A new high-tech home-growing system makes it possible for urbanites living in confined city spaces to become farmers. This new app and indoor gardening system from U.K.-based Niwa takes the concept of grow-your-own fruit and vegetables to a whole new level.

At www.freshfruitportal.com we take a look at how people can use the latest technological trends to reconnect with the food they eat by becoming growers in their own living rooms.

Co-founder Javier Morillas grew up in the Andalusian province of Almería, an agricultural mainstay of Spain. Every morning he would watch truckloads of vegetables leave town destined for market 2,000km (1,242mi) away from where the produce was grown.

This sparked an idea - what if we could all grow our own food? He felt that cutting out road miles, reconnecting with Mother Nature and feeling the satisfaction of self-sufficiency would surely be a good thing.

"It seemed crazy to me to grow in one location and move that produce so far away; it seemed wasteful, counter-productive and unnecessary. This was when the idea for our unique product was born," he said.

"I believe in a future where anyone can grow their own food and our product is the first step in doing this."

Morillas and his team have developed a hydroponic-based technology that gives everyone the chance to nurture their green fingers with a smartphone-controlled system that creates a mini greenhouse in the home.

With the added benefits of 'keeping chemicals off the plate', the system doubles up as a funky addition to the interior design of a home, whilst Niwa technology aims to revolutionize basic concepts of how we all live, grow and eat.

It's the first generation of smart food tech devices that swaps the traditional tools, soil, and plant pots associated with old school gardening for a contemporary-designed indoor gardening system linked to an app.

Via a smartphone, the app controls the temperature, humidity, light and watering cycles of produce like tomatoes, peppers, herbs and flowers using purely hydroponic technology so there is no need for soil.

Once seeds have been planted inside the replicated mini greenhouse, which is compact enough to fit into the home but large enough to accommodate fully grown plants, the app does the rest.

"Once you have the small greenhouse you still have a huge problem because the average person still may not have the correct knowledge on how to grow successfully. My mission was to make this easy, simple and fun," Morillas added.

"I worked with farmers and distilled all their knowledge into a micro-controller, a type of computer, which I added to the system, so it's like having your own farmer with expert knowledge controlling your crops.

"Then we needed an interface, a way to interact with the system and today the most natural way to do this is obviously through an app because everyone is already familiar with apps and how to use them."

Via the app, the user selects what to grow and the system uses pre-planned settings for particular plants; these settings then control all aspects of growing throughout the life cycle of the plant until it’s ready for harvest.

"The user doesn’t need to know all this information because the app already knows and does it all for you – that's the beauty of it.

"A small baby plant is not the same as a fully grown plant so the app will ask the user for feedback during the plant's life to determine at what stage the plant is at and then it will adapt the settings for the correct stage."

In basic terms, if a tomato plants needs more water, less light or humidity levels need to be adjusted, the user will be alerted through their smartphone. Checking up on crops and tracking progress all the way to harvesting can be done from anywhere of course, so long as there's access to the internet.

Inspirational and educational

"This is our first step. It's not yet a system that replaces a person going to the grocery store. We're realistic, we know we can get the best performance of a plant but we cannot go beyond that."

Currently the Niwa system would produce five to six tomatoes a week, a lettuce every two weeks and a handful of strawberries for instance.

"We’re interested in the local production and we want to inspire people to reconnect with the food they eat. This is the proof of the concept so let’s use it to educate people and show that it is possible to use your house to grow your plants for food."

He stresses the importance of younger generations learning about where food comes from in a digital age and busy lifestyles that often drive a wedge between communities and home grown food.

The Niwa system is just the 'first step' in a future of food tech innovation for the company.

"Parents can teach their kids very important lessons even if they live in the city or an apartment without a garden or backyard.

"We’re also working on a really interesting concept that involves having an apartment with a transparent wall where people can grow plants inside the wall using our technology.

"It's just as easy as our first concept but in this way there would be enough food to feed a whole family. This is the future."

www.freshfruitportal.com