Page 33 - Flathead Beacon // 11.5.14

FLATHEADBEACON.COM
BUSINESS
NOVEMBER 5, 2014 | 33
so if each tower is at full bore, it can pro- duce about 10 big harvests per year.
Winchel and Christensen would like to expand their current system into a commercial enterprise, called Aqua- ponics North. The goal is to have a big enough greenhouse to be able to supply organic food stores with towers, where customers can clip off the amount of sal- ad or herbs they need without having to deal with packaging.
Eventually, they would like to be able to provide the towers to restaurants as well.
“(Restaurants’) biggest expense and disappointment is the greens in the win- ter here,” Winchel said.
People could also put the towers in their homes, and either plant and har- vest themselves or have the Aquaponics North team stop by with full towers.
Winchel said the business would have room to expand on his five-acre property, where they could build green- houses and run up to 150 towers to start off. Eventually, they could work up to 600 towers.
“It’s an achievable goal,” he said.
The couple has set up an Indiegogo campaign for Aquaponics North, which is a website for crowdsourced funds for projects. They are trying to raise $50,000 to cover the remaining 25 per- cent of the infrastructure needed to get the project going.
Winchel is a landscape contractor by trade, and has 22 years in that industry. He built the greenhouse on his property
“The water usage is minimal...We prob- ably use about 90 per- cent less water than on our dirt garden.”
MARK WINCHEL
as a hobby, and when the economy took a nosedive in 2009 as the recession hit, he took a look at the idea of commercial- izing the space.
The couple started with horizontal stacks of plant beds, but eventually real- ized that vertical growing stands allow for more plants in the same amount of space. And the less water used in Mon- tana’s arid climate the better, he said.
By bringing vertical aquaponics to people’s lives, Winchel and Christensen hope to create a sustainable, organic way to ensure fresh vegetables don’t have to travel more than 20 miles to Flathead Valley tables.
“The goal is to get this into the mar- ket,” Winchel said.
For more information on Aqua- ponics North, visit www.indiegogo. com/projects/aquaponics-the-herb- and-salad-filling-stations or the com- pany’s Facebook page.
[email protected]
Greens grow vertically in Mark Winchel’s aquaponics operation at his greenhouse near Whitefish.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
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