Ελληνικά
From the folks who got you the NANO Garden comes something much more comprehensive and expandable. Meet MULTO, a vertical kitchen farm that occupies the same amount of space as a regular shelf. With multiple tiers that can grow as many as 60 plants together, MULTO lets you create a farm-to-table setup right within your home! The autonomous garden has its own sun-mimicking smart light and even self-waters the plants within it. Worried about getting your hands dirty? Well, MULTO uses the same ‘gardening pod’ system as its smaller sibling, NANO. Just plug the pod in and you’re ready to grow! This gardening pod contains seeds suspended in a growth medium, and it floats on a bed of water and nutrients, absorbing as much as it needs to keep your plant hydrated and healthy.
Designer: Xavier Houy for Prêt à Pousser
Before you point out that self-watering planters or smart planters aren’t particularly new, it’s worth noting that the MULTO is more than just a planter – it’s an entire garden. MUTLO’s multi-tier system comes with a modular design that can grow multiple plants at once, turning your home into a miniature orchard. Created in collaboration with multiple award-winning industrial designer Xavier Houy (who has a Red Dot Design Award and a Platinum A’ Design Award to his name, among others), MULTO is the result of over 6 years worth of research and development, gone towards what Prêt à Pousser calls the ultimate vertical kitchen garden, capable of growing everything from microgreens to root vegetables. MULTO achieves this by offering a variety of trays, including a standard tray for your pods, a more densely packed tray that serves as a nursery, a microgreens tray, and a new root vegetables tray to cultivate turnips, baby potatoes, shallots, and other subterranean veggies.
However, Prêt à Pousser’s most significant achievement with the MULTO is its new hydroponic technology. Referred to as their ‘Ebb & Flow’ system, MULTO’s water reservoir comes with a discreet pump that periodically pumps water to the roots, and then drains it out – similar to an ocean’s tide. Working similar to a hydroponic gardening system (but engineered to be better), this enables the circulation of nutrients and allows the plants’ roots to absorb more oxygen, creating a better yield. How much better? Well, Prêt à Pousser’s founder Romain Behaghel claims that MULTO’s Ebb & Flow increases your plant’s yield by 200%, giving you twice as many fruits, veggies, or leafy greens.
Multo will fit any home.
Multo One Level: 15 to 20 plants (to be placed on the ground)
Multo Countertop: 15 to 20 plants (to be placed on a buffet or a kitchen counter)
Multo Three Levels: from 45 to 60 plants (to be placed on the ground)
Assembling your MULTO is just about as easy as using it. The kitchen garden comes in tiers, and you can simply expand your produce by plugging a new tier on top to create your own vertical farm. Each MULTO comes with a smart light that can be automated to mimic the pattern of the sun, and can further be operated by a smartphone app. This new light, MULTO’s team mentions, is 8 times more efficient and powerful than other indoor garden lights, helping create that yield the company boasts about.
While the light sits on top of the planting tray, MULTO’s water reservoir rests beneath it. All you really need to do is fill it up with water and add a sachet of the liquid nutrient which comes with your MULTO and your kitchen garden is now ready. MULTO’s companion app creates a bridge between your garden and you, the gardener, giving you regular updates about your plants, helping track water and nutrient levels, and also equipping you with plant care tips to help you maximize your yield.
Prêt à Pousser debuted their MULTO prototype at CES 2022 this year, showcasing more than 6 years of work on the product (and also its results). MULTO is currently available on Kickstarter, starting at €249 ($259) for a single-tier designed to sit on countertops, with the option to buy modular tiers based on the amount of vertical space available in your house. Each MULTO includes the smart light, the Ebb & Flow hydroponic system, two bottles of liquid nutrient, 4 pod trays, and 16 gardening pods of your choice. What isn’t included in the box, however, is the joy you’ll feel when you see your own kitchen garden flourish after just a few weeks of assembling your MULTO. Who needs Whole Foods when you’ve got wholesome food growing right in your home?!
Source: Yanko Design