GEOGRO Get in touch

A growing cylinder that never stops turning.

GEOGRO is a modular family of rotating, soil-based growing systems. We design the cylinder, its drive and its digital layer, and license them to the nurseries, growers, design firms and equipment suppliers who already have the customers.

Talk to us about licensing See how it works
End view of a GEOGRO growing cylinder: soil inside, plants growing out of ports around its curved wall, turning slowly on a central axle held by an A-frame stand.
Drawn turning at working pace, about once every eight minutes.

Not another vertical farm.

A soil-filled cylinder lies on its axis with plants set into ports around its curved wall. It turns slowly and continuously, so every plant moves through the same light, water and gravity over and over again.

Static racks hold each plant in one position for its whole life. GEOGRO keeps them moving. Continuous slow revolution works on four plant responses at once, which is why we call it a rotating geotropic bioreactor.

Phototropism
Growth toward light. The canopy stays outside the cylinder, in the air, and it turns through the light evenly.
Geotropism
Roots follow gravity. As the cylinder turns, the pull on them keeps changing direction.
Hydrotropism
Roots follow water. Irrigation is delivered beneath the roots, so the foliage stays dry.
Gravistimulation
The constant, gentle reorientation itself, felt by the whole plant as it grows.

The rotation is designed to allow denser planting than static vertical or horizontal systems, to avoid the classic wilt cycle, to reduce disease pressure by keeping leaves dry, and to discourage flying pests mechanically through constant motion. Proving each of those under real conditions is the work we are doing now.

Click or use the arrow keys to step through the cylinder, one part at a time.

The crop sets the geometry.

This is the idea we protect. The same rotating core is reshaped for each crop or crop mix, instead of forcing one fixed layout onto every installation.

Cross-section of an 18-inch cylinder with many shallow net pots around its wall.

The default

An 18 inch diameter gives the most productive surface along a cylinder of a given length. Net pots and rooting baskets sit shallow in the wall, close together.

  • Length and diameterChosen for the target crop, and for the size of pot it needs.
  • Hole patternSized and spaced for pot diameter, mature canopy, root mass and weight.
  • Rooting baskets and net potsDepth, mesh and material matched to the crop's roots and water needs.
  • Plant supportsTrellis, netting or clips for vining, tall or heavy fruiting plants.
  • Harvest methodLiving plants in pots or baskets, or cut fresh produce, depending on the market.
  • Growth phaseRotation speed can be varied by growth phase or for trials.

Simple machinery, by design.

A steel axle, a stand, a belt drive and a speed controller. That is the whole machine.

Central steel axle

Sized to the cylinder's length, diameter and total loaded weight.

Belt drive

A motor on an A-frame or floor stand, with a pulley ratio chosen for the target rotation rate.

Adjustable speed

A digital controller sets the pace. Typical operation is one revolution every seven to nine minutes.

Built to stack

Wall mounted or offset vertical stacking makes use of height as well as floor.

Designed to fit shipping containers, warehouses, tilt-wall buildings, greenhouses, subterranean facilities and custom structures.

Soil, not solution.

GEOGRO grows in living media. First installations can start with purchased premium regenerative organic mixes: high-aeration blends built on compost with crop-specific amendments. The volume needed scales with cylinder length, diameter and planting density.

At commercial scale, operations are expected to process waste and make their own soil on site, which reduces what has to be bought in over time. It also suits premium open-pollinated, organic and heritage crop strategies.

The aim is more growing per unit of floor, water, energy and labour.
  • Compost base
  • Coco coir
  • Perlite or pumice
  • Biochar
  • Worm castings
  • Mycorrhizae

One core, seven configurations.

Every model shares the same rotating architecture, adapted to its crop. Nursery and Farm come first. The rest follow on the same base.

  • NurseryPropagation from seed and cuttings: starter plants, transplants, finished potted plants and microgreens.In development
  • FarmMature plant production and harvest, as cut fresh produce or living plants.In development
  • GardenConsumer or small-scale mixed production.Planned
  • RanchLarger-scale or specialty production.Planned
  • FungiSpecialised mushroom and fungal cultivation.Planned
  • LandGround-based regenerative and restoration applications.Planned
  • SpaceClosed-loop life support configurations for microgravity or partial gravity: food, air revitalisation, water recycling, waste processing and crew wellbeing.Long term

We build it. Partners take it to market.

GEOGRO develops the core products: the hardware, the digital twin, the software platform, and the automation and robotics around them. We license them to companies that already have customers, distribution and operational know-how, who fold GEOGRO into the toolkit they sell and install today.

Partners get differentiated technology without carrying the full research and development burden. Licences are arranged by territory or by crop, and partners work with GEOGRO through that framework.

Operators and growers

Commercial nurseries, greenhouse operators and specialty producers who want density and quality gains without changing their business model.

Design firms and consultants

Vertical farming and controlled-environment designers who can specify a crop-adaptive system for their clients' projects.

Equipment suppliers and resellers

Specialty agricultural equipment companies who can carry GEOGRO through the channels they already run.

What we are not doing. GEOGRO is not a franchise and does not build large owned farms of its own. The licensee runs the site. We stay focused on making the system reliable and supporting the people who run it.

A phased path, Earth first.

Each phase starts only when the one before it has something real to show.

  1. Nursery and microgreens

    Prove and license the Nursery configuration with commercial nurseries, greenhouse operators and specialty microgreen producers in North America and Europe.

  2. Farm, Garden, Fungi

    Farm for premium herbs, specialty greens and berries, living or cut. Garden for consumer, small commercial, landscape and hospitality. Fungi for specialty and functional mushrooms.

  3. Space and Land

    A modular, crop-adaptive component for space agencies, commercial stations and future lunar or Mars habitats. In parallel, licences into regenerative agriculture and land restoration.

Every system comes with its twin.

GEOGRO systems are designed to run inside Plan 3D, a digital twin of the installation, reached through the FreshProduce.Supply platform. It is what a licensee works in day to day.

  • Monitoring and remote managementSee each cylinder in real time and manage it from anywhere.
  • Spatial view and dashboardsThe whole installation in three dimensions, with operational dashboards alongside.
  • Supplies and consumablesOrder media, baskets and parts in the same place.
  • Technical supportTechnical support around the clock.
  • Member communityMasterminds, an education curriculum, professional networking and introductions to the right people.

Where we are.

Early. Initial R&D and the first commercial versions of Nursery and Farm are under development. Here is the order we are working in.

  1. Freeze one configuration for a season

    Nursery with microgreens and starter plants. One diameter, one hole pattern, one media, lighting and rotation range, held still long enough to produce data.

  2. Build units that run without us

    Several working units, operated day to day by someone other than the founder. Until that is true, there is nothing ready to license.

  3. Instrument everything, honestly

    Yield, quality, labour hours, energy, water, media cost and losses for every cycle, compared with a conventional static system growing the same crops in the same facility.

  4. Talk to licensees before it is perfect

    Show the working units, the data and the gaps, and let what operators tell us shape the product.

  5. Keep the platform and space in second place

    Neither sets the critical path until production on Earth has the data behind it.

The work now is not to dream bigger. It is to make the smallest version that can stand on its own, measure it honestly, and let the results decide what expands.

Interested in licensing or partnering early?

If you run a nursery, design growing facilities or supply agricultural equipment, we would like to hear what would make GEOGRO worth adopting for you.

mackenze@freshproduce.supply