First Look at the Vertical Horizons 1.5m Hydroponics Growing Tower

Hello there, welcome back. In this video I'm going to show you a new tower from Vertical Horizons and in response to what a lot of people have asked for, yes, it is a taller one. This one will actually hold 30 plants. Right, so this is the existing tower. This one is approximately a metre tall. And this one is approximately 1.5 metres tall. Now, Rupert was asked by numerous people if he could make a taller one. And he wanted to keep the efficiency of the tower, but also increase the height. And that's a pretty difficult thing to do. So he's gone with a different pump for this one. And this actually uses a plug, which is like an adapter plug. Whereas the pump for the smaller tower just uses a USB connection. The one for the smaller tower is one watt consumption. Now I've had this smaller tower running for well over a month and it's just run flawlessly. I haven't even bothered topping the reservoir up because it's still producing plenty of water coming down here. All the plants that I put in have done really well. I've harvested most of them so I think I'm left with three or four. Lettuce in there. By the end of this week, they will probably be gone. Now, with regard to the bigger one, I'll be planting that one up with the lettuce that I've grown in the desktop hydroponic unit, which I showed a good few videos back. That has done really well again, I haven't even maintained that at all, I just shoved the seed in, switched it on, I've let it go, so now the lettuce are, oh I don't know, six to eight inches tall, they really should have come out before now, but I'll get that planted up and I'll let you see what it looks like. These towers from Vertical Horizons come with all sorts, basically everything you need. We've got the pots, which are perforated, we've got some new inserts which go into the pots, they used to come with like a little rubbery puck. As you can see, I've been harvesting the lettuce from here, and if I can just pull this lad out of here, one-handed, yes, there you go, you can see what they used to be like. Now they've come with a wonderfully soft foam insert, that's very soft, so that's not going to damage the plant at all. And you just put that inside the pot, exactly the same way. You'll see it when I set this big lad up, what it looks like with the plants in. It also comes with nutrients, which Rupert at Vertical Horizons gets made up especially for him. It comes with a little propagator and a few seeds as well, as well as some clay planting media, you know like the expanded clay balls, should you want to use that in the pot. Normally you don't need to use that, but really it's got everything, absolutely everything. All the things that come in the bag are included, no matter which of these towers you buy. The only thing that's an optional extra is the Hessian skirt that goes around the bottom, but you can see the prices of that on the website. I will put the link to the Vertical Horizons website in the video description and also in the pinned comment, and I'll also put it across the bottom of the screen now. If anybody wants to check it out, I think the both of these are outstanding value for what they are because I know what it takes to make these. I've made numerous towers for my vertical horizons, vertical horizons, for my vertical hydroponics systems. And there's a lot of work involved in that. Plus, you've got the reservoir, which is effectively like a 25 to 30 litre bucket. You've got a lot of fittings inside there that keeps the tower upright. You've got the pump, you've got the pipe, you've got the sprinkler head in the top. You've got the cap, which allows the whole system to breathe. There's the little sprinkler head in the top there. You've got all these inserts put in and glued in exceptionally tidily. You're not going to lose any water from the system. It is the most efficient, most economical vertical system money can buy. And that's why I am all for it. But wait, there is more. Because Rupert from Vertical Horizons is such a generous chap, He sent another one of the taller towers up for me to give away on my channel. So on the Thousand Yard Stair channel, very, very soon, I'll be giving this lad away. Now, I don't want to rip the box up too much because I'm going to send it away in this box. But that is what one of you guys is going to win. Very soon, and it'll be delivered in time for Christmas. Big thank you to Rupert for that. That is the pistachio colour, and that, to me, is the nicest colour. That's what I got. for the little tower the big tower is white obviously they both perform exactly the same but when Rupert said he was going to send two of these one for me and one to give away i thought it'd be nicer to send the pistachio version away because to me that's the nicer color and i just want one of you guys to win that now the competition will be only available to people in the uk unfortunately and that's because of the very high shipping costs abroad um It's just one of those things, you know, I'll give all sorts of way, but when it comes to paying for the shipping, it's a difference between seven or eight quid shipping in the UK and, oh God, I don't know, 80, 100 quid to ship that to like America or Australia or something like that. It'll be phenomenal just because of the height of it, you know, the bulk of it. Might even cost more than that but I don't even want to entertain that thought. So unfortunately the giveaway is just for folks in the UK. Watch out for that as I say it will be on the 1000 Yard Stair channel. Right so I asked Rupert if he wanted me to include any specific information in this video. So I've got just a little list of things which you guys may find important especially if you're into kind of you know real eco things. And recycling and so on. So the tower is handmade in the UK from recycled materials. Not all of them are recycled, but some of them are recycled materials. And is fully recyclable. UV stabilised plastic is used for the tower. So it's not going to go brittle or break down or crack. The reservoir and tubing are food grade. So you've got to get a delivery. I'll get back to you. Okay, where were we? Yes, the reservoir and tubing are food grade and fully recyclable as well. The whole system is BPA and phthalate free. basically that means it's safe to grow food in these towers that is super important because you can kind of you know bump together something yourself diy it and use materials that'll possibly break down in water break down in sunlight and then before you know it you're eating a nation of micro plastics and you may as well be eating beyond meat or some crap like that you know it's very important that the materials used in these systems are safe to grow food and they are and a lot of the stuff's recycled and it's all recyclable that is important because well i don't know i'm gonna go off on one here but the real issue isn't bloody carbon dioxide you know it's pollution And wasting resources. If we're, I mean, you know, the earth provides for ten times more people than we've got on it now. We just need to use the resources properly and buy good stuff instead of crap that we'll just throw away. Might as well get that new one planted up and then I'll get back to you. So the desktop hydroponics unit that I showed a good, well, I don't know, six, seven weeks ago. This is what it's produced. I literally set it up. I turned it on and I neglected it from that point until now. All these plants were grown pretty close together, yet they still produced the occasional really big lettuce. Look at that. That's a hell of an achievement, and I mean, really, I should have done something with these weeks ago. I should have planted up something like this, or something like my other hydroponics units ages ago, you know. It's quite neglectful to let them get into this sort of state, but I'll just take off the dead leaves. Anything that looks a bit limp and knackered, put them in here, and I can guarantee days later, they'll all be looking like that. They'll just absolutely blast away. Okay then, that's it, filled up. I've planted up. I've gone with the bigger lettuce at the bottom and the smaller ones at the top simply because the wind tends to whip around here and if the bigger ones were put in there before they got established and had all the roots all the way down they would be a bit top heavy so they probably blew out. Obviously I haven't filled up every single one of those ports. There's not 30 lettuce in there but there will be enough that when they get to that sort of size they'll cover the whole tower. I just didn't have 30 to put in there. And I don't even know whether I should have bothered putting that one in. It looks about knackered. That was the only one out of that desktop planter that didn't look very good, but it was very crowded out. It might come back, though, so I've left it in there. I'll just give you a quick look in here to let you see what sort of flow is coming out. There you go. Pretty good. And it's spreading it well. You know, every single one of these pots gets enough water. Just a dribble, but that's all they need. Let's pull this one out, for example. Hopefully you can see it, dribbling down inside there, just drips coming down all the time. It's all you need.