Seawater Agriculture Utilizing a Solar Still Greenhouse

A structure which we call a solar still greenhouse can provide the necessary protection from the adversities of the marine environment for many vascular plants. Utilizing seawater and sunlight, this structure distills seawater, providing freshwater for plant use. This unit can be placed anywhere that seawater is available, including arid shores, or even (with flotation) on the ocean surface. The basic design is a cubicle array of eight ft tall columns filled with lava cinders and spaced ft apart. These columns connected with trasparent plastic form the walls of the solar still greenhouse. Planting is done in perforations in the side of the columns, foliage growing into the central greenhouse space. Seawater in a black pan within the greenhouse is solar evaporated, with fresh water condensing on the sloping transparent roof and trickling down into the columns, bathing plant roots.