January 24, 2023
Green thumbs and fresh produce lovers, unite. Our vertical gardens will start branching out to twelve ships this year.
About the Project
The Aerospring Vertical Garden project was proposed by Vessel Manager Souvik Mandal and was first piloted on a few vessels. With its success, we have extended the project to twelve ships.
The unit is a compact, modular, self-watering, aeroponic indoor vertical gardening system that is very quick to assemble. It can grow almost all kinds of vegetables and herbs. Aeroponics is a technique where the plants are grown in a fully covered, moisture-controlled environment, and the plants’ roots are suspended and nourished with a fine mist.
Rave Reviews
Onboard Rio Spirit with the guidance of Captain Neigel Figueiredo, the enthusiasm of First Assistant Engineer Amitabh Babar, and the green thumb of Messman Ervin Verceles Carpio, the vertical garden flourished. Everyone was amazed, including the visitors!
Captain Neigel even recalled the moment when visitors from France described the garden as “beautiful” while visitors from Bahamas were delightfully surprised.
According to Captain Neigel, “I am delighted that we are growing our own greens and fresh produce onboard. We have the opportunity to eat fresh salads! It also feels nice when you enter the messroom and see the plants and hear the fountain’s sounds.”
The garden has become an opportunity for those onboard to be involved and achieve a sense of fulfillment by growing and harvesting their own produce.
As for Messman Mark, nurturing the garden became his hobby. He made it a habit to check on the garden before and after his hours of duty. Seeing his efforts pay off made him “incredibly happy”.
While there were initial doubts and confusion, the Vertical Garden eventually “grew” on them.
Messman Mark will definitely miss the garden when he signs off. In fact, he is actually looking forward to setting up his own vertical garden as soon as he gets home.
If the positive reviews and interest continue, we could be seeing a vertical garden on every ship!
See the photos of the proud green thumbs of Rio Spirit and their plant babies.
