Starting a vertical farm takes a lot of time and financial investment, and you need to know what you're getting yourself into. 

But learning through listening or reading only gets you so far! To fully understand the details of running an urban farm, you must have real, hands-on experience.

After all, “knowledge without application is like a book that is never read." - Christopher Crawford

That's why it's critical you create a pilot (or test) system as soon as you can. 

A pilot vertical farm is a small scale version of your future farm that enables you to apply your research, make small mistakes, and demonstrate the quality of your produce to any future customers during your market research phase.

In this post, we'll talk about why you should start a test system, what you'll learn in the process, and the best way to get started today.
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Gathering knowledge is only half the battle.  You learn the most valuable lessons through actually applying that knowledge in tangible, practical ways. 

Workshops, courses, blog posts, ebooks, and videos provide a wealth of information and are absolutely crucial for future farmers to use, but at the end of the day what counts is the practical application of what you learn. 

This is why serious farmers choose to start growing with a test system - a smaller version of their chosen farm technique that they can use as "training wheels".

We think that this is one of the best things you could do for the success of your farm. 

Here are five reasons why:

1) It's a low-cost, low-risk way to see if hydroponic farming is right for you.
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2) A test system amplifies your education and shortens your learning curve.
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3) You'll feel more confident about going into full-scale production.  
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4) It gives you a chance to bring samples to interested customers before launching.
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5) You can make mistakes on a small scale without having to risk your entire farm. 

The bottom line: If you want to start a farm, you should start a small scale test system ASAP.  Bringing real produce samples to prospective customers will get you more business than a sales pitch ever could!

Regardless of configuration, the concept is the same: Pump nutrient rich water from a reservoir down through the towers and onto the plant roots which are anchored in the Matrix Media. The plants uptake nutrients and the remaining water is recirculated back to the nutrient reservoir and the whole process repeats itself. 

Remember, one of the biggest reasons to start a pilot system is to learn by doing! 

Regardless what technique you choose, you'll want to learn about:

"Pest management is the first that comes to mind," says Ethan. "Attaining good control early on is essential, as many organic pesticides are more difficult to use effectively when plants are large with dense growth."

Ethan recommends applying organic pesticides in a rotation at first sign of any pests. Pesticide labels set legal parameters on how often you can do this, so only apply pesticides as often as pesticide labels permit.

"As plants become larger, ladybugs and other biocontrol methods can be useful to help control pests that the insecticide can't reach (under leaves, etc). 

Resort to systemic pesticides should infestations become severe. These will wipe out everything but are harsher."

Ethan's second piece of advice is to be strategic about ventilation and air circulation.

"Maintaining consistent air flow from top to bottom of a tower is different than for plants grown traditionally. To maintain air circulation in our room we have intake and exhaust fans that run on an Intelliclimate, several wall mounted rotating circulation fans that run constantly, and an oscillating circulation fan that constantly disperses air through a plastic tube overhead.

"Selective pruning of plants and removal of dead plant material can increase airflow at the base of the plant or interior of large plants. This helps prevent mold and disease."