UPDATE: Less than 24 hours left! Hydroponics isn’t a new science. It’s basically the ability to foster plant growth without soil. You can use nutrient-rich water to grow plants anywhere… indoors, in deserts, on the International Space Station. However, it’s always been a slightly complex and apparatus-intensive practice that just isn’t a practical thing to do unless it’s absolutely necessary – like in a desert, or a space station… until now. A certain planter design’s been doing the waves at the moment, and it promises the ability to allow you to grow plants without getting your hands dirty with soil, compost, and potting mixes. The Terraplanter allows a wide variety of plants to vertically grow on its textured surface using just water. Its innovative design provides exactly the right conditions needed by plants to grow without soil, and its porous clay construction ensures that plants are never overwatered or underwatered. The one-of-a-kind Terraplanter was developed by Eran Zarhi, an industrial designer and botanophile who wanted to make hydroponics easy and accessible. The Terraplanter comes in an inverted conical format, and stores water inside while the plant grows on the textured vertical walls of the outer surface. The Terraplanter, however, isn’t a single planter. It’s in fact, a cluster of 1,400 tiny planters that let you grow nearly hundreds of plants in/on the same pot, like a micro-farm… all thanks to the Terraplanter’s textured design. The reverse-knurled texture on the outside walls of the Terraplanter actually play a very important dual-purpose. Think of each one as a miniature planter. They hold the seeds during the germination phase, and act as textured walls for roots to latch onto when the plant has fully grown. These cells leech water from inside the planter, supplying them in precise quantities to the plant outside, so your plant always gets the exact right amount of water it needs. Not only does this mean you never have to worry about soil, aeration, or fertilization, you literally don’t need to worry about watering your plant either! Just fill the Terraplanter’s inner reservoir with enough water and the porous terracotta surface actually does the job of distributing water to each plant individually and effectively. Growing plants on the Terraplanter is pretty easy too. Instead of worrying about trivial things like the right soil-type, or accurate seed-spacing, or even how deep the seed needs to be in the soil, the Terraplanter just requires you to make sure the seed, spore, or the plant is in contact with its outer wall. You could rub spores on its outer surface, place seeds in its textured cells, or even wrap an existing plant’s roots to it with a rubber band. Once the plant’s roots self-adhere to the Terraplanter’s parametrically textured outer wall, you’re set. All you need to do then is make sure the reservoir is always filled with water, and that it’s kept in a place where it gets enough light. The Terraplanter allows you to grow a variety of small plants, from ferns to orchids, begonias, climbers, carnivorous plants and moss. The planter can be reused multiple times too, simply by peeling the growing plant away and adding seeds to a new plant. You can easily use the Terraplanter to sprout edible seeds like chia or flax, or to use it as a ‘booster’ planter to help sprout your bigger plants before transferring them to a conventional planter with soil. The Terraplanter is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, and its revolutionary design has gathered it a whopping $5 million in crowdfunding from nearly 45,000 backers! Eran Zarhi ($20 off). Hurry, only 5/15570 left! Raised over $5,500,000. The terraplanter is a simple, clean, low-maintenance and hydroponic planter without the use of any soil or dirt. Just fill the terraplanter with water and the plant will take only what it needs to visibly grow & flourish on the exterior surface of the planter. The structure of the material is solid, yet porous… Water is slowly diffused through it, and is held by the cells giving the plant time to drink and allowing you to water less often. Roots have constant access to water and air. No soil or dirt… only water. Reusable and made from 100% natural materials Combining the idea of hydroponics and the concept of porous material was the key. They created their proprietary ceramic material that has just the right amount of porosity and hygroscopic tendencies to allow water to diffuse through the material and allow the plant to grow on the surface of the material. The team wanted to design a piece that was aesthetically beautiful but it also needed to serve a function; it needed to be a good home for plants. For this they needed to produce a complex shape for the surface of the terraplanter to meet the needs of the plants. It needed to: – Hold seeds on the surface while they sprout. – Hold water for plant roots to drink. – Provide a shape and texture that would allow plant roots to grip the surface. They used parametric design to create the shape they envisioned, and created several prototypes to test with seeds and plants. After testing they looked for ways to improve the product and refined the algorithm and design to get to the optimal solution for plants to thrive. The terraplanter is a vessel that acts as a water bank. The water is held in the vessel and is slowly diffused through the material to the cells on the surface for the plant to drink. The terraplanter has a very visible timeline as you can see the process of plant growth on the surface – from seeds sprouting to roots grasping and growing looking for water, leaves extending towards the light, and flowers blooming. The process itself is the reward. 1. Rub spores onto the surface. 2. Wrap a climbing plant around. 3. User rubber bands to mount plant roots. 4. Cover it with seeds of your choice. Create your one-of-a-kind piece. ($20 off). Hurry, only 5/15570 left! Raised over $5,000,000.