Innovation and Demonstration for a competitive Dutch Vertical Farming sector

The Fieldlab Vertical Farm project has the ambition of developing a competitive Vertical Farming sector in The Netherlands through the collaboration between knowledge institutes, industry and semi-governmental partners. The topic is approached from different angles such as market and economy, cultivation and technology, education and training. Among the demonstration experiments, comparative trials have been run simultaneously at different partner’s facilities to find out whether starting with the same material and cultivation strategy would generate the similar results.

The results of the first trials showed that with the same climate setpoints different climate realization was achieved. Especially the temperature and relative humidity in close proximity to the plants, defined as microclimate, differed among facilities which resulted in different productions. In the next lettuce trial planned for beginning of 2023, the necessity to find a more “standardized” way to set growth conditions will be addressed and, at the same time, macro- and micro-climate realization will be measured to understand the link with crop production. In parallel, research is ongoing to respond to the current challenges of the Vertical Farming sector such as energy efficient cultivation and production of added value products.

A presentation by Caterina Carpineti, Researcher Vertical Farming at Business Unit Greenhouse Horticulture and Flower Bulbs – Wageningen University and Research.

About Business Unit Greenhouse Horticulture and Flower Bulbs at Wageningen University and Research
The experts of Greenhouse Horticulture & Flower Bulbs are dedicated to innovating for and with the sector. We work together with companies, government authorities and other knowledge institutes.
They cover the following topics:
– Greenhouse climate & Energy
– Sustainable crop protection
– Water & Nutrient efficiency
– Advanced systems & Robotics
– Quality & Production
– International
– New business models
-Flower bulbs

Caterina Carpineti is speaker at the 2022 edition of the Vertical Farming Conference, part of the Agrifood Innovation Event.

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