Up, up, and up. Over our heads our overhead R&D room overheads have finally brought matters to a head. Tripling in price over the last few years, the cost of the electricity required to power climatic controls in our top floor indoor grow room is now such that we’ve been forced to pull the plug. We’re shutting it down.
The fortress of fruit and flower, the bastion of bloom, the rampart of roots has long been besieged by the plundering forces of BIG ENERGY. Now it has fallen. In a supreme irony it’s not even our watering systems that have caused this. They use no electricity whatsoever. But lighting, heating, and other climate controls cost a pretty penny to run. So is that the end of AutoPot innovation? Well in a word, ‘no.’
so expensive to run it’s time for a rethink
Research is a search. It should not stay in one place. And we’re looking at the closure of the existing R&D as a tremendous opportunity to try something more interesting, more relevant, and more sustainable. A fresh start where we can reconfigure around much more affordable ways to support indoor growing, year-round. More of that to follow. But first let’s head up for one last dance under those hallowed custom polycarbonate retractably shuttered roof panels.
Whilst some of the plants currently in the grow room will inevitably be cut down for removal there are a few that are most certainly not for the chop. Amongst these are the papayas. Four years in, these herbaceous hotties are set to depart for a nearby tropical farm. Quite a kerfuff’ is expected in getting them out of the doors (a minor pitfall of having a top floor grow room!). But once they are out of the room they can at least be forklifted down to the ground floor (a major advantage of having a grow room above a warehouse!).
As they prepare to bid us adieu, the three papayas grown in XXL50s are hitting around 9ft in height. Meanwhile the other plant, watered and fed by easy2GO in a 139L fabric FlexiPot, is knocking on at least 11ft. These are really beautiful and we’ll be sad to see them go. The Biobizz Light Mix in which they were potted and continue to grow has proved a superb long-term grow media, complimented well by our nutrient of choice – AutoPot All Purpose Plant Feed.
As much as we’re proud to have cultivated the papayas we’re equally proud of the job the systems have done in meeting their needs. They’ve been remarkably easy and there’s never been an issue with nutrition, excess irrigation, or drought. You can follow their further adventures here.
A few tomatoes and chillies remain in 4Pot and easy2grow systems respectively, largely stripped of fruit but growing on and on oblivious to change. In a funny way these are now kind of reminiscent of the plants that overtake an abandoned space. Not sure if it’s the knowledge that we’re leaving but they do look strangely wild at the moment.
Ditto the billowing bush of rosemary. Five years old and still going strong, this AQUAbox Spyder-grown herb looks for all the world as though it’s about to swallow somebody up, fragrantly. Elsewhere there are leeks, bedded in fabric planters on Tray2Grow systems, racing against the clock as shutdown nears. And then, sat apart in a single 1Pot module, is a plant that points to the future.
This lovely little mango will be heading on to our MD’s new greenhouse, which is the future home of AutoPot R&D. Nestled ‘down south’ (that’s all you’re getting for now!) our new crucible of cultivation boasts a 36ft x 14ft footprint that matches the former facility. So far underfloor heating has been installed and the base is set. The heating will be powered by a log burner with complete zonal control in order to set conditions exactly as required.
Obviously a greenhouse has the great advantage of admitting more natural light than our poly’ roof ever could. And should any supplementary lighting be required it will be driven by solar panels – for which there is far more space around the greenhouse than there was at HQ.
Who’s that laying the floor? Who’s that building the brick coursing? Whose that joining the beautiful wooden frame and tenderly installing immaculate glass panels? All the rat-a-tat-tat knocking you can hear? That’ll be Woodpecker Joinery, in whose work we’d enjoin you to join us in enjoying right here, it’s going to be splendid.
a stunning update on progress at the new place
Over fifteen wonderful years in our old digs we’ve been the extremely grateful recipients of all kinds of tech with which to toy, media with which to mediate, seeds with which to sow, and nutrients with which to nourish. We’d like to offer our profuse thanks to all those who contributed thus.
Also on the roll of honour are all those members of staff who’ve helped maintain the room and who’ve been inspired to grow because of it. Special mention to Dean Finley, the ‘Mister Know It All’ of misters who has done a huge amount to help us properly regulate climatic controls – he’s a great guy! Look out for news of our new lodgings coming soon here and via the usual socials!