Pandemic hobby turns into hydroponics business for Centre County brothers

Like many Centre County residents, when Josh VonFricken began quarantining in March, he looked for a hobby to fill his newfound free time. What he discovered was a business opportunity that uses both his and his brother Matt’s professional skills, while providing hyperlocal produce to area restaurants.

“My background is in engineering and (hydroponics) seemed like a good way to flex my skills during quarantine,” said Josh, a software engineer, whose brother Matt is in construction. “I told my brother about it and said it was kind of cool and it could be a really valuable resource. It spiraled from there. ... We decided we should try to start it as a business and see if there was any interest in the community.”

The two founded Happy Valley Hydroponics over the summer and began construction on a large hydroponics system that’s housed in a building in Juniata County, about 45 minutes from where Josh controls the system remotely from his home.

For those not in the know, Josh explained this relatively trendy and benefit-heavy method of farming: “Hydroponics is a technique of farming that doesn’t use soil, that relies solely on water at the roots, the roots being covered in water.”

There are several different techniques of hydroponics — the VonFricken brothers’ variety is called the nutrient film technique, of NFT.

“We’re also practicing vertical farming, which is another sort of trendy buzzword,” Josh said. “Essentially what it means is that we’re creating vertical racks of channels that water flows through and the plants are planted directly into those channels and the water is recirculated. Using some custom software I’ve written, we precisely control the nutrient levels, the pH level of the water, how much water is flowing and the light that they get.”

The brothers’ system offers capacity for growing approximately 1,000 plants simultaneously, and they’re focusing their efforts on herbs, leafy greens and lettuces. The yield, Josh said, is between 100 and 250 pounds of restaurant-quality produce — depending on the crop — per month, which he expects is enough to satisfy the needs of three to five area restaurants.

The benefits to hydroponic farming over traditional farming, Josh said, are plentiful.

“You get consistent growth that’s much quicker, all throughout the year and you really maximize your land that you’re using. For example, you get about 45% more growth with hydroponics than you would with traditional farming,” he said. “If you extrapolate that throughout the year, you’re getting about 10 more harvests than you would with regular harvesting. You’re using less water, you’re producing more crops, the crops are a higher quality and the crops can be crops you wouldn’t get elsewhere.”

Because of the automation, it’s also minimal work.

“We just put the seeds in and we take out the plants about four weeks later,” Josh said.

Happy Valley Hydroponics now partners with one restaurant in Juniata County, but the brothers hope to expand their partnerships through the region, and work with restaurants to provide them hyperlocal herbs and greens. After fine-tuning the product further, though, Josh said they would be interested in selling direct to consumer via area farmers markets.

“For the winter months, we’ll try to find a few more restaurants that want to work with us and we’re going to try to maximize the production of our space,” he said. “Then, if the winter goes well and we have a system that works well, and the product is enjoyed by our customers, then we’re hoping to expand pretty significantly going into next year. ... The offerings will be year-round and consistent, and they’ll be really tailored to whatever the customer wants.”

While Josh said there was a lot of trial and error involved in getting Happy Valley Hydroponics up to its current capacity, the most rewarding part of the process was when everything finally clicked and he was able to step back and watch the system operate itself.

“It was the first week that all the automation was done and I kind of just let it go, and I saw it would keep the reservoir full and keep all the chemicals and nutrients in balance and automate the lights. I didn’t actually have to touch anything, but then the next week, I was pulling plants out of the system,” he said.

While Josh’s pandemic hobby has turned into a full-fledged business, he encourages others to explore the hobby of hydroponics on their own.

“I’ve seen people do hydroponics in a pill bottle. Since hydroponics is a fundamentally simple thing — it’s just growing plants without soil — I encourage people to do it,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s really neat to see how plants grow and the root systems.”

For more information about Happy Valley Hydroponics, visit @happyvalleyhydroponics on Facebook.