Veggie and flower-lovers who don’t have much garden space, or whose gardens are deprived of necessary available sunlight, can use the Volksgarden to enjoy simple, clean and effective hydroponics gardening indoors. It’s like a never-ending ferris wheel ride for your plants. The Volksgarden unit has space to grow up to 80 plants at once. Herbs, vegetables, fruits and grains can be harvested easily and continuously without the need for a degree in horticulture. The Volksgarden manufacturers say yields from their product are much greater than other hydroponics methods because plants rotate around the growth-optimizing light source – once every 45 minutes, 24 hours a day.
The Volksgarden, from Omega Garden Technology, uses a rotating cylinder housing to bask the plants constantly in light. The result is a highly effective use of lumens, water, and nutrients. The unit only takes up one-third of the floor space used by a conventional flat garden - and because it's on wheels, it can be moved around easily.
The Complete Unit Model 10001 is 48in. in diameter x 76in. tall x 30in. wide and occupies approx. 20 sq. ft. of floor space. It draws around 1,300W and is rated at 11.5A at start up.
The manufacturers claim the Omega Garden can yield three to five times the comparable weight per watt average per harvest (when compared to conventional flat or tiered gardens).
The Omega Garden is safety certified and has built-in thermal limit switches to protect the unit and crop in the unlikely event of a cooling malfunction.
The Complete Unit Model 10001 uses two 600W Hortilux bulbs with Advanced brand ballasts housed in an air-cooled glass tube. Other models can use compact fluorescent tube lighting.
The units are shipped in pieces and take around two hours to assemble. A helpful video is available on the Website, as is technical support.
Each garden takes 45-50 minutes to complete a rotation and the spinning operates 24/7. It needs to rotate constantly in order to keep all of the plants growing uniformly. If the garden stops turning, even for a short period, the plants will naturally turn up against the pull of gravity, regardless of their relationship to the light source - even when the light is below the plant, it will still grow opposite the direction of gravity, say the manufacturers.
The Omega Garden website has growing tips and advice on water, nutrients, etc, to get the best out of your crop.
Different models are also available on-line. If you love your veggies, you won't mind parting with USD$1995 for the privilege.