Growing Systems

Recently, a vase of crystal clear water was put on the table when Maren Schoormans and Simon Kleinjan told, on behalf of Viscon, about cultivation on water, or hydroponics. It is a cultivation method which is no longer new, although it receives extra attention now that investors also see opportunities in…

Cultivation of mushrooms in our country is slowly gaining popularity and in current times is considered as one of the most profitable businesses to do with bare minimum expenses and cultivation space. Processes include Organic compost:, tray filling of compost, buying Organic Spawn, casing soil, pin development, pest and disease control and harvesting.

Given the rising awareness of these problems, scientists are now exploring alternatives such as hydroponics, vertical indoor farms and cultured meat.

Growing food in our increasingly variable climate is a challenge.

Growing crops in a controlled environment provides an alternative approach to conventional farming which is free from the pressures created by extremes and variations in our weather, isolated from pests, and allows crop growth at a wider range of latitudes.

Vertical farming is a relatively recent development with the first commercial vertical farm being reported as developed in 2012 in Singapore. Grand View Research estimated that the value of the vertical farming market would reach almost US$10 by 2025.

Developing indoor vertical farms requires a good understanding of all the requirements each crop plant will need for optimal growth and development. As a relatively new technology, research can have a big impact on how successful these enterprises will be in the longer term with expertise in plant physiology supporting improvements to these systems.

The vast catalog of Retilplast, a company specialized in the production, transformation and marketing of nets, sheets and tarpaulins, includes fruit and vegetable covers that generate different types of light, such as diffused, jagged diffused and more diffuse diffused direct light. "The needs of the market…

These days, one of the biggest costs for growers is associated with labour. It can be extremely difficult to accurately monitor workers and capture critical information when they are out in the field. Tie Up Farming has developed a full labour management module into its end-to-end software solution for…

The management of nutrition in soilless cultivations poses serious difficulties to growers, because the calculation of the fertilizers needed to prepare a nutrient solution requires a good background in chemistry and is time consuming. Multiple factors affect the composition of a nutrient solution.…

The main green leafy vegetables grown in our country are fenugreek, spinach and chaulai. These are better in terms of both taste and health. These are the sources of many mineral elements including protein, vitamins, iron, calcium, phosphorus and fiber.

Light recommendations for horticultural crops often focus on the optimal daily light integral (DLI) without regard to how that light is delivered throughout each day. Because photosynthesis is more efficient at lower photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD), we hypothesized that longer photoperiods with…

Mention the name LEMA from Naaldwijk - part of Prominent - and most people immediately think of Rob van Marrewijk and Ruud Leerdam’s cocktail tomatoes (Brioso). Since the beginning of 2019, the experienced growers have been working with e-Gro, Grodan’s software platform for data-driven Precision Growing.…

Material and methods: Sampling Location, hydroponic system and plant material ... Figure: Experimental vertical farming system realized in C-LED ...

Farming has continuously evolved from the simple methods to modern day use of machinery and other technologies such as greenhouses. There are certain questions that pop up when considering a greenhouse: What are the benefits of having a greenhouse? Is it expensive? Could I make good use of it? Do I have…

The role of agriculture in environmental degradation and climate change has been at the center of a long-lasting and controversial debate. This situation combined with the expected growth in crop demand and the increasing prices of fertilizers and pesticides has made the need for a more resource-efficient and environmentally sustainable agriculture more evident than ever. Precision agriculture (PA), as a relatively new farming management concept, aims to improve crop performance as well as to reduce the environmental footprint by utilizing information about the temporal and the spatial variability of crops. Information and communication technology (ICT) systems have influenced and shaped every part of modern life, and PA is no exception. The current paper conducts a literature review of prominent ICT solutions, focusing on their role in supporting different phases of the lifecycle of PA-related data. In addition to this, a data lifecycle model was developed as part of a novel categorization approach for the analyzed solutions.

(1) Background: We assessed the impact of high tunnel coverings and harvest maturity (breaker and light red) on antioxidant capacity, ascorbic acid (AsA), lycopene, β–carotene, and phenolic compound (flavonoid and phenolic acid) accumulation in tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) at harvest and postharvest. (2) Methods: The two-year study in Olathe, KS, included six different coverings: a standard polyethylene (standard poly), diffuse poly (diffuse), clear poly (clear), UV-A/UV-B blocking poly (block), 55% shade cloth + standard poly (shade), and removal of standard poly two weeks prior to harvest (movable). (3) Results: Antioxidant capacity increased in fruit grown under the clear covering, compared to the shade covering (p < 0.05); similarly, AsA accumulation increased under the standard and clear coverings, relative to the movable and shade coverings (p < 0.001). Postharvest, at the point of consumption (POC), rutin increased in fruit harvested at light red stage versus breaker stage (p < 0.001), and chlorogenic acid increased in light red harvested fruit by 60% under movable, 55% under shade, and 43% under block covering than breaker harvested fruit (p < 0.01). (4) Conclusions: Based on these results, we conclude that both high tunnel covering and postharvest maturation alter antioxidant capacity, AsA, lycopene, and phenolic compound accumulation profiles by the POC.

500Foods shared this story from HD.com. In 2020, the Kerr Center horticulture program trialed several varieties of cherry tomato from the Sun series, indoors in self-wicking containers. A PDF report contains the results of that trial, which can be downloaded here.

“I was a grower myself. All day long I was reading the crop, adjusting all the settings to get the job done. That’s more than 10,000 settings, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. That’s not working if you want to expand the greenhouse industry. And it’s not just these growers – it's also the next…

Dr. Paul Fisher from the University of Florida IFAS Extension hosts Jon Greene of Bluelab Corporation in a new YouTube video. They discuss technical tips for pH and electrical conductivity (EC) monitoring in hydroponic plant production, as well as water management and the importance of maintaining…

Last year, a tomato trial at a BASF Vegetable Seeds facility in the Netherlands showed that the Growing by Plant Empowerment (GPE) principles have the potential to increase yields by as much as 25% in the winter period. With the support of the GPE implementation partners, the crop production strategy has…

Aeroponics is an advanced form of hydroponics, and in this the process plants are grown, only with water and nutrients. An Aeroponics garden/farm provides an innovative method for growing vegetables and flowers by using an air mist environment without soil. Various herbs, vegetables, leafy greens and fruits can be grown with this method.

Growing by Plant Empowerment is paving the way for further automation in the greenhouse sector by combining data analysis with today’s technology. A two-year trial to compare the results of Growing by Plant Empowerment (GPE) principles against traditional commercial methods at United Farms in Mexico has…

One of the challenges the mushroom sector will face in the future is raw material availability. That’s used in the compost these products grow on and is a vital link in mushrooms’ circular cultivation. The Amsterdam-based company, GRO, has found a solution for oyster mushrooms, at least. Coffee grounds.…

The Tecnova Technological Center is working with the Novagric, Polímero Gestión Industrial, Alarcontrol, and Induser companies in the Greendomo project to develop an intensive production system for urban cultivation so as to provide consumers with local, fresh, and residue-free products. Tecnova's…

Hort Americas is currently working on a germination and propagation project of leafy greens and culinary herbs. The project is in collaboration with their demonstration greenhouse partners, The State Fair of Texas and the Big Tex Urban Farms. Big Tex Urban farms provide the labor needed to grow and…

Pineapple is one of the commercially important fruit crops of India & most delicious of the tropical fruits. It’s mentioned as “queen of fruit crops”. Here, the cultivation practices along with the costing is discussed detailly….

Norwegian researchers are testing a new greenhouse cultivation method which emits very little gas. Norwegian, and global food production, is, after all, a major source of emissions. That's mainly because growers use artificial fertilizers and non-recyclable raw materials. Ketil Stoknes very recently…

The world is changing and so is horticulture. Ridder has presented HortOS, a new ecosystem to help horticultural entrepreneurs follow important trends and developments in the areas of scaling up, knowledge gaps, and digitization. Collaboration plays an important role in this; in the organization itself,…

Create a liveable and healthy environment for urban dwellers, ensuring that a city can feed itself sustainably. That's the premise of the Urban Greenhouse Challenge, the second edition of which ended in August with the announcement of the winners. We spoke with the three winners, Team Bagua, Team KAS and…

Aquaponic facilities allow the joint production of fish and plants in a reduced space. This hydroponic technique, combined with vertical farming, is not well studied. The main objective of a recent work was to compare basil production between horizontal and vertical decoupled aquaponic systems and assess…

If you’re reading this with a full stomach and well-stocked pantry, consider yourself fortunate. Nearly 800 million of our fellow human beings go to bed hungry every night, and the global Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has put another 130 million at risk for food insecurity. Hunger is becoming even more serious as the planet warms, arable land is degraded and the population grows.

To meet this existential challenge, intensified by pandemic-related supply chain interruptions, the world desperately needs new, better ways of growing fruit and vegetables closer to where they’ll be consumed. And, these methods need to be put into practice now.

American agriculture is among the most productive in the world. It employs 2.6 million people in growing food and other products worth nearly $400 billion annually. Over 20 percent of that output is shipped abroad, making the United States the largest exporter of agricultural products globally. U.S. agriculture also has grown more efficient in recent years, increasing crop and livestock production by about 30 percent from 1997 to 2017 while increasing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by only 7 percent.