Category: Exhibitions

That was the last trade show in February 2020 before the lockdowns. Still one of the most interesting networking shows to meet colleagues and freinds from the Dutch horticulture scene. The booth is also getting bigger.

On one of the images you can see the burn marks where some visitors tried to burn the new City XL part (color is not the final one, just the material for testing) and of course the materials did its job.

To the HortiContact website…

Some impressions from GreenTech 2019 in Amsterdam. As every year aponix was located in the Vertical Pavilion and participated in the GreenTech Innovation Award. Thanks for visiting our booth there! Some more images on our facebook page.

Our favorite show in terms of atmosphere, catering and networking within the Dutch horticulture scene – HortiContact Gorinchem 2019. Thank you for choosing aponix to be part of the ‘Innovatieroute‘ at the show. You can find a larger gallery of the show with images of a lot of exhibitors on this page.

Thanks to our friends from

• HollandPlug/HollandBioProducts for sharing their booth with aponix at IPM 2019 Essen/DE in January; and
• Romeo Sommers to host one of our standalone demos at the Discovery Center at IPM

to have us at IPM Essen 2019.

 

Our first time exhibiting at HortiContact Gorinchem/NL 2018. Aponix made great contacts and had a fantastic show!

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More links:

• Mention in HortiDaily
• Impressions 1
• Impressions 2

 

More Links:

• Supported by German Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie
• Impressions 1
• Impressions 2

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Official show notes:

EN: The aponix vertical barrel enables you to set up vertical grow spaces in a very flexible and modular way. By chosing from a range of different parts you can assemble ring segments and stack the into a vertical cylinder or barrel (diameter 57 centimeters). The cultivation area is the surface of the cylinder and it can provide differently sized grow spaces for your crops. Irrigation is done at one entry point from the top either by using a standard inverted sprinkler, an aeroponic spray nozzle or our own irrigation buffer that can be operated by a simple pump. You can use it as a single barrel with the base being the reservoir or arrange multiple barrels in a production line using a central nutrient reservoir. The system works just the same as a normal NFT but in 3D. For exmaple setups and images please visit our website www.aponix.eu.

DE: Die vertikale Pflanztonne von aponix ermöglicht es, einfach schnell und flexibel vertikale Pflanzplätze aufzubauen. Es werden keine fest eingebaute Teile wie Tische bei NFTs oder Regale benötigt. Durch die Auswahl und den Zusammenbau von Ringsegmenten eines vertikalen Zylinders (Durchmesser 57cm), können ‘Tonnen’ aufgebaut werden, die an deren Oberfläche Pflanzplätze bieten. Die Oberfläche kann je nach Auswahl der Bauteile für unterschiedliche Pflanzgrößen konfiguriert werden. Durch Aufstapeln von Ringsegmenten, schafft man sich eine ‘Tonne’ variabler Höhe. Bewässerung erfolgt von oben mittels Sprinkler, Aeroponik-Düse oder eines eigenen Bewässerungspuffers, der mit einer einfachen Pumpe befüllt werden kann. Der Betrieb kann als Einzeltonne erfolgen. In diesem Fall ist der Ständer das Reservoir. Es können auch mehrere Tonnen in Reihe mit einem zentralen externen Reservoir erfolgen. Funktionsweise is prinzipiell wie mit einem NFT, allerdings in 3D. Für Beispiele besuchen Sie bitte unsere Website unter www.aponix.eu.

Here are a few impressions from the aponix concept being shown at the WGIC – World Green Infrastructure Congress 2017 in Berlin.

Here are a few impressions from the aponix concept being shown at the GFIA exhibition in Utrecht. We have also been part of the Innovation Theatre program there with the ‘Aponix Vertical Barrel for High Density Soil-Less Plant Production’.

Here are a few impressions from the aponix concept being shown at the Seeds & Chips Expo in Milan. Thanks AVF for setting things up!

Here are a few impressions from the aponix concept being shown at the CropWorld 2016 exhibition in Amsterdam.

At this year’s GreenTech in Amsterdam aponix announced the start of the large series production. After 2 years of testing some very important improvements have been incorporated into the 1/6th part version 2.0. Parts will be available from September 2016. Many thanks to all the visitors!

Topics discussed:

• Since the vertical barrel shape is fairly new to the industry, there have been many inquiries about sets of barrels being used as attraction in various vertical-farming promotion activities – being promotion of own new VF products, for agricultural parks, exhibitions and making buildings and recreational areas more attractive. This is great, because it will help to spread the word about this kind of production component and at the same time will show to the end consumer that vertical farming is not only a way of more sustainable production of edible plants and the upcoming circular economy, but can also be beautiful at the same time.
• Research facilities have inquired about vertical barrels to be part of systems or general research in that field. This is great, we need more independent research done using the barrel in order to also have independent performance metrics apart from theoretical output just counting the available grow spaces per square meter or even cooler and more adequate for vertical farming count the productivity for available cubic meters in your production area.
• There has also been a strong demand for information on possible reseller and licensing agreements to resell aponix parts or even manufacture these parts to the individual price points of foreign markets. We are just starting to have enough capacity to satisfy the increasing demand. Please contact us for details.
• We found out, that larger corporations start to have their own urban farming departments. That is very encouraging news! Some of them started to produce a few lettuce heads, herbs and microgreens for their campus cantines and quickly developed into spreading production areas all over their campus area, developing into very attractive recreational areas also increasing communication and well-being among their employees. Some of them even give their excess produce to their employees. We are looking forward to seeing more of that, ideally using the compact vertical barrel solution of aponix.
• Larger existing operations using conventional NFTs have showed their interest for our new, more dense and vertical version. There have been many discussions about the potential changes mainly in labour intensity to operate the barrels instead of the lean processes established and well known around the space of conventional NFTs. In this case we always recommend: Try out a bunch of aponix vertical barrels like you would with any other innovation that potentially could get you a competitive edge and get confident about your individual processes yourself before writing a business plan.
• There have been many conversations with growers of special crops, who recognized the potential behind the aponix vertical barrel and liked the concept, but needed a special adapter for their crop or additional supplemental pieces of equipment around the barrel in order to start an individual test. Some of these might be very interesting special crop solutions that we might look closer into in the future. Inspired by that, we chose to set up our series tooling that way, the part molding the actual adapter details (being for example two 2-inch net pot inserts) are exchangeable! This will help us to test such new adapter ideas faster and much cheaper without actually rebuilding the whole existing tooling setup.
• We would like to thank all the experienced visitors who took the time to inquire about the various vertical solutions currently coming to the market and stepping up to our booth congratulating aponix that they are confident, the vertical barrel as a whole has a very high potential to prevail and even make it as one of the standards into conventional urban production facilities in the coming decades.

Please contact us any time for followups!