Pieter Hoff grows trees with very little water
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Dutch bulb grower, Pieter Hoff has an idea about how to make deserts bloom: capture the humidity in the air, store it in a box, and use that condensation to water plants. He calls this box the Groasis waterboxx and he thinks it can change how we feed the world and reduce greenhouse gases.
His solution to both is the Groasis Waterboxx: a device that “drinks from the air” by collecting condensation and storing it, therefore becoming a sort of “water battery.” He says the biggest challenge for plants in arid climates is not the amount of rain, but the consistency: it’s the dry seasons that kill any chance of growth. The Waterboxx proposes to solve that by creating a continuous source of water from occasional rainfalls.
Since he spoke at PopTech 2010, Pieter Hoff’s Groasis Waterboxx has been named the 2010 Best Innovation of the Year by Popular Science. A box that helps trees grow without groundwater or electricity, it has tremendous implications for our world today. Learn how it can bring an end to malnutrition, reduce erosion and fight climate change in PopTech's recent Q&A.
