Photo Credit: Nemo’s Garden – Orto Di Nemo Facebook Page
By Hannah Rosenoff
Off the coast of Italy, “Nemo’s Garden” is full of strawberries, basil, beans, and lettuce. All these plants are growing 20 feet below the surface as a part of the Ocean Reef Group’s underwater greenhouse project.
Photo Credit: Technology News
So how does this work? The biospheres are sunk, anchored down and filled with air. Water’s chemical properties do not allow drastic temperature change, creating a nice environment to grow crops. The other main attraction for growing plants underwater is all the dissolved carbon dioxide. This lets the plants grow quicker than they normally would.
Photo Credit: Motherboard
The sea floor where these biospheres are placed is pretty flat without many places for shelter. Octopi and seahorses have discovered these structures and like to hang around under them. I guess you could say it’s more the octopus’s garden rather than Nemo’s.
Photo Credit: Nemo’s Garden, Ocean Reef
The Ocean Reef Group has scaled down their biospheres and created mini Nemo’s Gardens for people to experiment with in home aquariums and fish tanks. They want to encourage curiosity and get the rest of the world involved with their project. The group hopes that this method can be expanded and used as an alternative growth method in other countries.
Could this be the future of our agriculture? Thoughts?