What started as a hobby for a local landscaper has continued to grow and blossom.

Two years ago, Mike Winchel built an aquaponic greenhouse on his property for growing vegetables because he was tired of eating sub-par produce during Montana winters. The greenhouse has been such a success that he’s looking to commercialize the process for local stores and restaurants.  

“I’d heard about it when I was in college 25 years ago, but being a college kid, I didn’t think much of it,” Winchel said. “I ran across the idea again nine or ten years ago, and I thought, ‘That’s pretty cool.’ I got more serious about it and did some research.”

Five years ago, Winchel and his girlfriend, Lee Anne Christensen, began seriously looking into the idea of an aquaponic greenhouse. The couple ran across Bright Agrotech, a company that specializes in “zip grow towers.”

Winchel met with the company for information and training, and eventually adapted its technology to fit his needs.

Plants such as lettuce, chard, and a slew of herbs are grown hydroponically in towers, Winchel explained.

These plants act as a filter for tilapia and goldfish, which in turn, release waste for the plants to thrive on. This water is pumped in a cycle, from the fish tub up to the top of the towers, dripping down through the plants, and returning to the fish habitat. An entire food cycle is contained in a 20-foot-wide plastic greenhouse.  

The greenhouse now is producing more than the family and their friends can eat.

“Even with this little greenhouse, we just end up giving a lot of the produce away,” Winchel said. “I hate wasting perfectly good food.”

Due to the greenhouse’s blooming success, Winchel began looking into ways to commercialize his product.

He spoke with several restaurants and local grocery stores about putting towers in their establishments so customers have access to fresh produce.

The company will go commercial as Aquaponics North and already has around 75 percent of its infrastructure and knowledge in place. Now, the firm is looking for money to expand the project.

“We’re on an island here in Montana, with no vegetables being grown in the winter,” Winchel said. “Because of this, the cost of produce in the stores go up and they’re not even that good.”

The current greenhouse is heated with a wood boiler, which Winchel also uses to heat his home near Columbia Falls.

A self-employed landscaper by trade, he has a horticulture degree from Oregon State University, which came in handy in learning the tricks of the greenhouse. Winchel was able to build the greenhouse with lumber scraps he obtained on the job, as well as previous knowledge, which meant the project cost virtually nothing. The greenhouse costs around $35 to heat each month.

The project has not always gone smoothly.

Winchel spent the last two years perfecting the system before he attempted to commercialize, making sure everything was in place before he took the next step.

“Right now, we’re on the fourth generation of remodels,” he said. “We had to tweak things to make it work the way we needed, but ultimately, the goal is to keep it as simple as possible.”

Regardless of simplicity, the transition from a backyard family supplier to full-blown commercialization is costly.

To start, Winchel will need to build a larger greenhouse on his property, approximately 25 by 80 feet, which will house 100 to 150 aquaponic towers.

To cover the cost, Winchel started a crowdsource funding campaign on Indiegogo, an online website that allows budding companies to raise money for their project. If the goal is reached, the business then receives all of the donated funds.

Winchel’s campaign seeks to raise $50,000. His campaign began Oct. 14 and is scheduled to close on Nov. 23.

The horticulturist said that the idea is that restaurants and supermarkets would rent aquaponic towers, so each day they would be able to harvest their own fresh veggies. When the tower begins running low, Winchel and his team would take a fresh tower to the business, and take the old one back to the greenhouse to replant and grow more produce.

“Trust me, this is going to work,” Winchel said confidently as he picked ripe bunches of chard from the towers. “Every generation of plants gets better and better.”

According to Winchel, the setup is the most costly part of the operation. Once the newest greenhouse is up and running, he will be able to continually provide fresh food at a low operational cost.

“It’s very inexpensive to run once we actually get it going,” he said. “But it does take about six to eight months to get everything balanced out and set up.”

Not only do the towers provide fresh produce, but Winchel also hopes they will cut down on unnecessary plastic use.

“Our recycling system here sucks,” he said bluntly. “You have to drive to Target in Kalispell just to recycle your glass, and the amount of plastic we use for packaging in stores is disgusting.”

Instead, the towers will provide food that doesn’t need to be packaged excessively for display, or to retain freshness during shipping.

The goal of the project is not to make money, Winchel said, but to instead help the valley live a healthier lifestyle. Once the next stage of infrastructure is in place, Aquaponics North will look for many different ways to distribute it.

“There’s not just one avenue,” he said. “We could do crop sharing, farmers market, direct pickup, home setup. There are so many different ways to distribute.”

To donate to the crowdsource campaign, visit https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/aquaponics-the-herb-and-salad-filling-stations.

Winchel can be reached at 261-4553 or by email at markwinchel@gmail.com.

Reporter Brianna Loper may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at bloper@dailyinterlake.com.