to grow dozens of plants. Gamberini's fat
her Sergio, who runs a diving company that operates in Italy and California, founded Nemo's Garden five years ago. He came up with the idea of growing plants underwater as a way of making diving more interactive.
There, metres under the surface, divers attend to basil, garlic and other plants grown in large domes, known as biospheres.
her Sergio, who runs a diving company that operates in Italy and California, founded Nemo's Garden five years ago. He came up with the idea of growing plants underwater as a way of making diving more interactive.
There, metres under the surface, divers attend to basil, garlic and other plants grown in large domes, known as biospheres. 'We had this crazy idea and our first experiments were these flexible balloons ... which we anchored on the seabed,' Luca says.'We found a way to put a vase inside and we tried first with a plant that was already born and successfully continued to grow it—it didn't die, it actually thrived. 'Then we tried with the seeds and they sprouted in less than 36 hours, it was incredible.'
Since then they've successfully grown 26 different kinds of plants, including beans and radishes.
They have seven biospheres, each about the size of a large room, which can hold up to three divers. Each biosphere houses at least 60 plants, which are grown using hydroponics and gravity-fed watering systems.
'The sea is an ... auto-sustainable and free charger and warmer,' Gamberini says.'We have a constant temp here in the Mediterranean but in many places around the world the water gives out warmth a lot slower than air.
'Light actually gets to more than 10 metres underwater so it's perfect for us, plus the seawater acts like a filter so all the useless and not beneficial frequencies of light that would get to the plants are actually cut off, so you get all the good stuff.
'It's a place where no parasite can get ... so we don't need to use pesticide or any other system and we have also a natural evaporation of the seawater ... which becomes fresh water and just naturally irrigates the plants.'
Gamberini hopes that through Nemo's Garden they can develop an alternative to traditional agriculture that could be used in the future if land starts to run out.We tested the plants—we ate the basil we grew underwater—it has more taste to it, the essential oils are higher which means [it has a] more intense perfume,' Gamberini says. Contributed by abc.net.au
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