Flora Aeroponica looks beyond Montana’s outdoor growing season
Source: VFD.com
Flora Aeroponica looks beyond Montana’s outdoor growing season As the days get shorter, the two growers behind Flora Aeroponica are planting for the months ahead. In a greenhouse behind their farm stand in Hardy Creek, near Cascade, they're testing which vegetables they can grow in aeroponic towers through the colder season.
Aimee Posnanski and Katrina Lucier sell produce and flowers grown on the property, along with eggs and microgreens supplied by nearby partners. For Lucier, the stand has become more than a place to sell what they grow.
"It is so wonderful having a place, the farm stand, finally, where people can come in from everywhere, really," she said. Though, through a door connecting the stand to the greenhouse, they are learning about another way to grow food.
Why this matters: For operators, this is a water-management story. The useful signal is that direct substrate measurements can help cut drain loss materially without giving up yield or fruit quality, which is exactly the kind of controllable efficiency gain a facility can build on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does substrate sensing matter in free-drain strawberry systems?
Because drain percentage tells a grower what already happened, while substrate moisture and EC data show root-zone conditions directly. That makes it easier to cut water loss without guessing.
What is the operator takeaway from this trial?
If the thresholds are understood well enough, growers can reduce drain water materially while protecting yield and fruit quality, which makes sensing an operational tool instead of a reporting tool.
