Who is tinyfarm for?
tinyFarm was designed for people who are interested in pure, nutrient-dense, healthy food they can trust. Our product has been built for people who do not necessarily have experience growing their own food, but are intentional about becoming more involved in this vital aspect of life in whatever setting they live in. We have built tinyFarm for people who see the benefits of soil-grown food, and are willing to try growing their own leafy greens and herbs year round.
Is tinyFarm appropriate for people with zero food growing experience?
Our tinyFarm was specifically designed for people with no previous experience growing food or plants of any kind: Simply insert our tinySoil block, overlay the seed cartridge, fill the water reservoir, and you’re all set! The LED lights have been designed to mimic the real sun and our water sensors measure soil humidity levels. Both will go on and off automatically as per your tinyCrop needs.
What is tinyFarm?
tinyFarm is an indoor growing “system” or appliance designed for home/workplace/school use. It is a self-contained organic, modular vegetable appliance and a soil/seed/consumables bundle designed to work in harmony, growing a variety of living vegetables: leafy greens, microgreens and common kitchen herbs. Whether you are new to growing, handy with indoor plants or a talented urban gardiner, we offer a unique combination of hardware, software, consumables, and education suitable for everyone to get started growing healthy and nutritious food, quickly and easily.
What’s in the tinyfarm kit? Does it come with seeds/soil or a growing medium?
When you buy a tinyFarm you’ll get a complete appliance, that’s essentially a ‘plug-and-play’ set-up. Soil and seeds arrive separately. They are currently not packed at the same plant as the tinyFarm facility for reasons of maintaining absolute purity.
How does it arrive?
The tinyFarm appliance arrives fully assembled. All you have to do is plug it in, fill up the water tank(s) in your sink. Insert your tinySoil blocks, lay in the your seed cartridges, and press ON. You are ready to go!
What are the electricity connection details?
Simply plug into a wall outlet and fill the water tank(s). It uses LED lights that are 15W max each, with a total wattage of 30W. We recommend that you keep the LED on for 16 to 18 hours per day. At current Ontario, Canada hydro rates, this usage results in approximately $1.50 per month.
What are the dimensions of tinyFarm?
The approximate dimensions are 65 cm Wide (side to side) X 40 cm high X 40 cm Broad (front to back). Think of the tinyFarm like a regular microwave size. You can purchase just one tinyFarm, or build a stack (“LEGO” style) into a vertical farm, or a wide, tall wall style unit. The configuration can match your room and preferences, or your desired style.
Is the tinyfarm kit organic?
All seeds are certified organic from our suppliers and the soil that we make includes only regenerative biological ingredients that are sourced from chemical-free sources.
What are the other benefits of tinyfarm over buying organic foods at the grocery store?
When you buy organic food from the grocery or super markets, you are not able to investigate important information about how your food was actually grown, such as:
1. What were the inputs into the soil that grew the food?
2. Was there any fertilization (organic or not) or pesticides? Both of these while they may vary in strength or vary molecularly; are chemicals. If you’re using a chemical basis to grow food, the plant will lack in nutrients and lack in its real benefit to your body and health.
3. How long since the produce was harvested? If it’s more than a day, plants start losing nutrients the minute they are harvested.
4. Was the farm and soil used to grow the produce using true biological regenerative practices? If the farm doesn’t, then the plant will never have the nutrient profile of food grown in tinyFarm and tinySoil.
The Benefits of using tinyFarm and tinySoil together,
– Food is grown right in front of you. No one else touches it, minimizing pathogenic issues.
– Food is harvested at the time you wish to enjoy it, maximizing nutrient benefits.
– Food is grown biologically – without any compromise – maximising the nutrients and ultimately the beneifts to your body.
– You know exactly where the soil came from, and where the seeds came from.
– Food grown in tinyFarm/tinySoil, tastes amazing! Take a taste challenge and let us know if you find better tasting veggies anywhere else. They taste wholesome, full, juicy, flavourful, and feel pure and clean when you eat them.
– Because the food is grown biologically, it means the nutrients are more readily available to your body, so you’ll feel full faster.
– The food is at your fingertips and on demand, not at risk from the grocery store and after lengthy truck deliveries.
– Because we use a positive impact to the environment approach, using tinyFarm is good for the climate. Getting field chemical based grown food trucked for miles with various preservation techniques, is actually detrimental to the environment in countless ways.
Can a user use their own seeds? Can users use their own soil?
tinyFarm users may use their own soil and seeds. We created tinyFarm so you’re empowered to grow food at home. If you have great soil, that is formulated with a full-spectrum biology and nutrients then by all means, please do. We’ve spent years developing our pure soil, ensuring it is biological and specifically formulated for the highest and widest essential nutrients. We have not found better soil to date which measures up to our formulation.
How do I clean and maintain the appliance? Do I need any specific cleaning directions?
tinyFarm is made from resilient materials and ecofriendly paints where required are used. To clean the appliance, the best method is mild soap and wate to wipe down the unit. Using chemical based cleaning agents will destroy the coatings and the paint resiliency and and also introduces chemicals into a pure plant growing environment and therefore should not be used under any circumstances.
How much does the tinyfarm cost?
tinyFarm offers a subscription, where the cost of the unit is $199 and the monthly subscription is $25 per month.
What kind of vegetables can you grow in the tinyfarm?
You may grow a large range of vegetables such as; Leafy Greens (usually about 4 weeks to grow) spinach, kale, lettuce’s of various kinds, chard, etc. Microgreens (usually takes about 2 weeks to grow), like broccoli sprouts, sunflower sprouts, almost any kind of micro green. Herbs (usually takes 4-6 weeks to grow), like, basil (various types), rosemary, mint, coriander/cilantro. You can even grow some root vegetables, like carrots and radishes for example.
How much crop would be grown per month by the tinyfarm?
The answer is, it depends on what you’re growing. We recommend a combo of herbs, microgreens, leafy greens in our growing program. Here are a couple of examples of crop yield for each type:
– You can grow microgreens from 7 to 14 days. That means on average, you can eat a servings of microgreens from tinyFarm daily.
– If you grow herbs, which on average take about two months to fully grow, you may begin harvesting them once they are fully grown. Once they are fully grown, you may harvest them daily for months.
– The other main type of greens are leafy greens and they fall somewhere in the middle, where you can get a daily servings every few days.
So how much can be grown based on the above information:
1. Microgreens you can have on average at least ONE servings daily and in most cases even more!
2. For Leafy Greens – You can harvest ONE servings every week.
3. For Herbs you can harvest ONE servings DAILY, (after the plants are fully grown).
How long will I have to wait before my first harvest and how will I know when the time is right to harvest crops/vegetables?
Leafy greens usually take about 4-weeks to grow. Microgreens usually take about 2-weeks, while herbs range from 4-6 weeks to grow. Once the plants have generally entered into their growing phase they are ready for harvest. Microgreens and leafy greens are best (from a nutrient perspective) to harvest in their growing phase. Waiting too long can affect the plant nutrition and taste,especially if they start to flower. Some plants can taste bitter upon flowering. The best vitality (ie, available and absorbable nutrient density) is when the plant has entered into the harvesting stage.
What kind of seeds does a subscription come with?
There are many different types of seeds available. They are all organic and the intial seeds available will be from the greens family: leafy greens, micro greens, herbs, and sprouts. Keep checking the site as we’ll be adding more seeds regularly.
How often does the water reservoir need to be refilled?
Water needs to be refilled on average about every 10-14 days. There are a couple of factors that may affect how fast the water tanks run out, namely the humidity levels of your room and/or the types of plants you have growing.
How much water would the tinyfarm use in a given month?
One water tank holds about four litres of water, resulting in an average total water usage of about 16 Litres per month.
Does the tinyfarm require access to a water or electricity supply?
tinyFarm does not need direct water line access; however, it does require electricity access.
What is the electricity usage associated with the tinyfarm?
Electricity use for the tinyFarm CounterTop module (65cm X 40cm X 40cm) unit; maximum of 30W (actuals are around 22W) for lights that are on the recommended 18 hrs per day, amounts to less than $2/month (Ontario Hydro rates).
In what temperature should the tinyfarm be kept? Can the tinyfarm be used outdoors?
We strongly advise against keeping tinyFarm outside. tinyFarm has electronics within it and those can degrade if exposed to outdoor weather elements.
What is the LED lifetime? Can users replace it easily from a product available out in the market?
LED’s typically last for 7 years, and now we are seeing technology last up to 9 years. While this is great and saves a lot of money, if there is a degradation of the brightness of the light, the effectiveness of growing also gets diminished. For this reason, we suggest changing your bulbs every 5-6 years. This may change as technology improves.
What products are used to create the tinyfarm?
The expected plastic content will be a some recycled plastic and some virgin. Our goal is to get to 100% recycled content. The composite materials are also non-leachable by the soil. The microbes in the soil will be unaffected.
How is tinyfarm different from other smart home gardening solutions?
We have created a way for the urban dweller to grow their own organic vegetables indoors, using pure soil to conveniently grow edible plants indoor, year round in cities. It’s a modular unit that can expand with your family’s needs. You can grow over 60 different of leafy vegetables, herbs, micro greens, etc. You can expand it vertically by either stacking or expanding horizontally. The app will monitor the growth and will alert the user when to water. You can adjust the shelves, or take them out and grow very tall plants.The tinyFarm uses pure soil—the way nature intended to grow our food. Other systems that don’t use soil cannot replicate the complex soil environment. There are trillions of soil microbes in soil along with other beneficial mineral activity which no technology can replicate. We are the only system that creates humates, a critical mineral in cellular health and long term health.
What features make the tinyfarm a smart device today? What additional features are you anticipating adding in the future?
Today, we are able to provide features such as:
– text alerts if the water runs out
– water level indicator, both visual and app related
– images of your plants (coming soon: reading and interpreting the images)
What would you do with the data you collect?
We anonymize the data and conduct research around environment optimization. What this means is that every person’s living environment is different, especially from country-to-country. We take this data, run analyses and come up with recommendations on growing the most optimized nutritional plants.
Does the tinyfarm have a warranty?
Yes, there will be a warranty of 1-year, with parts having a warranty of 3-years. Parts are easy to exchange, simply unplug the electronics and send it back to us. We’ll replace it without a hiccup, during the warranty period.
What do users do if the tinyfarm breaks?
tinyFarm is unlikely to break unless purposely dropped or damaged because there are no moving parts. The main components that may develop issues may be the electronics including the LED lights. If anything goes wrong, and the product continues to be under warranty, simply let us know and we’ll swap it out for you without any downtime!
How does tinyfarm produce compare to grocery store organics?
When you buy organic food from the grocery or super markets, you are not able to investigate important information about how your food was actually grown, such as:
1. What were the inputs into the soil that grew the food?
2. Was there any fertilization (organic or not) or pesticides? Both of these while they may vary in strength or vary molecularly; are chemicals. If you’re using a chemical basis to grow food, the plant will lack in nutrients and lack in its real benefit to your body and health.
3. How long since the produce was harvested? If it’s more than a day, plants start losing nutrients the minute they are harvested.
4. Was the farm and soil used to grow the produce using true biological regenerative practices? If the farm doesn’t, then the plant will never have the nutrient profile of food grown in tinyFarm and tinySoil.
The Benefits of using tinyFarm and tinySoil together,
– Food is grown right in front of you. No one else touches it, minimizing pathogenic issues.
– Food is harvested at the time you wish to enjoy it, maximizing nutrient benefits.
– Food is grown biologically – without any compromise – maximising the nutrients and ultimately the beneifts to your body.
– You know exactly where the soil came from, and where the seeds came from.
– Food grown in tinyFarm/tinySoil, tastes amazing! Take a taste challenge and let us know if you find better tasting veggies anywhere else. They taste wholesome, full, juicy, flavourful, and feel pure and clean when you eat them.
– Because the food is grown biologically, it means the nutrients are more readily available to your body, so you’ll feel full faster.
– The food is at your fingertips and on demand, not at risk from the grocery store and after lengthy truck deliveries.
– Because we use a positive impact to the environment approach, using tinyFarm is good for the climate. Getting field chemical based grown food trucked for miles with various preservation techniques, is actually detrimental to the environment in countless ways.
What regions/countries can the tinyfarm and tinyseeds be shipped to?
Typically, tinyFarm will be shipped globally. As we gain sales in various countries around the world, we’ll start to source seeds and more soil ingredients local to the region, and start manufacturing in various regions. This is anticipated to happen overtime. For more information, please feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to walk you through how we plan to approach various regions around the world.
What markets do you anticipate operating in the next 2-years, and subsequently 5-years?
This is largely dependent on sales and which country demands our product more. At presen, our strategy is to introduce the product in Toronto, Canada, demonstrate success, and then expand nationally and into the US at the same time. While expanding in the US, we will more than likely create a soil hub in the Midwest for our US consumers. This expansion into the US will be used as a blueprint going forward. We are already speaking with other high density, import oriented markets such as the Gulf region and Chinese cities. Our expectation is to expand there based on the messaging trends we are receiving.
What is the strategy to get your product distributed outside of Toronto and Canada?
We are launching in Toronto after we’ve finalized our Seed fund raise of $1.5 million. We may also launch in Chicago, USA (this is TBD). After we’ve established operations, manufacturing, marketing strategies, and implemented them foundationally, we’ll be ready for scale up. At that point (expected to be within 6-months of launch) modgarden’s products will be available on a direct-to-consumer basis.
What is your exit strategy?
Our exit strategy would be to enter into a strategic partnership with an entity that has similar line of business or wishes to expand into our space (AgTech). While we are not opposed to being bought out completely, we do exist for a very specific reason, relating to climate impact, food purity, accessibility, affordability, as well as a complete reduction of contamination. We will not sell to an entity that has any history of adverse consumer or earth practices. Ideally, we form a strategic relationship with a large entity that gives us distribution and operational infrastructure to reach further with values that are both earth and consumer friendly. That’s what we stand for.
Who do you see as natural partners if you are looking to be acquired?
We have a short list of partners that we’ve identified. It is not possible to expose this list on a public website for purposes of confidentiality and negotiability.
How much does it grow?
The answer is, it depends on what you’re growing. We recommend a combo of herbs, microgreens, leafy greens in our growing program. Here are a couple of examples of crop yield for each type:
– You can grow microgreens from 7 to 14 days. That means on average, you can eat a servings of microgreens from tinyFarm daily.
– If you grow herbs, which on average take about two months to fully grow, you may begin harvesting them once they are fully grown. Once they are fully grown, you may harvest them daily for months.
– The other main type of greens are leafy greens and they fall somewhere in the middle, where you can get a daily servings every few days.
So how much can be grown based on the above information:
1. Microgreens you can have on average at least ONE servings daily and in most cases even more!
2. For Leafy Greens – You can harvest ONE servings every week.
3. For Herbs you can harvest ONE servings DAILY, (after the plants are fully grown).
