One of the most common questions we get is -- how does Ponos serve existing or larger scale hydroponic systems or groweries with monitoring, control, automation, and machine learning optimizations? After months of consulting with DIYers and hydroponic groweries, Ponos is proud to announce Ponos X.
What is Ponos X?
Whereas Ponos 1 is an all-in-one home farming system, Ponos X removes the pre-defined form factor. It’s the physical brains of a grow operation, including the required hardware (sensors, actuators, and outlets), software (Ponos IQ), cloud service, and mobile apps, but you can hook it into a custom growing configuration. It scales from small home set ups to large urban farming warehouses, providing the peace of mind that your plants will grow according to plan, and that you can monitor and control the system from anywhere.
Urban growing is the future of farming
Urban growing environments are constrained from a space and resources perspective. In order to maximize efficiency, hydroponics is fast becoming the de-facto way to grow food quickly and densely. Hydroponics system designs can leverage vertical space, plants grow up to 4x or 5x faster, and use 90% less water than traditional soil-based methods (i.e. technology that was developed 1000s of years ago).
The challenge is that hydroponic growing is much more sensitive than soil. An over or under abundance of nutrients, the wrong pH, temperature fluctuations, improper lighting intervals, low water levels, and many other mishaps can in some cases kill your entire crop incredibly quickly.
For small to medium size farms, this issue can be extremely acute. There aren't a ton of employees to monitor the system 24x7, and the budget doesn't allow for the highly expensive software suites that seem like they are more appropriate for a chemical manufacturing campus than a small urban growing environment.
The right (hydroponics) stuff
Ponos X provides that sweet spot of flexible yet easy to use, powerful yet affordable. It provides multiple integrated power outlets for your water pumps and nutrient and pH solution injectors. It has a built-in ports for standard pH, EC, and temperature sensors. It religiously monitors and manages your plant growth against either an expert-crafted Ponos grow plan or a custom grow plan you define and iterate on yourself. It securely communicates with the Ponos Cloud so you track your crops from anywhere and benefit from our machine learning intelligence to maximize the quality and quantity of your harvests.
Growing doesn't need to be a pain. We're here to democratize food -- whether you're growing for yourself or for others, for fun or for profit. Your feedback is essential to making sure we get this product right, so please send us a note at team@ponos.io and let us know how we can make this the perfect solution for you.
