Agriculture is the top industry in North Carolina, and a growing sector of it is hydroponics: farming without soil or sunlight. Instead, it relies on a water-based nutrient solution.
"The plants grow without any pesticides, herbicides, period. We don't have to do that," said Trevor Spear, the owner of Nanue's Farm. "When you pull the lettuce off the panel, it is fresh to eat right now. No cleaning has to happen."
Spear took up hydroponic farming as a hobby in retirement, and soon found an unexpected passion. When he started Nanue's Farm in 2019, downtown Raleigh was one of the first to embrace hydroponic farming. The farm functions completely inside a re-outfitted shipping container and is classified as controlled environment agriculture or CEA. "We grow carrots, turnips, rutabagas, basil, parsley, edible flowers," Spear said. "The plant has to be enough size that it can maintain its weight, because we're working against gravity, because it's growing vertically, not horizontally."
Nanue's Farm is a closed-loop system with nutrient-fed water running every 18 minutes for three-minute periods. The plants spend two weeks at the seedling table before being transplanted to the growing panels.
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