It was invented by a 23-year-old Australian entrepreneur, Toby Farmer, who dropped out of his science degree to create the system.
“We’re committed to releasing Rotofarm to the public in 2020 and helping to change the landscape of food and agriculture,” he said.
As the winner of high-profile design awards, the Rotofarm was built on research showing that plants actually grow better in zero gravity environments – their stems grow taller and their leaves wider with less energy use.
All that is needed to get the Rotofarm budding is to plant pre-seeded pods into special plant slots, fill it with water and nutrients, and it can be monitored and controlled using the Rotofarm app.
Bace says Rotofarm needs only five minutes per week of care, and uses 95% less water than soil. The prototype was added to US crowdfunding website Indiegogo in March with hopes of raising $15,000 (Aussie dollars) to help commercialise the technology but instead pulled in more than twenty times that – over $450,000.
Bace says it expects to launch Rotofarm commercially later in 2020.