Tufts of salad greens will soon be sprouting from a Kakaako rooftop garden as part of a project that supporters hope will help launch a wave of urban farming in Honolulu.

The vegetable patch, the first phase of which was unveiled Wednesday on the 38,000-square-foot roof of Auto Mart USA, will eventually supply the community, retailers and local chefs with an assortment of kale, arugula and mustard greens.

The project’s supporters hope the concept will spread throughout urban Honolulu and help Hawaii take another step toward food self-sufficiency.

Waimanalo-based FarmRoof, founded in 2008 by local entrepreneur Alan Joaquin, will operate the certified organic garden using proprietary technology. FarmRoof is leasing the rooftop space from Auto Mart USA. Kamehameha Schools, which owns the Kakaako parcel, brokered the deal.

Joaquin developed the technology and materials used in the rooftop system at the company’s Waimanalo headquarters. The company planted its first commercial rooftop garden last year, a 600-square-foot plot atop the Sweet Home Waimanalo restaurant. FarmRoof signed a deal in November to sell its greens at Whole Foods stores on Oahu and Maui.

The first crop from the Auto Mart site is expected to be ready for harvest in about a month. The public can sign up at www.farmroof.com to receive delivery of the company’s greens.

"Today we are planting the seeds of a new Hawaii," Joaquin said at a dedication ceremony for the garden. "We approached Kamehameha Schools because we knew they were redeveloping Kakaako and they wanted to be more sustainable and they wanted to support urban agriculture," he said.

Kamehameha Schools is considering expanding the rooftop garden concept to some of its other buildings with suitable roofs in the Kakaako area, said Christian O’Connor, senior asset manager for Kamehameha Schools.

"We’re working with the community to create a vibrant environment in Kakaako," O’Connor said. "The concept of farm to table is right on the money for us because of the vast agricultural lands we have. This takes agriculture and integrates it into a vertical format."

FarmRoof follows the principles of community supported agriculture, a national movement that has developed over the past two decades as a way for consumers to buy local food directly from farmers.

FarmRoof’s growing system features a series of mesh tubes, or "modules," containing nutrient-rich soil in which vegetable seeds are planted. The modules, each 11 feet long, are laid out on pads to ensure the soil does not make contact with the roof, Joaquin said.

The plants are watered with an irrigation system developed by FarmRoof that uses 90 percent less water than conventional farming.

Salad greens are harvested every two weeks, and the nutrients in the soil are replenished after each harvest, according to Joaquin. After 6 months to a year, the entire modules are replaced. The soil from the old modules is recycled and used to create new modules.

The Auto Mart project also is expected to save energy. Because rooftop farms absorb solar radiation and cool the host building, Auto Mart is expected to reduce its air-conditioning use by 20 percent, Joaquin said.