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How We Grow

Finn & Roots grows plants and fish in a closed system using water rather than soil, and utilizing a clean, sustainable, alternative food production approach known as aquaponics.

Aquaponics, the science of growing plants in water combined with fish cultivation, has roots dating back thousands of years with Asian farming practices. It’s a sustainable, resilient growing technique that uses natural waste produced by fish as an organic fertilizer for the plants that are grown hydroponically in nutrient-film technology (NFT) benches. With the exception of our cucumber and tomato systems, we run our aquaculture and hydroponics decoupled, meaning we choose when to use fish water as a growing nutrient (aka fertilizer).

The water and nutrients for all of the Ark’s veggie growing are recycled/recirculated. Excess fish waste is either used for compost on our small farm orchard and vineyard, or sold as fresh garden fertilizer. This results in 90% less water usage than traditional farming, and no run off into our rivers and lakes. Find out more about Wooooo Fish Poo Manure

Our water source is a pristine Vermont mountain spring located in the middle of our 200 acres of forest and fields. We have warm water fish in an entirely self-contained system, and feed a clean, non-GMO diet.

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Because we live in Northern Vermont, and not Hawaii, all of our year-round growing is done in our special purpose-built, environmentally controlled building named the Eco Ark. Learn more about the Eco Ark

Growing aquaponically means… 

  • Sustainable and eco-friendly food production
  • Growing using 1/6th of the water to grow 8 times more food per acre compared to traditional agriculture
  • Produces clean tender greens free of grit
  • Greens have a longer shelf life compared to soil grown
  • No risk of soilborne diseases
  • No risk of Salmonella or E. Coli as fertilizer is from fish (cold-blooded animals)
  • Year-round, continuous indoor farming

Interested in learning more about aquaponics? There are some great resources available, for example:

https://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/aquaponics

https://aquaponics.com/aquaponics-in-schools/aquaponics-information/

https://thefishsite.com/articles/the-godfather-of-aquaponics-james-rakocy-creating-ecosystems

See more