Mexico - Helping a rural family with growing lemon trees, melons, and other vegetables in the Growboxx®

What if the summer is extremely hot, you lack water, spring and autumn are cold but you still want to grow vegetables and fruit trees? In 2018 we've built an affordable, simple and movable greenhouse on the property of the Podesta family in Baja California, Mexico.

Although the summer is extremely hot, spring and autumn nights are normally too cold to grow. With this affordable greenhouse and while using the Growboxx® plant cocoon, this family now has the opportunity to harvest vegetables and at the same time plant a new lemon tree orchard, while extending their growth season.

Rural families across the globe who rely on agriculture

The Podesta family is one of the 800 million rural families who rely on agriculture to make a living and to feed themselves. During the recent years it has become increasingly difficult for them to grow enough fruit and vegetables. The revolutionary and sustainable Growboxx® plant cocoon offers a fruitful future for this family, and any other family on our planet, by allowing them to grow their own food using 90% less water and at 90% lower cost.

The Groasis Ecological Water Saving Technology offers a new way to end the food crisis that affects some 815 million people who go to bed hungry every night. To demonstrate the effectiveness of its invention, Groasis has financed the earlier-called simple but effective greenhouse at the property of the Podesta family. This low-cost greenhouse requires no climate regulation and the natural resources in the area are not being depleted. In combination with the Growboxx® plant cocoon it gives the family the opportunity to create an orchard of fruit trees, while providing an abundant vegetables harvest year after year.

Feeding families and earning money

For this project, we've planted various vegetable species like melons, green peppers, tomatoes, etc. - with and without lemon trees - with the biodegradable Growboxx® plant cocoon. The goal is to create a lemon orchard. But, the trees will start to give a harvest after 5 or 6 years. For most rural families, this will take too much time. That is why the plantplugs (in the lid of the Growboxx® plant cocoon) are used to plant seeds and other small saplings. The vegetables will set fruits already after a couple of months! In this way, the Podesta family can eat the fruits themselves and sell them at the local market.  

Below you can see how the plants have grown during the last months, and the tasty harvest that the Podesta family is now enjoying. Click here to see the photo album and more pictures of this project! 

April 24: The Growboxxes with lemon trees and vegetables were planted in a simple greenhouse made from plastic tubes and cloth. There is no climate regulation. The average night temperature in April was just 11°C. 

June 15: In some of the boxes we only planted vegetable species such as yellow peppers, tomatoes and green peppers. 

July 24: During the day the temperature rose to more than 34°C. With help from the Growboxx® the harvest will be superb.