~This post was originally published September 4, 2015,~
Meet our new product,
The ZipRack Indoor System
The last several weeks here at the office have been exciting, and we’re getting restless to finally unveil the product that the whole team has been working on – it’s an integrated system for indoor growers, and it’s extremely cool. The two goals for the system? 1) Make it extremely productive, and 2) make it easy to use.
You saw a glimpse of this indoor product in our team video from a couple weeks ago when we were putting it together for the first time.
Since then we’ve set up the plumbing system, added lights, planted seeds and moved them from the germination chamber to the seedling bench. Next Monday we’ll turn the system on for the first time!
Get ready for some great videos that will tour the system and inform you about the components! In the mean time, here’s a little sneak peek of the four basic components of the system.
- The ZipRack. In the past we’ve done custom designs, but we wanted a standard tool that would work for a bunch of different indoor systems. This is the culmination of that process. The ZipRack takes plant from seedling to market with the goal of human hands only having to touch it at transplant and harvest. It’s modular and mobile; one person alone can move large quantities of produce from one place to another.
- Light racks. We chose the highest-intensity lights out there to create the pillars which hang from the light rack: LumiGrow lights. The lights will be on robotic light movers.
- Environmental system. The environmental system will use the Intelliclimate to monitor and adjust ventilation, heat, and CO2.
- Drainage and plumbing. The integrated plumbing and drainage system uses quick connects to make it easy to connect and disconnect ZipRacks. An auto dosing system doses automatically to maintain whatever fertility regime you choose.
Curious yet? If you aren’t now, you will be when you see it. (I know I’m a bit biased, but this system is beautiful. I personally made sure some nasturtiums were planted so we will have some edible color amidst all that green. It’s going to look great!)
We’re going to get the electrical set up this weekend to get this system running by next Monday. Over the next few weeks we’re going to bring you through the different components of the system and give you a detailed look at each one. We’ll also be planting the system so that you can see how it works with crops planted in it.
