Organic farming with Tuna Gönsaker, Uppsala Sweden
Tuna Grönsker, Tuna from the location Altuna, about 20 miles north of Stockholm, and grönsaker is the Swedish word for Greens. At the two-acre farm, the owner Ellisive and her family produce crops for their own use, for schools in the area, and the surplus is sold in the farm’s old barn or on Facebook.
Farm architecture
Ellisiv and her family started the organic vegetable farm seven years ago. When she heard about the zero emission irrigation system from Spowdi, there was no doubt that she should invest in a Spowdi system and rethink her irrigation architecture. That was two years ago. Below you can visit her farm.
Tuna Grönsaker (Greens)
Size: 1,5 acres divided into two irrigation areas.
Plants: Vegetables, fruit, grain
Water source: Dug well
Irrigation: Spowdi Mobile Pro connected to 16 mm drip lines (1,2 liter/h) and sprinklers
Irrigation set up
All water used for irrigation at Tuna Greens comes from rainwater collected from the house and the barn roof. The collected water is transported and stored in a well.
The solar panel is mounted on a rig on top of the platform covering the well. The rig can easily be adjusted with the right angle towards the sun during the day for optimized performance.
The growing sections are divided into zones that can be managed independently from a switchboard
Growing area
Section 1, four irrigation zones
– Two greenhouses and two outdoor growing beds.
To prevent evaporation, the soil is covered with a layer of straw to keep the moisture level as high as possible and by using a ground cloth they reduce the spread of unwanted weeds.
Depending on what you grow, micro-sprinklers can be used when you grow crops that prefer rain simulated irrigation. One of Tuna Greens’ outdoor growing beds is irrigated with micro-sprinklers.
Section 2, six irrigation zones
– Located 100 meters away from the well.
There is a 2.000 L water container between the well and the growing area. The Spowdi Mobile Pro installed in the well fills the container that is located five meters above the growing area. The water is then distributed from the container to the drip lines using gravity which means that you can irrigate all six zones at the same time if you choose to do so.
Farm Life
- Get your hands dirty!
You can’t be a perfectionist if you do what I do, you would go crazy. So sorry for all the weed, I’ll deal with that on Monday, that’s my weed day. Ellisiv, Organic farmer north of Stockholm, Sweden Ellisiv and her family started an organic vegetable farm here in Alunda, an hour and a half …