OptimIA researchers are using crop modeling to identify the most favorable environmental parameters for growth and yield of indoor farm lettuce crops and how to prevent tipburn.

One of the research objectives of the OptimIA project, which is being funded by USDA to the tune of $2.4 million, is to study the aerial environment for producing indoor leafy greens. The aerial environment refers to air circulation, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, light intensity, and temperature. Prior to preparing the project proposal, members of the OptimIA team surveyed stakeholders of the indoor farm industry to identify the challenges and needs of the industry.

“There was a lot of feedback related to environmental parameters, especially airflow,” said Murat Kacira, an OptimIA team member who is director of Controlled Environment Agriculture Center and professor in the Biosystems Engineering Department at the University of Arizona. “The indoor farm industry had a real need for optimizing the environmental variables related to light, temperature, humidity management and control. Leafy greens growers wanted to be able to understand plant growth, quantify the plant response, yield, as well as the quality attributes under various environmental conditions.”

Crop modeling predictions, potential

Kacira explains crop modeling is simply crop growth and yield prediction.

“Given setpoints for air temperature, photosynthetic active radiation, humidity, carbon dioxide enrichment, we were able to model crop growth and predict the kilograms or grams of lettuce yield on an hourly or daily basis and also at the end of the production cycle,” he said.

Kacira’s lab used modeling to focus on plant growth and yield predictions for lettuce in indoor vertical farms considering environmental variables, including temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide level and light intensity.

“Considering the co-optimization of different environmental variables, there are many combinations of those setpoints that are possible,” he said. “It takes a lot of time and effort to study all those combinations. A model we did was focused on plant growth and yield prediction for growing lettuce in indoor vertical farms considering environmental variables. Using modeling can help to narrow down the combinations or the possibilities that can occur.

Another modeling study enabled Kacira to identify the possibility of dynamic carbon dioxide enrichment.

“We looked at whether carbon dioxide enrichment should be done for the full production cycle from transplanting to little leaf harvest or whether it should be done during different phases of production leading to savings either for electrical energy or carbon dioxide use,” he said. “Also, we considered how carbon dioxide enrichment and control would be incorporated with lighting controls. For example, can the light be dimmed while increasing the carbon dioxide level to achieve a similar yield outcome, but with a control strategy enabling electrical energy savings during production.”

Determining best airflow distribution

Kacira is also using modeling and computer simulations to study airflow and airflow uniformity to design alternative air distribution systems to improve aerial environment uniformity and to prevent tipburn in lettuce crops.

“Early on we used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) space simulation and modeling to study airflow,” he said. “We looked at some existing air distribution systems to understand what would be the environmental uniformity and aerodynamics in indoor vertical farms. Then we studied what-if scenarios. We developed design alternatives that can deliver optimal growing conditions with improved aerial environment uniformity and help prevent lettuce tipburn.

“Our CFD simulations and experimental studies confirmed that vertical airflow compared to horizontal airflow was more effective reducing aerodynamic resistance with improved airflow and transpiration, thus preventing tipburn in lettuce.”

Some of the outcomes determined by Kacira and his team have been presented to OptimIA stakeholders and CEA industry members through seminars, webinars and research and trade publications. Kacira will continue using computer simulations, modeling, and experimental studies to design and test more effective localized air-distribution methods, environmental monitoring, and control strategies for indoor vertical farms.

Production techniques for preventing tipburn

Chieri Kubota, who is a member of the OptimIA team and professor and director of the Ohio Controlled Environment Agriculture Center at Ohio State University, and graduate student John Ertle studied various techniques for reducing or preventing tipburn. These techniques have application to lettuce crops produced in indoor farms and greenhouses.

“Growers can reduce the light intensity at the end of the production cycle to mitigate the risk of tipburn,” Kubota said. “If growers want to reduce tipburn and they can tolerate reduced yields, they can lower the light intensity towards the end of the production cycle.

“For example, when the daily light integral (DLI) was reduced by 50 percent for the final 12 days of production (out of 28 days), the incidence of tipburn can be largely reduced for cultivars sensitive to tipburn-inducing conditions. However, this approach reduces the yield and likely the quality of lettuce, while reducing the loss by tipburn. Therefore, efficacy of this approach is dependent on the cultivars and their growing conditions. More research needs to be done to refine this approach.”

Another technique growers can use to prevent tipburn is to stop growing lettuce before it enters the final 1½ weeks of the six-week growing period. This is what many growers are doing because they can’t take the risk of tipburn occurring. Plants are being harvested at this young stage.

Among the techniques that Kubota and Ertle examined, they found that the most effective in preventing tipburn was using vertical airflow fans. This technique was originally discovered by a research group at University of Tokyo in the 1990s and implemented into greenhouse hydroponics at Cornell University.

“We confirmed that when vertical airflow is applied under conditions that highly favor tipburn induction, tipburn can be prevented very effectively,” Kubota said. “We created an environment based on our previous knowledge which always induces tipburn. We confirmed the use of vertical airflow fans reduces tipburn.”

For more: Murat Kacira, University of Arizona, Controlled Environment Agriculture Center; mkacira@arizona.edu; http://ceac.arizona.edu/.

Chieri Kubota, Ohio State University, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science; kubota.10@osu.edu; https://hcs.osu.edu/our-people/dr-chieri-kubota; https://ohceac.osu.edu/. OptimIA, https://www.scri-optimia.org/.

This article is property of Urban Ag News and was written by David Kuack, a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas.

OptimIA at Cultivate’23

If you are attending this year’s Cultivate’23, July 15-18 in Columbus, Ohio, you have the opportunity to hear OptimiA researchers, including Murat Kacira and Chieri Kubota, discuss some of the findings of their research. They will be speaking during the Essentials of Hydroponics Production – a tHRIve Symposium on Saturday, July 15 from 8-11 a.m.

The webinar will provide an overview of the European plant factory market as well as the latest business and research initiatives. Roel Janssen, the chief business officer at Planet Farms, will speak on “Planet Farms: Unlocking the true potential of CEA, with a sophisticated industrial approach to vertical farming, combined with Italian food quality.” Then, Pavlos Kalaitzoglou, the VP Science at Infarm, will share his view on the various research topics under the title “Infarm Crop Science – A trip through our research program and philosophy.” In addition to their talks, there will be a Q&A session/panel discussion with Eri Hayashi, Vice President of the JPFA.

Registered participants in the workshop will also be allowed to view the recorded video, which does not contain its Q&A/panel discussion, anytime at their convenience later during a specified period. 

The JPFA 148th workshop will take place on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, 9:00-10:30 am (CEST). 

The recorded video can be watched from 6:00 am on Friday, June 3, until 6:00 am on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 (CEST).

The workshop, comprising a live online seminar and a Q&A/panel discussion, is free of charge for JPFA members. Nonmembers are charged 5,000 YEN each.

Anybody interested in JPFA’s upcoming workshop can apply from here. For more information, click here. 

For the annual schedule of the JPFA workshops, click here.

How to Become a JPFA Member
Apply for JPFA membership here. 

For more information
Japan Plant Factory Association
E-mail: benkyokai@npoplantfactory.org
www.npoplantfactory.org/en/
https://npoplantfactory.org/information/study

Japan Plant Factory Association

The Japan Plant Factory Association, a nonprofit organization with over 200 members in Japan and abroad, is devoted to advancing the plant factory industry and controlled-environment agriculture in and outside Japan through academia-industry collaborations. The JPFA oversees plant factories on the Chiba University Kashiwanoha campus in Kashiwa, northeast of Tokyo. Also, it works on about 20 R&D projects and runs workshops and training courses.

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Lettuce seems to be the crop of choice for growers looking to start producing controlled environment food crops. Many of the new controlled environment growers that have begun operating over the last five years have started with producing lettuce and leafy greens.

“For many people producing lettuce is one of the easiest crops when it comes to providing the right amount of water, light and cool temperatures,” said Ramón Melón Martinez, an agronomic consultant and expert hydroponic leafy green grower. “This changes when trying to grow a consistent quality crop year round. There is the pressure of trying to grow without making any interruptions in the production system for multiple years and trying to increase the production level on a yearly basis.

“In most cases lettuce is a plant that is sold complete, so there is no room for mistakes that will affect the look of the product. And because of the way lettuce is marketed to retailers in year-round programs, growers don’t have the option of explaining why plant leaves may look slightly burnt or why plants are wilting five days after harvesting. This requires a strong discipline in crop and scheduling management be implemented in the growing facility to maintain continuous production success. This discipline needs to be focused on following these five must dos.”

1. Limit the hiccups

Lettuce plants are very resilient and are able to overcome specific production issues.

“The question is how many hiccups or issues are the plants able to tolerate and what are the most important hiccups that have to be overcome?” Martinez said. “It depends on the greenhouse production system. Lettuce cultivation in a greenhouse has the challenge of adapting the internal conditions to fluctuations in the weather and production system operation. 

“Any stress on the plants, be it from weather conditions or a clogged irrigation filter, if it is repeated over the production cycle, it can generate structural damage to the plant composition. This could lead to a shortage of calcium in the growing cells with different severities or collapse of the meristem preventing proper development of the plants.”

Martinez said hiccups can happen for numerous reasons and there are multiple ways of avoiding them, mostly by ensuring a good energy balance on the crop and stable fertigation and irrigation. It is quite likely that if production conditions are not stable, the end result is damaged plants.

2. Maintain the proper leaf area index

As the industry moves toward mobile production systems the goal is to have lettuce plants at the same physiological stage year round.

“The challenge for growers will be keeping all the plants moving at the same rate of growth,” Martinez said. “Whatever production system is used it is critical to understand that the climate needs to be adjusted to the physiological state in which the plants are at a specific time.

“The easiest way to do this with lettuce cultivation systems is to focus on leaf area index (LAI) to adjust the growth of the plants. A high LAI promotes the growth rate of the plants if conditions ensure no disease pressure. For a high LAI the microclimate surrounding the plants is more stable which allows the stomata to remain open for a longer time as there are less humidity fluctuations.”

However, there is a limit to LAI management.

“Plants competing for space will have to stretch to search for the light,” Martinez said. “In that specific moment two things are happening: First, there is a loss of energy because instead of developing new leaves, the old leaves are elongating. Secondly, there is postharvest loss. Elongation is accomplished by intracellular water accumulation. The more water in the cells causes a shorter postharvest life.

“A high LAI can produce stretching and lead to a higher disease pressure. A low LAI produces compact plants that require longer development time. The perfect LAI means there is a good balance between plant growth and plant morphology.”

Maintaining the right LAI requires monitoring the plants from the seedling stage. If seedlings are allowed to stretch, then the plants will always be stretched.

“In spring there can be a rapid acceleration of growth,” Martinez said. “When lettuce leaves start touching this can have a physiological effect on the plants. The leaves start stretching for light. This stretching comes with a cost to the plants and it comes with water accumulation as well. Plants with leaves that are at the wrong angle for light interception have a longer growth cycle. These plants will also have a higher water content making them less resistant to pests and diseases.”

3. Manage irrigation piping, water and the root zone

The root environment and water biology play a critical role in plant development.

“Modern hydroponic production systems are based on continuous operation that tends to overlook the constant release of carbon to the environment,” Martinez said. “Plants release about 20 percent of fixed carbon in root exudates that sustain microbial populations which colonize on the roots. The microbiota around the roots provide the plants with increased nutrient solubility, fixed nitrogen, competitive suppression of pathogens and plant growth promoting molecules.

“If this hydroponic microbial community, which is not as abundant as soil microbiota, is not balanced and controlled it can lead to a proliferation of pathogens or have a secondary effect on nutrient uptake that can make it harder for plant development. This is why it is essential to monitor, control disinfection and bacterial addition and provide water filtration to maintain continuous operation.”

Martinez said there has been a big push from the industry to disinfect production systems in order to control pathogens.

“Many of the mobile production systems are one irrigation system with some growers having two,” he said. “It is complicated to clean these systems without stopping production for two to three weeks. This may be easier to do during the summer when more crops are coming from the field.

“In North America right now there is not a high differentiation among consumers for hydroponic greenhouse lettuce vs. field-grown lettuce. But food safety issues are becoming more important, which means having a continuous supply of lettuce year round is becoming more critical. As a result, growers need to pay close attention to what the plants are doing and what is happening with the water and the piping becomes more critical.”

One of the issues than can arise in irrigation piping is the formation of biofilm.

“Biofilm is an anaerobic type of bacteria that grows in different layers in the piping,” Martinez said. “Biofilm normally requires calcium and magnesium deposits on the inside of the pipe. These deposits become an attachment point for biofilm bacteria to start to develop. The biofilm can start to effect the root growth and the plants start to grow more slowly.

“If growers have problems with root diseases the plants are still salable. That’s not the case if there are diseases on the leaves. Plants with bad roots may take longer to finish, but they can still be sold. If there are diseases on the leaves, chances are those plants are not going to be salable. If the plants have a healthy root system, then most disease issues can be overcome. I’m always more careful with the plant roots and observing them more often. If the plants have poor roots, then there are going to be problems.”

4. Start with a production budget

Martinez said there is nothing worse than starting a greenhouse lettuce operation without having secured the supplies necessary to produce the crop and knowing how that crop is going to be marketed once it’s harvested.

“When a new operation starts it is hard to know all the numbers, but starting with an approximation causes the grower to focus much closer on crop management and inspection,” he said. “Production budgeting needs to focus on the crop time required to reach harvest weight. This information needs to be constantly recorded to make budget changes. Once a one-year crop cycle is finished it can be used as template for the coming years updating possible improvements or using data analysis to review variations in the production.

“The budget process is constantly being refined. Growers need to continuously review their budgets every six to 12 months so that they make adjustments. These reviews should be driving growers to continuous improvement.”

Martinez said as important as it is to forecast production, it is equally important to be able to forecast sales. 

“Growers need to be able to forecast when crops should be started and when they will finish,” he said. “They have to know the crop cycle so that if there is more finished product coming they’re ready to start marketing that product and plan when crops will be ready to market.”

5. Aim for high germination rates

With the amount of lettuce seed that is being used in greenhouse production systems it is really important to look at germination rates. A one percent loss in germination can be very costly.

“Commonly overlooked, an even germination rate is key to a stable operation,” Martinez said. “Understanding that different types of lettuce may have different times for seed emergence is critical to optimize production. Two days at a constant 66.2ºF (19ºC), a saturated substrate and greater than 95 percent relative humidity should ensure a good germination rate for most lettuce varieties. Lower germination rates have a major impact on transplanting.

“It takes time to figure out the problems associated with poor germination. Having poor germination rates is going to affect yields and will impact the morale of the workers sowing the seed and transplanting the seedlings. There can be multiple reasons for germination problems, including the seed, the substrate and the irrigation. In some cases, it takes trying to germinate four to five crops to determine what is causing germination problems.”

For more: Ramón Melón Martinez, greenhouse crop consultant and expert hydroponic leafy green grower, +34 655 873 928; ramonmelon@gmail.com.

This article is property of Urban Ag News and was written by David Kuack, a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas.

Organic hydroponic food grower Edible Garden stepped up its tech game by improving its product planning and product availability management.

Starting with a 5-acre glass greenhouse facility in Belvidere, N.J., Edible Garden ships organically-certified 4-inch potted herbs, hydroponic basil, living and cut lettuce and fresh cut herbs throughout the United States. In addition to its own production operation, Edible Garden contracts with growers in other regions including the Midwest to supply organic crops to retailers in that part of the country. Edible Garden distributes its products through about 4,500 retail outlets including Walmart, Meijer, Hannaford, Wakefern Food Corp. and Target. Geographically its products are sold from Maine to Maryland to the south and Wisconsin to the west

“We currently have supply agreements with a number of contract growers in the Midwest,” said Scott Prendergast, chief data officer at Edible Garden. “Up until last year we were providing almost all products out of our Belvidere facility with some supplementation from small contract grows. The growers we are working with produce a variety of crops that cover all of our products. Some of the growers produce almost exclusively for Edible Garden while for others Edible Garden crops are just one of their product lines. These growers are also producing the majority of the Edible Garden crops organically.”

For almost two years Edible Garden has been the exclusive provider of 4-inch potted herbs, cut herbs, living lettuce and hydroponic basil to 260 Meijer stores in the Midwest.

“Initially we provided these products from our facility in Belvidere,” Prendergast said. “Our motto is “Simply Local. Simply Fresh.,” our goal is to reduce the food miles, support local hiring and provide the best quality. We wanted to deliver Meijer stores a fresher, more sustainable product using less production and shipping processes. We have accomplished this during the last six months by transitioning nearly all of our Meijer production to our Midwest contract growers. This has enabled us to reduce 1,000 food miles for each product three times a week.”

Why organic food crops?

Edible Garden, which began operating in March 2012, had initially planned to grow floral crops with plans to add a small line of container herbs. As market conditions changed and as market opportunities were identified, taking the greenhouse organic became the company’s primary interest.

“We saw a market opportunity with organic crops,” Prendergast said. “There was quite a bit of big box competition and generic or non-organic products on the market. Identifying the ability to provide a high quality greenhouse-grown, certified-organic product drove our efforts to grow organically.

“The process to become certified organic took Edible Garden a couple of years. Transitioning from traditional production methods to growing organically was a difficult transition. Without being able to use the same products associated with traditional growing including substrates, fertilizers and pest control products. Our crops had to grow within the same production systems to produce the same quality using all organic materials.”

The company started growing 4-inch potted herbs and then added a line of fresh cut herbs.

“After we began growing potted herbs we became a fresh cut herb provider for restaurant chains and distributors in the Northeast,” Prendergast said. “We provide basil exclusively in bulk. We provided restaurants with fresh greens and fresh cut organic sweet basil through food distributors from New York to Washington D.C.”

Edible Garden had also done some direct distribution to individual stores for some smaller food store chains.

“Higher shipping costs, including rising gas and lease prices, along with the inefficiencies to deliver to individual stores has caused Edible Garden to migrate almost exclusively to the distribution center model,” Prendergast said. “Ninety-five percent of our production is herbs and 5 percent is lettuce. We are planning to increase the amount of lettuce we are producing. Our goal is to be able to locally grow and distribute the lettuce. We’ve already seen this manifest itself in the first-of-its-kind offering of cut lettuce at Meijer, which utilizes partner growers aligned within a couple of hours or less of its DCs.”

Getting the numbers right

While Edible Garden was working out how to grow quality organic crops, another issue it had to resolve was determining how much product to produce.

“There was an overwhelming unsureness of supply vs. demand and demand planning, which led to unsold crops,” Prendergast said. “Being in the produce industry you have to pick, pack and ship in full. Our management team, coming from the commercial banking industry, would always try to err on the side of too much than not enough. Unfortunately when too much became too much we were throwing away plants because they grew too big to sell. That was a loss to our bottom line.

“The mantra of Edible Garden’s CFO Mike James is we are in a penny business. If we overproduce 1,000 potted basil plants that is 1,000 pots and 18,000 basil seeds thrown away. With those pots we are also throwing away the substrate, fertilizer, water and labor that were used to grow the crop. The need for adapting technology was driven by not having the margins to absorb these kinds of mistakes. We need to use every tool at our disposal and if we don’t have it, we need to make it so that we can capture every penny of margin we can.”

When Prendergast joined Edible Garden two years ago the biggest sticking point was the lack of advanced planning and product availability.

“Edible Garden was throwing away a lot of inventory because it did not anticipate the accurate sales of its customer base,” he said. “Over the last two years the company has developed Green Thumb, a proprietary web-based portal that does inventory management in the greenhouse. It does crop estimations, tracks waste and does advanced planning to develop a sophisticated forecasting algorithm.

“The Green Thumb system is dialed in to track daily sow, pick and pack activities as well as customer sales forecasting and advanced planning. The system tracks not only demand forecast, but any greenhouse events that may affect inventory. It manages this compensation so that there are no future problems, no future deliverability holes.”

Edible Garden’s production facility team members handle the data entry into the Green Thumb system.

“The team uses either hand-held devices or laptops to enter the data,” Prendergast said. “We track the progress of the crop, which we call “weeks to finish” (WTF). We track weeks to finish and how it is impacted by seasonality as well as the weather within the season. If there is a 10-day stretch of cloudy weather in the fall or winter, the system understands that and expands out the weeks to finish so a crop that was anticipated to finish in 10 weeks may take longer.”

As Edible Garden started to resolve its issues with inventory management the company began to look for other technology that could automate other processes.

“We created a dynamic palette-building tool based upon our orders,” Prendergast said. “This pallet-building tool created a streamlined process that the production facility could use to eliminate any questions about how to fill the pallets with orders.

“On average, we are shipping 80,000 to 100,000 plants per week just from one facility. This requires a lot of pallets, shipping boxes, placards and purchase orders. Incorporating the tools to eliminate or mitigate packing and shipping questions or issues has really provided some quantifiable benefits to the production side as well.”

For more: Edible Garden, (844) 344-3727; ljames@ediblegarden.com; https://ediblegarden.com/.

This article is property of Urban Ag News and was written by David Kuack, a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas.

IRVINGTON, N.Y. – BrightFarms, the leading grower of indoor leafy greens, is announcing the opening of its latest indoor farm in Hendersonville, NC. The 6-acre greenhouse will produce 2 million pounds of lettuce per year for the Southeast region, enough to feed millions of new consumers, doubling down on BrightFarms’ mission to make higher quality, safer produce available to people across the country.  

The new greenhouse is centrally located for quick delivery to retailers across the Southeast, including North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. BrightFarms’ freshly harvested greens travel much shorter distances than lettuce grown conventionally on the West Coast, arriving at supermarkets in as little as 24 hours for fresher, tastier and more nutritious greens.  

“With 10 years of innovation and growing under our belts, we are ready and able to bring our proven indoor growing model and fresh greens to millions of new consumers in the Carolinas and beyond,” said Steve Platt, CEO of BrightFarms. “We are committed to being the leading supplier of local salads in the Southeast and look forward to partnering with retailers to make fresh, clean and safe produce a reality.” 
 
BrightFarms’ Carolina Greenhouse will bring sustainable economic vitality to the region, employing more than 55 “green-collar” staff, trained to operate cutting-edge greenhouse technology. The Southeast, which currently has limited options for indoor-grown greens on shelves, will now be a part of the growing excitement around the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) industry, which has seen over $1B in capital raised in the past six months alone.  

Register here to tune in on May 7 for an opening celebration that will provide viewers with an exclusive look at the new facility. The event will also include several keynote speakers, including North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis and Sam Kass, former White House Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition.  

BrightFarms currently operates greenhouses in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and Virginia, with plans to open another in New England later this year. BrightFarms’ smart greenhouse model, enabled by its proprietary tech, is leading the trend towards sustainable greenhouse farming. In 2021, BrightFarms will double in size and production, and surpass availability in over 3,500 retail stores in the U.S. — the most of any indoor farming player.  

In October, BrightFarms raised over $100 million in debt and equity capital, led by Cox Enterprises. The opening of its Carolina Greenhouse is just one of the first major steps in BrightFarms upcoming, robust expansion plans. To learn more about BrightFarms, visit www.brightfarms.com. 

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. – Gotham Greens, a pioneer in indoor agriculture operating high-tech greenhouses across the United States, today announced its latest state-of-the-art greenhouse in California near the University of California-Davis (UC Davis), one of the world’s leading agriculture research and teaching centers.

Located in Solano County, Calif., the first phase of Gotham Greens’ 10-acre greenhouse facility is expected to open in 2021 and will enable the company to deliver fresh, greenhouse-grown leafy greens to more retailers, foodservice operators and consumers on the West Coast. The company
operates one of the largest and most advanced networks of hydroponic greenhouses in North America, where the demand for indoor-grown produce continues to surge. Nearly a decade after launching the nation’s first commercial-scale rooftop greenhouse, Gotham Greens continues to
reimagine how and where fresh produce is grown across America.

“We are proud to bring Gotham Greens to the West Coast and partner with one of the highest-ranked agricultural research centers in the world to advance the entire agriculture system,” said Viraj Puri, Co-Founder and CEO of Gotham Greens. “California is responsible for growing one-third
of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of the nation’s fruits, yet in recent years, issues surrounding drought, food safety and worker welfare have demonstrated the need for continued innovation. Gotham Greens offers consumers clean, safe and sustainably-grown leafy greens, herbs
and versatile, time-saving plant-based dressings, dips and cooking sauces.”

University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) and the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (UCD CAES) have entered into a partnership with Gotham Greens to advance research and innovation in the areas of indoor agriculture, advanced
greenhouse technology and urban agriculture. The new greenhouse facility enables opportunities for Gotham Greens and the University of California system to collaborate on research and innovation focused on advancing the science, workforce, technology and profitability of indoor agriculture globally.

“We are building a Controlled Environment Agriculture Consortium to support and advance the indoor farming industry, grow more fresh produce on less land and create new jobs for Californians,” said Gabriel Youtsey, UC ANR Chief Innovation Officer. “Gotham Greens is an anchoring partner of this research and industry collaboration that we hope will spur innovation, create a new indoor farming workforce and support industry growth.”

“We’re excited about collaborating with Gotham Greens, which is a coveted employer for tomorrow’s leaders in agriculture and engineering,” said Helene Dillard, Dean of UCD CAES. “This partnership will offer our students the chance to learn best practices from leading experts in indoor farming.”

The greenhouse will generate 60 full-time jobs and provide students in the University of California system with an opportunity to learn firsthand from the industry leader. Gotham Greens recently raised $87 million in new equity and debt capital, bringing the fast-growing company’s total financing to $130 million and fueling its next phase of growth.

“We are delighted for Gotham Greens to join Solano County’s thriving agricultural economy and help to usher in a new era in farming innovation, job creation and economic growth for the region,” said Solano County Supervisor John Vasquez.

Gotham Greens owns and operates greenhouses in New York, Illinois, Rhode Island, Maryland and Colorado. Its products are currently available in more than 40 U.S. states and 2,000 retail stores, including regional divisions of Albertsons Companies (Safeway, Jewel-Osco and Shaw’s), Whole Foods Market, Target, King Soopers, Harris Teeter and Sprouts. The company’s items also are available for purchase through grocery ecommerce sites, including AmazonFresh, FreshDirect and Peapod.

For more information on Gotham Greens’ greenhouses, products and job opportunities, please visit gothamgreens.com.

NEW YORK, NY (JANUARY 14, 2021) — Bowery Farming, the largest vertical farming company in the U.S., unveils a new “Farmer’s Selection” product category, a line of rotating, small-batch, wildly flavorful, next-generation greens, curated by Bowery’s R&D team.

Bowery’s Mustard Frills — hearty mustard greens with a tingly start and a fiery, wasabi-style finish — are the first greens released under this new category and will be available in select grocery retailers this week through Spring 2021, followed by Green Sorrel.

“Deeply committed to innovation and bringing new and exciting culinary experiences to consumers, our world-class R&D team has been hard at work developing this new line of wildly flavorful greens grown locally with unparalleled freshness,” says Katie Seawell, Chief Marketing Officer, Bowery Farming. “We’re thrilled to unveil our new Farmer’s Selection category, which showcases the nimbleness of our farms and beauty in this emerging category of Protected Produce through these rotating, first-of-its-kind greens, developed with flavor in mind first and foremost, with seeds selected for their unique properties. For this first release, we set out to develop a recipe with a kick, and Mustard Frills surpassed even our wildest expectations.”

The Farmer’s Selection category grew from the desire to bring the thrill of discovering a new ingredient at your local farm stand to the grocery store. As Bowery’s Agricultural Scientists work year-round on uncovering flavor-packed seeds, this new category emerged as a way to let consumers in on the process, experiencing a new, small-batch green every few months. 

Designed to turn up the heat in your favorite soups, stews, salads, and more, Mustard Frills will first be available in select New York City independent grocery retailers; the second product in the Farmer’s Selection category, Green Sorrel, will be sold by a broader range of grocery retailers.

Bowery’s product line of pesticide-free, Protected Produce also features a new-and-improved version of iceberg lettuce called Crispy Leaf, velvety and peppery Arugula with a punch, delicate Baby Kale with a sweet finish, smooth yet crisp Baby Butter Lettuce, tender Baby Romaine, a variety of herbs, and more. Available in nearly 700 retailers in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, including Whole Foods Market, Giant Food, Stop & Shop, and Walmart, Bowery had 600% growth in brick-and-mortar sales and more than doubled its sales with e-commerce partners, including Amazon, in 2020.  

Bowery, who counts among its investors and culinary advisors the likes of Tom Colicchio and Jose Andres, has also recently appointed New York-native and Maryland-based Top Chef alum Chef Eric Adjepong as its newest Culinary Advisor.

About Bowery Farming

Bowery Farming, the Modern Farming Company, was founded in 2015 with the belief that technology and human ingenuity can grow better food for a better future. Propelled by its proprietary software system, the BoweryOS, Bowery builds smart indoor vertical farms that deliver a wide variety of Protected Produce — in little time, near cities they serve, for a truly local approach.  

Bowery’s farms are growing the next generation of vibrant and flavorful produce. They’re 100 times more productive on the same footprint of land than traditional agriculture, and grow traceable pesticide-free produce – the purest, best expression of what produce is meant to be – with a fraction of the water and land.

The largest vertical farming company in the U.S., Bowery’s produce is available in 680 grocery stores and via e-commerce platforms serving the Tri-state and Mid-Atlantic region, including Amazon Fresh, Giant Food, Hungryroot, Stop & Shop, Walmart, Weis, Whole Foods Market, and specialty grocers.

Based in New York City, Bowery has raised more than $172.5 million from leading investors, including Temasek and GV (formerly Google Ventures), General Catalyst, GGV Capital, First Round Capital, Henry Kravis, Jeff Wilke, and Dara Khosrowshahi, as well as some of the foremost thought leaders in food, including Tom Colicchio, José Andres, and David Barber of Blue Hill.

For more information on Bowery and its products, please visit www.BoweryFarming.com.

Fortunately and unfortunately there are so many ways to manage pathogens in a hydroponic nutrient solution. Having options is great but these options can be difficult to navigate for new growers. Hopefully this overview comparing three popular management styles makes it easier to understand the tradeoffs between each.

Pictured above: Rhizoctonia and other root rot pathogens can spread through a recirculating hydroponic nutrient solution infecting all susceptible crops. Sterilization methods can help reduce the spread of spores in the nutrient solution while microbial inoculants can help reduce the chance of infection in individual plants.

Nutrient Solution Disease Management

There are many more decisions to make after selecting a general management style. For biological or hybrid technique, what inoculant and where should it be applied? For sterilization or hybrid, what is the best sterilization method for the specific farm design and what constraints can inform that decision? 

For more information on the many options for managing pathogens in a recirculating nutrient solution I recommend reading “Disinfestation of recirculating nutrient solutions in greenhouse horticulture” by David Ehret, Beatrix Alsanius, Walter Wohanka, James Menzies and Raj Utkhede. For more information on the many other considerations when designing a hydroponic farm for leafy greens production I recommend reading “Roadmap to Growing Leafy Greens and Herbs” by Tyler Baras (that’s me!).

To continue the conversation, email us and schedule some time with either Chris Higgins or our newest grower consultant Tyler Baras (aka The Farmer Tyler.)

BEREA, Ky. — Save the Children today announced a new partnership with AgTech leader AppHarvest to help educate children across Eastern Kentucky on how to grow their own nutritious food and the importance of healthy eating. Through the Grow Green Eat Green project, AppHarvest is working with Save the Children to create and provide indoor hydroponic grow kits to more than 1,600 children and their families in six Eastern Kentucky counties.

Participating children – who live in some of the state’s most impoverished counties, including Floyd, Harlan, Knott, Leslie, Owsley and Perry – are receiving everything they need to help start their own indoor gardens, such as seeds, growing nutrients and supplies, pots and instructions to help them get growing. They can also receive live instruction via video conference on how to grow their own food from AppHarvest’s farming experts, as well as learn the benefits of hydroponic farming.

“During a time when COVID-19 is having significant, detrimental impacts on children across Eastern Kentucky — including the alarming increase of child hunger across our region — Save the Children is proud to partner with AppHarvest to educate children and families about ways to help end this vicious cycle of food insecurity in the future,” said Alissa Taylor, Save the Children’s Kentucky State Director.

“AppHarvest was founded as a benefit corporation and is also a certified B Corp, because we believe companies should be in the business of doing good,” said Amy Samples, Director of Community Outreach and People
Programs. “We’re building America’s AgTech capital from within Appalachia and know that education is core to achieving that.”

Virtual instruction for the children will take place with their teachers in the coming days. Committed to combatting child hunger across Kentucky and rural America, Save the Children has helped prepare and deliver more than 9 million meals as part of its coronavirus response efforts since March. In rural Kentucky alone, Save the Children staff have helped distribute more than 2.5 million nutritious meals to children in some of the state’s most impoverished communities since COVID-19 impacted the region this spring.

Prior to starting operations at its 2.76-million-square-foot indoor farm in Morehead, Ky., AppHarvest invested more than $150,000 in starting a high-tech container farm educational program. The program retrofits shipping containers with high-tech farming equipment to teach students to grow healthy leafy greens. The program started at Shelby Valley High School in Pike County in 2018 and has since expanded to Rowan County with additional units planned.

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Since our founding 100 years ago, we’ve changed the lives of more than 1 billion children. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

AppHarvest is an applied technology company building some of the world’s largest indoor farms in Appalachia. The Company combines conventional agricultural techniques with cutting-edge technology and is addressing key issues including improving access for all to nutritious food, farming more sustainably, building a home-grown food supply, and increasing investment in Appalachia. The Company’s 60-acre Morehead, KY facility is among the largest indoor farms in the U.S. For more information, visit https://www.appharvest.com/.

Leafy greens, including lettuce, are the hottest crop when it comes to controlled environment vegetable production. It seems like every month a new greenhouse or vertical farm facility begins operating or an existing operation expands with increased production space dedicated to leafy greens. Many of the leafy greens are grown using hydroponic production systems including nutrient film technique (NFT) and deep water culture.

Peter Does, product specialist hydroponic lettuce and spinach at BASF Vegetable Seeds in the Netherlands, has been doing product development with lettuce for controlled environment production for nearly 25 years. The lettuce varieties are sold under the Nunhems brand.

“When I started with the company we sold lettuce varieties for hydroponic production primarily in the Scandinavian countries, with some sales in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand,” Does said. “BASF has been breeding butterhead lettuce varieties for greenhouse production since the 1970s because it is a traditional greenhouse crop in the Netherlands.”

Does said before the development of rockwool as a growing medium for tomatoes and cucumbers, these crops were grown in greenhouses directly in the soil. Tomatoes and cucumbers were grown in rotation with one or two cycles of butterhead lettuce in winter.

“The change to rockwool for cucumber and tomato production was a major driver for crop specialization,” he said. “A lettuce crop in the soil in the winter no longer fit in the combined production cycle with tomatoes and cucumbers. This was a push for the development of summer butterhead varieties that could be produced under glass to make year-round lettuce production possible. Previously winter butterhead production was done in greenhouses and summer butterhead production was done in open fields. In standard greenhouses where supplemental artificial light was not an option, this was a form of controlled environment agriculture, but not at the level lettuce growers achieve today.”

BASF has been selling a wide range of lettuce types to hydroponic growers. In 2006 the company built new greenhouses with dedicated breeding and facilities for hydroponic production.

“Basically all the lettuce grown in greenhouses today is produced in some type of hydroponic system,” Does said. “I don’t know of many growers anymore who are producing in soil. Globally the production is changing rapidly. In Europe production in soil has almost disappeared in the last five years. 

“In Europe most of hydroponic lettuce production is with NFT systems. The majority of growers are producing single head lettuce grown in peat pots, which sit in a NFT system.”

Breeding for supplemental light production

Because an increasing amount of lettuce is being produced hydroponically with supplemental light, BASF is focusing its breeding to meet the market demand.

“We look for varieties that perform well under supplemental light,” Does said. “If supplemental light is supplied at a level in the greenhouse starting at 100 micromoles, then the lettuce varieties are potentially suitable for year-round production. If a variety is selected under high supplemental light levels, it normally also performs under lower supplemental light levels but just grows slower.

“Sometimes a variety works year round. Sometimes a summer and winter variety may be needed based on the specific strengths of a variety, including tipburn resistance, heat tolerance and growing speed.”

Does said the future for greenhouse lettuce production in areas with low light levels is tenuous if supplemental lighting is not used.

“Traditionally there were butterhead varieties that were produced in the winter under low light levels like in the Netherlands,” he said. “Light levels in some cases were almost zero. These were varieties that were selected specifically to grow at low light levels and low temperatures. Under these conditions plants grew at a very slow production rate.

“Growing butterhead varieties under winter conditions, it could take five months from seed to harvest. Growers who want to grow lettuce year round need to go to a certain level of high tech. Growers will have to apply supplemental light if they are in an area where the light levels aren’t high enough during the winter.”

Vertical farm applications

In addition to breeding lettuce varieties for greenhouse production, Does looks at their performance in vertical farm systems.

“For me vertical farming is just another form of controlled environment production,” he said. “There is a little more control over the production conditions in a vertical farm compared to a modern high-tech greenhouse. What we select for in regards to breeding for greenhouse production is not that different for vertical farming.

“If we select varieties for production in a high-tech greenhouse during winter in the Netherlands, more than 90 percent of the light is coming from LEDs. That isn’t that much different from a growing system where natural daylight is blocked out completely. What I see is a good correlation from the performance of varieties under greenhouse hydroponic winter production compared to the performance in an indoor vertical farm.”

Market changes impact lettuce production

Does has seen a market shift in the way lettuce is being grown in hydroponic production systems.

“Hydroponics was always about growing single heads for the fresh market,” he said. “Traditionally in the United States almost all greenhouse lettuce produced in hydroponic systems was butterhead for fresh market sales. In recent years, the market is increasingly changing toward convenience. Today fewer people are buying a head of lettuce or a whole cabbage or other vegetables in their original state. Many vegetables now end up in a bag or clamshell for ready-to-eat consumption. If the market continues to go in that direction, more growers will start producing different types of lettuces suitable for mechanical harvesting.”

Does said the challenge for growers will be how to optimize production while maintaining quality.

“Market changes are asking for lettuce that can be grown at high densities, mechanically harvested and delivering maximum yields,” he said. “It is no longer about the number of heads of lettuce. Now growers need to produce as many kilograms as possible per square meter per year. At the same time the lettuce has to be a good quality product that has good taste, good texture and good shelf life. This is changing the market. Growers have to find a good balance between density, production cycle, maintaining quality and optimizing yields.”

For more: Peter Does, Nunhems Netherlands BV; peter.does@vegetableseeds.basf.com. 

Carlos Umana, Nunhems USA Inc., (603) 343-4495; carlos.umana@vegetableseeds.basf.com; https://www.nunhems.com/us/en.html; https://www.nunhems.com/us/en/Varieties/LTL_lettuce.html.

This article is property of Urban Ag News and was written by David Kuack, a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas.

Bell pepper, Leafy greens and Tomato

These are the most common salad items added to our weekly shopping basket and they supplement our food plates adding nutrients to our diets. We want to delve deeper into their additional phytonutrients, this week we discuss healthy leafy greens.

Leafy Greens

Traditionally we think about leafy greens being the lettuce common in our supermarkets, but there is a very wide range of leafy greens, all vying for unique taste, crunch and flavour. 

Microgreens are all the rage but what exactly are they? Generally they are the young seedlings of their more mature parents and are harvested within weeks rather than months making them much more accessible and easy to grow. They are packed full of vitamins and research suggests they contain more antioxidants than mature plants [1]. In a 2011 study, almost all of the microgreens tested had four to six times more ascorbic acid (vitamin C), tocopherols (vitamin E), phylloquinone (vitamin K), and beta-carotene (Vitamin A precursor)  than the mature leaves of the same plant [2]. 

Some leafy greens like spinach and arugula are very high in vitamin K and this can be a problem for people on blood thinners or those prone to kidney stones who may want to avoid large quantities [3].

Some of the most interesting scientific research looking at phytochemical properties in leafy greens has been done by The Watercress Company examining the potential benefits of watercress to human health. Their studies show significant anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and cardiovascular protective effects in people that consume Watercress daily [4]. More research is underway by The Watercress Research Company examining the biochemical mechanism of urease, an enzyme found in Watercress implicated in a range of pathological states in humans [5].

Cultivating leafy vegetables in a plant factory can help people suffering from very specific conditions. For instance, spinach can be cultivated with a low potassium content to help patients undergoing dialysis [6]. Environmental factors influence the growth of plant metabolites and manipulating these can help elucidate the perfect consistency of medicinal components. The quality and biomass of these plants can also be controlled using light intensity and spectrum. Varying the ratio of red to blue light can increase anthocyanin and ascorbic acid content in lettuce [6]. 

Growing Leafy Greens

Most of the world’s Vertical Farms grow leafy greens of one type or another. Most greens are easy to grow and optimized techniques using CEA have aided large scale commercialization in America’s largest facilities including Aerofarms, Plenty, Square Roots and Bowery. Hort Americas has a useful resource to help beginners grow microgreens and a master class on controlled environment technology can help beginners successfully grow micro herbs.  Hort Americas also recommends Farmer Tyler’s comprehensive road map on growing leafy greens.

Remember!
The CDC recommends the following measures in regard to COVID-19.
How to protect yourself • What to do if you are sick
Disclaimer: We are not doctors and do not prescribe this blog as a medicinal alternative to bona fide medical advice should you contract seasonal flu or Coronavirus.

Janet Colston PhD is a pharmacologist with an interest in growing ‘functional’ foods that have additional phytonutrients and display medicinal qualities that are beneficial to human health. She grows these using a range of techniques including plant tissue micropropagation and controlled environmental agriculture to ensure the highest quality control.

PRESS RELEASE – Bowery Farming (Bowery), the modern farming company on a mission to reimagine what a flavorful future tastes like, announced today a physical and digital brand evolution that includes a new logo, website design, and product packaging.

Bowery’s bold new packaging is shipping to retailers this month and boasts the first design of its kind in the produce aisle. The packaging is designed to stand out on shelves with clean lines, familiar colors, and clear callouts that visually inform the customer about the taste and type of produce. Additionally, the location of the local Bowery farm each product was grown and harvested at is clearly printed on each package.

“We are igniting the consumer’s sensory journey, right in the middle of the produce aisle, by creating a visual experience as vibrant and fresh as our products,” said Katie Seawell, Chief Marketing Officer at Bowery Farming. “Bowery’s evolved brand will help the consumer quickly identify our produce, visualize the taste attributes of each product, and better understand where it comes from. This strategy aligns with our commitment to growing flavorful food with a purpose and adds a level of transparency to the supply chain. Customers can trust when they see the Bowery label, they are purchasing high-quality, fresh produce, and will now see firsthand the positive social impact of our smart farming.”

An updated logo and website round out the evolution and offer cleaner, more straightforward communication supporting Bowery’s social impact story. The new website’s design appeals to creative and culinary audiences. It boasts a curated recipe section, along with the narrative about Bowery’s vision, including its mission, impact, and local community partnerships. Updated technical features, such as an enhanced store finder, help create a simplified shopping experience for consumers looking to purchase Bowery produce. 

In a world of growing population, rising temperatures, and finite resources, Bowery’s indoor farms are growing for a future where food safety comes first, and planet health and increasing access to fresh food are key priorities. The brand’s recent physical and digital evolution is yet another way Bowery is reimagining ways to modernize the produce category.

For more information about Bowery Farming, its new logo, packaging, or website, please visit www.boweryfarming.com. 

ABOUT BOWERY FARMING

Bowery Farming, the modern farming company, was founded in 2015 with the belief that technology and human ingenuity can grow better food for a better future. By building smart indoor farms close to cities, Bowery creates the optimal conditions to cultivate wildly flavorful, incredibly sustainable, and naturally protected produce that’s available on shelf just a few days after harvest.

Its proprietary software system, BoweryOS, uses vision systems, automation technology, and machine learning to monitor plants and all the variables that drive their growth 24/7. Because Bowery controls the entire process from seed to store, farms grow produce year-round, ensuring a safer supply of food that’s reliable and consistent. 

The farms are 100+ times more productive on the same footprint of land than traditional agriculture and grow traceable pesticide-free produce — the purest, best expression of what produce is meant to be. 

Bowery currently has farms in Kearny, New Jersey and White Marsh, Maryland, serving more than 445 stores in the Tri-State area and Mid-Atlantic regions, including Whole Foods Market, Giant Food, Stop & Shop, Walmart and specialty grocers, along with online partners like Amazon Fresh, Hungryroot, Peapod and restaurants.

Based in New York City, the company has raised over $172.5 million from leading investors, including Temasek, GV (formerly Google Ventures), General Catalyst, GGV Capital, First Round Capital, and Henry Kravis, as well as some of the foremost thought leaders in food, including Tom Colicchio, José Andres and David Barber of Blue Hill.

For more information on Bowery and its products, please visit www.BoweryFarming.com