# Vertical landscapes (warning picture heavy)



## AQUAMAC (Jul 27, 2004)

Hi All,

It's been several years since I had to part with my dartfrogs to start our company. I am looking very forward to setting up a vivarium for our new office with a few "new friends." It's great to be back and see some of our old friends on db as well!

In any event, they are not vivariums, but I thought I would share some images of our living architecture. The building block used to create our living walls is an EcoWall vertical planting panel. The system is hydroponic in nature, and utilizes a series of lightweight, inorganic growing mediums which maintain an ideal level of oxygen and water; ultimately reducing the amount of maintenance and resources to sustain healthy plant grow. An internal automatic irrigation system supplies the plants with water and nutrients.

I'm looking forward to posting a few images of the construction process of our "real vivarium" in the upcoming weeks. Enjoy!


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

Looking fantastic fellas, let me know if you ever need some black bassleri!


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## eyeviper (May 23, 2006)

I love living walls and those look awesome! I am planning on making one for my apartment next semester. I would love to hear more about the materials and general technology you use with your walls. They look simply awesome.


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## kate801 (Jul 7, 2011)

These are absolutely amazing! I saw a living wall in the Waldorf Astoria the other day and vowed I would someday have one. Very nice work!!!


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## AQUAMAC (Jul 27, 2004)

Thanks guys. I'm glad to hear that the bassleri are doing well for you!! I will definitely know who to talk to when our vivariums are ready : ) 

With respect to construction questions, I have included a few build out pictures of a small EcoWall (6'x6') in this thread and I would be happy to share some of my experiences. Our company manufactures a modular panel. IMO the major criteria to consider when building a successful living wall are:

1. Existing environmental conditions
2. Accessibility
3. Water quality and supplemental lighting
4. Growing medium
5. Maintenance and integrative pest management

All too often have I seen living walls installed with little thought behind the long-term viability and care. These things are important to consider before installation. 

There are several commercially available systems..each system and each has its pluses and minuses. With my personal experience, I have found the soil-based systems problematic because the substrate eventually erodes and can be difficult to apply nutrients and water without salt buildup. Plant roots that are also limited to small cubicles in these systems will become root bound. This is why our company focused on creating a hydroponic vertical planter. A major problem with the hydroponic systems, however, is that they require a fairly constant feed of water to survive. If the pump were to malfunction, plants growing in felts and hydrophobic materials only have a short time before they start to stress. We developed and patented a series of layers of inert materials which we use in our EcoWalls that absorb and retain water. This has added to the long-term success of the system. 
We have also installed several aquaponic systems (which include aquariums and ponds at the base and aquatic wildlife). When working with aquaponics, it was important that the substrate material does not include and harmful surfactants and would not decompose into the water (many sponges, for example contain surfactants to aid in hydrophilicity which are harmful to fish and amphibians). In these systems the EcoWall acts as a large biofilter, cleaning water for the aquatic fauna and of course the fauna provides macro and some micro nutrients for the plants.

The photos included demonstrate the construction process (when planting on site)

1. Mount J brackets to structure.
2. Hang panels
3. Run irrigation lines and attach to internal irrigation in panels
4. Install frame surround to mask irrigation
5. Cut small pockets into open-celled foam (black layer on outside). Install root mass of plant into black foam so it it touching capillary layer (this is hydrophilic and located behind the black foam). the first planted picture demonstrates a freshly installed project.
6. Keep plants happy and allow to grow. The second picture is the EcoWall at about the 6-7 month marker.

The wall is fed with an automatic irrigation system and nutrient injector (located on the back). This limits the maintenance to pruning and nutrient replacement every 6-8 weeks.

Hope this is helpful!


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## pa.walt (Feb 16, 2004)

i miss the the meetings at your house and being greeted by the vertical plant wall at your front door.


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## BlueRidge (Jun 12, 2010)

Living walls are awesome. You manufacture those? Thats amazing.


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

Everything looks great. I've always loved living walls. I need that in my living room! Where in NJ?


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## gregadc (Mar 16, 2011)

Said to my Girlfriend....look our future house...


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## Epiphile (Nov 12, 2009)

AQUAMAC said:


> The wall is fed with an automatic irrigation system and nutrient injector (located on the back). This limits the maintenance to pruning and nutrient replacement every 6-8 weeks.


I know you'd mentioned potential problems with constant flow systems and how you've addressed this, but is your system constantly moving water through the wall? 

Also, I was wondering if you might share your target water parameters as far as nutrients and pH- I'm stuck doing maintenance on another company's living wall up here in Toronto and would like to get an idea of target nutrient levels for a system like this. The designing company had unfortunately not incorporated any means of improving the water coming in to the system.


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## kitcolebay (Apr 7, 2012)

Umm....Wow! Very interesting and very beautiful! Those are just too cool! 

Congrads on the success of your company and welcome back to being a dart owner soon!

-Chris


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## AQUAMAC (Jul 27, 2004)

Epiphile said:


> I know you'd mentioned potential problems with constant flow systems and how you've addressed this, but is your system constantly moving water through the wall?
> 
> Also, I was wondering if you might share your target water parameters as far as nutrients and pH- I'm stuck doing maintenance on another company's living wall up here in Toronto and would like to get an idea of target nutrient levels for a system like this. The designing company had unfortunately not incorporated any means of improving the water coming in to the system.


Sure, I am happy to provide some information. Our system is not a constant flow. Irrigation varies between the site/exposure and plant material used in each project. Most interior projects with medium-low light are watered once every other day for a 6 minute cycle. On the inside of the panels is a hydrophilic agricultural sponge which absorbs water and nutrient solution, keeping the interior of the EcoWall moist and buffering the roots.

Ideal pH for most common tropical plants is between 6.2-6.8. A target electro conductivity range (EC readings are used to determine the amount of salts, or fertilizer, dissolved in water) is somewhere between .75-1.25 mS/cm for most lower light tropicals. This can be adjusted to the higher end of the range if lighting is very bright. We have also found that many of these plants will benefit from a period with just fresh water to rinse any salt buildup.

If not installed, a filter to reduce/remove chlorine/ fluorine feeding the living wall would be a very good addition on the project. You can also take a sample of the water and send it off to a lab to see what type of water parameters you are dealing with. Sometimes the water feeding the system will contain harmful levels of chlorine/fluorine/calcium etc which can easily be removed with preventative filtration. This will also help reduce maintenance as the water parameters will be stable for a longer period.


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## AQUAMAC (Jul 27, 2004)

Oh...Walt I miss our meetings at my house too. Good news is we have a nice sized greenhouse in Bordentown NJ where I can host a bigger meeting now : ) Here are a few pictures.


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## eyeviper (May 23, 2006)

So how do you actually plant the wall? Some species you are using are not epiphitic but they are going bonkers and appear secure. Do you just tie each plant to the wall or do you have special ecowall planters?


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## papafrogger (Oct 21, 2012)

I love these. I really want one but i have very limited space. Have you thought about designing small compact models? Such as tabletop or desktop sizes? Or would something like that be easily built at home?


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## Epiphile (Nov 12, 2009)

AQUAMAC said:


> Sure, I am happy to provide some information. Our system is not a constant flow. Irrigation varies between the site/exposure and plant material used in each project. Most interior projects with medium-low light are watered once every other day for a 6 minute cycle. On the inside of the panels is a hydrophilic agricultural sponge which absorbs water and nutrient solution, keeping the interior of the EcoWall moist and buffering the roots.
> 
> Ideal pH for most common tropical plants is between 6.2-6.8. A target electro conductivity range (EC readings are used to determine the amount of salts, or fertilizer, dissolved in water) is somewhere between .75-1.25 mS/cm for most lower light tropicals. This can be adjusted to the higher end of the range if lighting is very bright. We have also found that many of these plants will benefit from a period with just fresh water to rinse any salt buildup.
> 
> If not installed, a filter to reduce/remove chlorine/ fluorine feeding the living wall would be a very good addition on the project. You can also take a sample of the water and send it off to a lab to see what type of water parameters you are dealing with. Sometimes the water feeding the system will contain harmful levels of chlorine/fluorine/calcium etc which can easily be removed with preventative filtration. This will also help reduce maintenance as the water parameters will be stable for a longer period.


Thanks a lot for all this info. 

Are you sticking with a roughly 3-1-2 ratio for macronutrients, or are you trying something else? I'd be interested to see if the general nutritional guidelines for tropicals are the same in this system as they would be in production.

And do you find your system will tend to accumulate things like sulphates?

Thanks again for your response.


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## pa.walt (Feb 16, 2004)

checked your website a while back. pretty nice site. nice pics..


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## ICS523 (Mar 10, 2012)

very cool!
also a very important new technology with all the urban smog/air quality problems.


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## froggies3 (Feb 1, 2011)

That is awesome! Good luck building your vivs.


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## arichee49 (Nov 6, 2012)

this is awesome! Reminds me of wholefoods food court here in austin! They have a brom wall from ceiling to floor


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## AQUAMAC (Jul 27, 2004)

eyeviper said:


> So how do you actually plant the wall? Some species you are using are not epiphitic but they are going bonkers and appear secure. Do you just tie each plant to the wall or do you have special ecowall planters?


Many of the species that we select are not epiphytes and this is not a criteria we use for picking plants. Selection is based off of the environmental parameters of the site which we are installing the EcoWall, nutrient requirements, growth habit, and compatibility with other species. It is important to remember that you are typically catering to an entire plant community on a living wall with one type/concentration of nutrients. Plants must be compatible in both environmental and nutritional needs. We have several test walls at our greenhouse where we continually test performance metrics of plants in our product.

Suprisingly, some epiphytes, like several types of bromeliads, don't lend themselves well to most interior living wall applications. Many bromeliads, for example, do not like wet feet and get most of their water and nutrients from the center of the rosette. Since it is labor intensive to manually fill these cups on living walls that are higher than 9 ft, bromeliads often look great going in and can last for some time, but eventually die off. Also, when they pup, the mother plant will slowly die and the pups cannot always anchor well to the living wall.

To plant in our system, a pocket is cut into the outside foam on the product, the pocket is peeled back and the plant root mass is inserted into the foam so that the roots are also hitting the hydrophilic growing medium at the back. I have some drawings of how the system works as well.


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## AQUAMAC (Jul 27, 2004)

Here are a few construction drawings for the product I pulled from our sheets.


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## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

What are ~ costs? say per sq ft completed. Assuming electrical/plumbing to the structure is separate. 

Must you have fresh water supply and drainage, or can they be 'self contained', say in a room that plumbing isnt available?

Have you ever done an 'outside' wall in northern climates? using perennials and evergreens rated for the lower climate zones?

My fav = the first set of pics, in those homes. More eclectic plant choices, less uniform. Amazing IMO.


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## jacobi (Dec 15, 2010)

Oh. My. Golly. Gosh. 

I WANNA!


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## AQUAMAC (Jul 27, 2004)

Hi Shawn,

It's good to see so many familiar faces : ) Many thanks to all for the positive compliments. To address a few questions:

1. We can implement either an open or closed loop irrigation system. In our recirculating systems, there is also the opportunity to include aquatic wildlife in the reservoirs...the plants do an excellent job of cleaning the water. Sadly enough, I had a few freshwater rays in one of our EcoWalls for many years before we just lost them to power outage from the hurricane. I included a few images of them

2. Per square foot costs may vary a bit depending on the site and plant material used. Our system is about $90/sq ft + $30-$40/ sq ft for plants and installation.

3. Yes we have done both interior and exterior. The last project I pictured is one that is 2 years old now installed on a covered deck. Exterior greenwalls in northern climates are possible but the irrigation mechanisms need to be well thought as they do require a little water even in the winter months.

I'm going to plan an open house soon for DB members at our greenhouse so anyone interested is welcome to visit and see our living walls.


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## jacobi (Dec 15, 2010)

AQUAMAC said:


> I'm going to plan an open house soon for DB members at our greenhouse so anyone interested is welcome to visit and see our living walls.


Yes please!


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

jacobi said:


> Yes please!


I second that!


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## mellowvision (Feb 6, 2009)

I'd come out to Jersey for that!


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