DA to give pot farm equipment to institute of higher education

Delaware County authorities are gifting equipment once used to cultivate highs to a school of higher education today, according to a news release from the District Attorney's Office.

Back in May, police discovered an extensive pot farm inside of a Rite Aid store in Chester that had been closed for about a decade.

Cops took 86 plants out of the store and growing equipment, including a dozen 55-gallon barrels of water, according to news reports from the time. No one has ever been arrested for the operation.

The equipment from the growhouse is being gifted to both Cheyney University and the Partnership Community Development Corporation of West Philadelphia for a green initiative called the Urban Food Lab, according to the news release.

Although it's not detailed in the release, given the amount of water taken out of the grow house and the fact that several aquaculture researchers are to attend today's press conference, it's most likely that the grow house was a hydroponic facility and the equipment will be used by Cheyney and the Partnership for hydroponic farming.

In hydroponic farming, plants are mainly grown in a nutrient solution and water, as opposed to soil.

According to a local science blogger, the Partnership's Urban Food Lab is a greenhouse at the agency's Market Street address where fish and plants are connected by tubes and pumps. A larger version of the indoor-farming operation is underway at 60th Street.