These immersed biospheres – effectively underwater greenhouses – are 20 feet underwater, anchored offshore in Italy, taking advantage of the sea’s constant underwater climate to grow crops. ‘Nemo’s Garden’ is an ingenious idea, if not yet commercially viable on such a small scale, housing plants like strawberries, basil and lettuce. Crop growth rates, apparently, are fantastic. You can watch a livestream of Nemo’s Garden here, and read more about it here. Via their website:
3 years ago Sergio Gamberini was enjoying his summer vacation in Noli, Italy. Scuba diving has always been not only a business related activity, but a passion and a hobby deeply rooted inside him. Everything related to life in the ocean always has had a special place in his heart. His life could be described as constant hard working, family and the ocean.
Having said that, you can easily understand that nobody was surprised when he came up with yet another idea to work at while on vacation.
But this time the idea sounded really, really strange…So, there he goes, he makes a couple of phone calls and starts building, with the help of his team at Ocean Reef Group, a number of small transparent balloons – then, they sink them and fill them with air while underwater, they anchor them and ultimately, plant seeds in a vase inside!
The idea he had was to utilize the properties of the large bodies of water – constant temperature, united with the natural evaporation of a surface of liquid in contact with an air space – to try creating an underwater greenhouse!