Go green with us

Long transport routes to the supermarket? Save yourself that with VE.PLANT. Your lettuce no longer has to travel hundreds of kilometres to get to the supermarket in the first place. With VE.PLANT, you can grow your own vegetables at home without having to travel long distances - you can find the seeds in any DIY store or even in the supermarket. Because did you know? - No other branch of production produces as many transport and greenhouse gases as food. This figure rises in winter in particular, as it becomes increasingly difficult to grow food locally. So save yourself long transport routes and support the environment by growing your vegetables at home in your VE.PLANT.

Protecting crops from pests such as mushrooms or insects can prevent high yield losses. This is usually done by using plant protection products. But is this the only way to protect plants from pests? No! Because why do we need pesticides if there is no way for pests to get to the plants? How? With hydroponics. By using hydroponics as a cultivation method, there is no need for soil. The soil and the resulting weeds are usually harbouring pests and insects. This special cultivation method protects your plants from the majority of pests and insects. This means you no longer have to resort to pesticides and thus obtain particularly natural products.

At VE.PLANT, we use special hydroponic nutrients (N-P-K) to provide the best possible support for growth and quick access to nutrients. The nutrients are dissolved in the water and thus delivered directly to the roots of the plants. The circulating water-nutrient solution ensures that the plants are optimally supplied with fertiliser. They take what they need. This saves fertiliser by up to 85% compared to conventional agriculture. In addition, there is no nitrate leaching into the groundwater and the soil is not over-fertilised.

The VE.PLANT water reservoir offers space for up to 80 litres of nutrient solution. This consists of water and nutrients that are required for plant growth. At the beginning, our system requires approx. 10 litres of water per week, and approx. 20 litres as the plants grow larger. For a fully planted VE.PLANT, we therefore need 60 litres over 4 weeks. The yield we get from this is significantly more than one kilo. What's more, the vegetables we harvest don't need to be washed because we don't use any pesticides. This also saves water. If we compare this with the conventional cultivation method, we can see a clear difference in water consumption. Here, 240 litres of water are needed per kilo of lettuce. Hydroponics therefore requires up to 90% less water compared to conventional agriculture. This is because all forms of hydroponic cultivation are based on a closed water system. This means that the water is consumed and returned. In conventional agriculture, the irrigation water is used once and is then immediately lost. In hydroponic growing, the water is used several times, over periods of up to several weeks.

The yields per square metre of hydroponic plants are significantly higher than those of conventional agriculture. The reason for this is the optimal supply of nutrients, water and oxygen as well as the control of all environmental factors such as temperature fluctuations or pH value. Your VE.PLANT monitors these completely by itself and informs you immediately of any fluctuations or challenges. In addition, our VE.PLANT can be grown and harvested indoors all year round, which further increases the yield.

VE.PLANT is space-saving because it enables vertical cultivation or vertical farming. This means it can be placed anywhere and can therefore also be used perfectly as a room divider. Thanks to our included lighting, it is not necessary to install VE.PLANT at a window. So you can get creative and find the best spot. For example, on desk islands, in the kitchen or on unused areas in the hallway. What's more, hydroponic plants only need about 1/5 of the space because the roots are supplied with nutrients directly and therefore don't need to spread out. So what are you waiting for? With VE.PLANT, you can grow your own vegetables even without a balcony or garden.

As a rule, a 4-level system consumes an average of approx. 70 watts. This low value is achieved by optimising the lighting time and regulating the running time of the water pumps. VE.PLANT also contributes to a more sustainable future in a broader sense by reducing energy consumption. This is because reducing transport costs by growing food locally drastically reduces energy consumption. To enable even lower energy consumption in the future, we are currently researching a VE.PLANT that utilises solar panels.

Unfortunately, we are not yet able to completely dispense with the use of plastic. However, all the parts that we have installed in our VE.PLANT are made of plastic or have a proportion of plastic for long-term use. Pumps, hoses, lamps, microcontroller boards, baskets and tubes are very durable parts and do not need to be replaced for several years. However, we are constantly working to improve and become even more sustainable. We already produce some parts from biodegradable PLA and further steps are planned for the future. For example, we would like to try to replace the plastic tubes we currently use with more sustainable bamboo pipes.

Surely some of us are familiar with this challenge: we go to the supermarket and buy a packet of rocket. However, we rarely manage to use up the whole pack in one go. What happens? After two days, the rocket is no longer edible. And it ends up in the bin. An absolute waste of food! We want to counteract this with our VE.PLANT. By permanently supplying your plants with water and nutrients, they stay fresh and edible for a long time. So you can always harvest exactly the amount you need. This means that no food ends up in the bin because it has a short expiry date.

Vegetables and herbs shrink-wrapped in plastic packaging? Not with us. Of course, many supermarkets can't easily solve this in any other way, but we still think that this waste of packaging material doesn't have to be. With VE.PLANT, we are trying to counteract this a little, because with us you always harvest your vegetables and herbs fresh - so you don't need any additional packaging material.

In the last 100 years, field cultivation has led to almost half of all soils worldwide being removed. This has massively reduced the amount of arable land we have access to. As hydroponic systems do not require soil to grow plants, this issue is off the table. With hydroponics, you can sow and harvest plants regardless of the soil and climatic conditions. This helps to protect the soil, which has already been heavily eroded, as far as possible and not to destroy even more land. The soil we normally use for planting also harms the environment. This is because many potting soils still contain peat. You should definitely avoid this, as entire moors are still being drained and destroyed for this purpose. This destroys the habitat of many plants and animals and damages the climate at the same time, as a lot of stored CO₂ is released during peat extraction. By the way: even organic soil is not necessarily peat-free. But peat-free soil also has some disadvantages. It is made from many different organic substances. These individual components all have their own weaknesses, which must be compensated for by the nurseries. By using hydroponics in our VE.PLANT, we can counteract these factors, as no soil is used at all. The plants grow just as well and just as quickly, while the environment and climate are protected at the same time.