k/year enterprise if done full time by one person, so it is worth exploring.
- Delivery: delivery of model suggested through a 24 person cohort in 4 years of the OSE Apprenticeship. Even at a base 'unproductive' state it has a high chance of succeeding.
Keys to Success
- Open knowledge integration
- Tight plumbing to minimize humidity
- IPM and rapid plant cycling, companion plants
- Good airflow
- Automation
Crowd Development
- Needs Seedbot, production ergonomics proven
- Needs lage 3D printer for startup. Needs plastic recycling
- $300k should do it, crowd-funded by entrepreneurial stakeholders in an incentive challenge
Next Steps
- Aerial drone version of the same eliminates planting time, but since deepots need to be placed in towers, via Seedbot assistance, drones don't necessarily save time