Innovation and new ideas don’t always need fertile soil to take root. For Sam Stoltzfus and Frank Fendler, co-founders of Aero Development Corp., they don’t need soil at all. Their company develops, manufactures and sells aeroponic growing systems for commercial and residential use – light-weight, no-soil vertical garden towers that can grow produce with far less space and water than conventional growing methods… Fendler says that the system is also very suitable for arid environments, because aeroponic growing only uses 10 percent of the water that would be needed for soil-based growing… According to David Specca, acting director of controlled environment agriculture at Rutgers University’s EcoComplex in New Jersey, aeroponic growing isn’t new. It’s been around for more than 20 years… “In order to make a greenhouse sustainable, you have to be really careful about energy use,” Specca says.