4 ms·

sun, seawater .... and fertiliser. As made clearer in other articles [1], they are adding nutrients to the water. In response to delbel: As mentioned in [1],

by femto 10y ago

sun, seawater .... and fertiliser. As made clearer in other articles [1], they are adding nutrients to the water. In response to delbel: As mentioned in [1], the farm has a 10-year contract with Coles, one of Australia's big supermarkets, and that was what enabled the farm to be funded. Consequently, you can go to Coles and buy these tomatoes for about A$7 per kg. [2] [1] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-01/sundrop-farms-opens-solar-greenhouse-using-no-fresh-water/7892866 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-01/sundrop-farms-opens-so... [2] https://shop.coles.com.au/online/SearchDisplay?storeId=10601&catalogId=10576&langId=-1&beginIndex=0&browseView=false&searchSource=Q&sType=SimpleSearch&resultCatEntryType=2&showResultsPage=true&pageView=image&supermarketRefer=yes&searchTerm=tomatoes https://shop.coles.com.au/online/SearchDisplay?storeId=10601...

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
roel_v 10y ago
Which ones are they? There's only one type of tomato not labeled 'product of Australia' on that page, and it's $23/kg. I'd love to pick some up when I go home tonight, just to try.
jonknee 10y ago
> sun, seawater .... and fertiliser. As made clearer in other articles, they are adding nutrients to the water. Yes, that is how plants work.
- ChristianBundy 10y ago
  Why so smarmy? The article specifically says "using only sun and seawater", so it's worth mentioning that they're also adding nutrients to the water. There are three necessary ingredients. If the title was "using only sunlight and nutrients" or "using only seawater and nutrients" it would make sense to mention the third ingredient, so I'm confused at why you jumped straight to condescension.
  - jonknee 10y ago
    Well if you want to get technical it also involves tons of pumps, solar panels, glass, etc. Obviously they weren't planting seeds in a puddle of seawater. I was able to figure out it was a hydroponic setup from the headline and that the novel part was that they were powering desalination with solar power, not that they have figured out how to grow plants without any nutrients.
  - civilian 10y ago
    IDK, I am with jonkee here. Femto seems like the smarmy one to anyone who has some knowledge of biology. It's really weird to be on a HN thread where most of the people don't know much about the topic, you get really weird pedantic posts seemingly out of nowhere. Biology and space seem like the most common ones, where people who are very smart point out missing details, the kind of missing details that are handwaved by the actual professionals and the kind of details that would turn an article like this into a textbook chapter.
    - femto 10y ago
      A realistic possibility was that they are using the cheap energy to manufacture nutrients, such as ammonia, on-site, which is an energy intensive process [1]. [1]https://www.scidev.net/global/agriculture/news/solar-ammonia-process-may-spur-fertiliser-revolution.html https://www.scidev.net/global/agriculture/news/solar-ammonia...
      - lightedman 10y ago
        Another alternative is the seawater they're getting comes loaded with nitrates already from fertilizer runoff or naturally-occuring sources of nitrate leaching.
    - white-flame 10y ago
      Aquaponics (fish + plants) is a more closed cycle, where the plants can feed the fish, and the fish byproducts can add plant nutrients to the water, if the right fish/plant combinations & balances are used. If this greenhouse system did not require an external nutrient supply, that would also be a noteworthy innovation. Note that people are asking if the nutrients are coming from the coconut husks, or from composting leftover tomato plant matter, specifically because it only said sun & seawater are used. Anybody who grows anything is interested in reducing inputs to their plant systems, and greater feedback interactions among their biodiversity.

by femto 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

roel_v 10y ago

Which ones are they? There's only one type of tomato not labeled 'product of Australia' on that page, and it's $23/kg. I'd love to pick some up when I go home tonight, just to try.

jonknee 10y ago

> sun, seawater .... and fertiliser. As made clearer in other articles, they are adding nutrients to the water. Yes, that is how plants work.

ChristianBundy 10y ago
Why so smarmy? The article specifically says "using only sun and seawater", so it's worth mentioning that they're also adding nutrients to the water. There are three necessary ingredients. If the title was "using only sunlight and nutrients" or "using only seawater and nutrients" it would make sense to mention the third ingredient, so I'm confused at why you jumped straight to condescension.
- jonknee 10y ago
  Well if you want to get technical it also involves tons of pumps, solar panels, glass, etc. Obviously they weren't planting seeds in a puddle of seawater. I was able to figure out it was a hydroponic setup from the headline and that the novel part was that they were powering desalination with solar power, not that they have figured out how to grow plants without any nutrients.
- civilian 10y ago
  IDK, I am with jonkee here. Femto seems like the smarmy one to anyone who has some knowledge of biology. It's really weird to be on a HN thread where most of the people don't know much about the topic, you get really weird pedantic posts seemingly out of nowhere. Biology and space seem like the most common ones, where people who are very smart point out missing details, the kind of missing details that are handwaved by the actual professionals and the kind of details that would turn an article like this into a textbook chapter.
  - femto 10y ago
    A realistic possibility was that they are using the cheap energy to manufacture nutrients, such as ammonia, on-site, which is an energy intensive process [1]. [1]https://www.scidev.net/global/agriculture/news/solar-ammonia-process-may-spur-fertiliser-revolution.html https://www.scidev.net/global/agriculture/news/solar-ammonia...
    - lightedman 10y ago
      Another alternative is the seawater they're getting comes loaded with nitrates already from fertilizer runoff or naturally-occuring sources of nitrate leaching.
  - white-flame 10y ago
    Aquaponics (fish + plants) is a more closed cycle, where the plants can feed the fish, and the fish byproducts can add plant nutrients to the water, if the right fish/plant combinations & balances are used. If this greenhouse system did not require an external nutrient supply, that would also be a noteworthy innovation. Note that people are asking if the nutrients are coming from the coconut husks, or from composting leftover tomato plant matter, specifically because it only said sun & seawater are used. Anybody who grows anything is interested in reducing inputs to their plant systems, and greater feedback interactions among their biodiversity.