[tiplus]

Yes, I agree (in part). This stuff makes a lot more sense when you add climate / light control. Some plants are very difficult to cultivate, coffee for example (it needs constant temperature and will drop all leaves if you leave the window open on a frosty day). Others, like tomatoes, are difficult/impossible to get right if your garden is too shady (personal experience).

The energy costs for indoor climate / light regulation can quickly become outrageous compared to super market veggie prices. Therefore, I think this type of tech is for rare exotic plant, maybe historical even.

Imagine buying a piece of tech for growing historical coffee plants in your basement where you set the climate control to Kenia or Hawaii (buy the soil addon?) and which guarantees (as in `likely it will yield') you 2kg of your own personal coffee harvest per plant. This stuff has urban hipster $$$ written all over it.

[patrickk]

> Imagine buying a piece of tech for growing historical coffee plants in your basement where you set the climate control to Kenia or Hawaii (buy the soil addon?) and which guarantees (as in `likely it will yield') you 2kg of your own personal coffee harvest per plant. This stuff has urban hipster $$$ written all over it.

If you could control climate and soil to that degree, I can think of a certain plant that you could grow that will yield much more profit than a coffee plant: http://botanycentral.providence.wikispaces.net/file/view/coc...

[j_s]

Yes, these discussions of alternative farming options always wind up being about growing drugs:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11845573

[DKnoll]

The amount of coca needed would be far more than can fit in a basement.