The lush green vegetable tower on the rooftop of a Saigon father

Anyone who visits the small house in Go Vap district of Mr. Binh Son, an IT engineer, enjoys seeing the lush green vegetable towers on the rooftop. The 36-year-old father covers an area of ​​12 m²With all kinds of clean vegetables, he reserved the rest of the terrace for his wife and children to enjoy the cool breeze and have fun.

Mr. Binh Son started growing vegetables in early 2016, when his wife was pregnant. His daughter is now over one year old.

Realizing that growing vegetables using soil farming methods has many limitations, Mr. Son came up with the idea of ​​testing the aeroponic model. The Saigon father consulted the aeroponic vegetable growing system using NASA technology (USA), researched the method and improved it to suit the weather conditions in Vietnam.

Mr. Binh Son bought PVC pipes to make vegetable towers himself. At first, due to lack of experience, the Saigon father spent a lot of money. After many improvements, he was able to make vegetable towers at a cost of about 2 million VND each.

Each aeroponic column has a base area of ​​about 1 m²; 1.9 m high; has 56 vegetable planting holes. He designed an aquarium below the vegetable pillars. Fish feces, urine and excess food are decomposed by microorganisms into nutrients to feed the plants.

The advantage of the aeroponic vegetable growing method is that the process is completely automatic. Growers do not have to water, fertilize, catch insects, or weed. This model ensures a hygienic living environment because it does not use soil or substrate. Mr. Binh Son only visits the garden once every few days to add water to the tank so that the pump can run automatically.

Because it operates automatically, during power outages, the system does not supply water to the vegetable garden, causing the vegetables to wither. Mr. Son's "unforgettable" memory was losing his entire vegetable garden because the neighborhood had a power outage all day. After that, he installed a backup power system to prevent this situation.

Mr. Son's vegetable garden "has its own season". He tried growing carrots, white radishes, red radishes, purple kohlrabi, cucumbers, bitter melons, squash, cantaloupes, strawberries... using this method and all yielded good results.

Each harvest, the Saigon father collects 9 kg of vegetables on each hydroponic column. It takes him about 17-20 days to grow a crop of water spinach and about 25 days for a crop of mustard greens.

Mr. Binh Son estimates that 3 vegetable pillars are enough to provide clean agricultural products for a family of 5 people.

Previously, Mr. Binh Son often bought hydroponic solution to fertilize vegetables. After that, he mixed the mineral salt solution himself according to the online recipe to provide nutrients for the garden.

When he first tried the aeroponics model, Binh Son was scolded by his parents: "I was born in the countryside but I have never seen anyone grow vegetables like you. Without soil, with the roots lying around like that, how can they live? Stop it and focus on making a living to support your wife and children." At that time, the father of one child could only laugh.

Mr. Binh Son's greatest happiness is watching his wife and children gather around the lush green vegetable pillars. It is these vegetable pillars that provide his wife and "princess" with quality meals. After a stressful day at work, this is a private place for Mr. Son to relax and "escape" from the stuffy, tiring Saigon.