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Tunnel Hydroponics Across Europe · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello there and welcome back to
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  Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
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  Today we're talking about growing crops in tunnels and that's because there
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  are a number of companies around the world that are doing this and Spain has
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  joined the list of countries that have now got hydroponic companies growing
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  in underground tunnels.
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  So it's been done in england before
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  it was done in abandoned tube stations
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  the the subway and unfortunately the company
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  that did that is no longer in operation but it's also been
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  done in italy there's a tunnel farm company in italy
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  and now spain have set up a
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  company doing this so this one is
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  an old abandoned quarry or mine i
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  think in finland they do this and
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  it's like old air raid shelters there's a lot of air raid
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  shelters in finland and so that's where
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  they're growing there it's being carried out by la rea gallery
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  of the kareo well no idea what those are but
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  they start they're going to include five plant varieties sprouts obviously
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  not brussel sprouts but like um that's vegetable sprouts
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  young plants for culinary use aromatic plants
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  i think they mean just mean herbs that's a translation issue leafy greens
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  so that's your rockets your lettuce things like this wasabi peas so
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  pea sprouts i would imagine rather than the actual peas themselves but
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  having to be proved wrong mushrooms so they're
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  going to be doing mushroom cultivation down there that's fairly standard for
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  underground dark places and salicornia as
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  well so a halophyte plant that has
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  adapted to extreme environments so interesting one
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  the project i love it when the these eu.
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  Projects have like the project promotes agriculture 4.0
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  as the future economy possibly for mining in
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  the region so it's like it was at the un development here
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  the mining project aligns with the objectives of
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  the european union's farm to fork strategy with the
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  wealth world health organization's one health approach that
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  aims to sustainably balance and optimize health of
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  people animals and ecosystems so
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  all sounds really good best of
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  luck to them there's lots of pictures of people in
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  suits with hard hats on down in tunnels it
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  looks fairly small scale to begin with and the
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  problem is that we're growing underground in in london
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  you're up against you're not up against other hydroponic growers
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  you're up against other field scale growers they're your competitors really
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  and so you've really got to have a unique selling point beyond that so if you
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  look at another story from haughty daily this week there's a comparison so if
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  you think about them grown herbs in small tunnels in Spain or Finland or London or Italy.
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  There's the case of Filippo Carrara and he's a 29 year old basil farmer from
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  Italy and he is growing 60 hectares of basil in a.
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  So he's grown in an open field. He's got a, almost like a combine harvester
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  for harvesting this basil.
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  And that's their competition really, isn't it? For leafy veg.
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  So 550 euros a ton of leaves.
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  He can, he can, you know, sign contracts with large suppliers and things like this.
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  Whereas 550 euros a ton is
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  not going to get you firing hydroponics in a tunnel with all the
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  logistics and equipment and capital and labor
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  and things like this involved so it's an
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  interesting one it's been interesting to see where the
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  dust settles on the tunnel growers in a
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  few years time it's certainly different to you can't get
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  many vertical tiers compared to
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  a conventional vertical farming system so there's disadvantages there
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  the main advantages are a stable environment so
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  you it's cool in the summer and warm in the
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  winter so you don't have heating costs the lights of the
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  lighting is your main going to be your main source of
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  heat and you're going to be away from pest
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  and disease so Filippo Carrera
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  with his 60 hectares of basil he will have to
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  deal with a lot of outdoor pest and disease and have an integrated pest management
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  system whereas if you're growing in a tunnel you can pretty much exclude a lot
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  of pest and disease unless you bring it in accidentally on yourself or your
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  growing material so I'd be interested to know people's thoughts about growing
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  in mine shafts, subway tunnels.
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  Air raid shelters, things like this. Are there any other advantages I've missed?
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  You know, in the London underground is heating up every year and they haven't
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  worked out how they're going to cool it down.
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  Ever since the Victorian times, I think it was the first public underground
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  train system and it gets hotter every year and every year today.
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  I'm glad I don't live in London because it would be extremely hot down there,
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  but the actual rock and
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  the surroundings is heating up just to the from the action of the trains and
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  the people in there and things like this and the movement and the friction when
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  they break and things like this so you could potentially have some tropical
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  plants down there in london so that's interesting so that's been hydroponics
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  today for today tunnel growing of hydroponics,
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  was growing underground was a big bang it had a lot of publicity but unfortunately
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  it wasn't able to survive.
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  But Finland, Italy, the one in Italy seems to be still going,
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  this new one in Spain, and I think the one in Finland as well.
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  If you know any others, let me know. Okay, that's been Hydroponics Day for today. Goodbye.