Current status and future challenges in implementing and upscaling vertical farming systems.

Vertical farming can produce food in a climate-resilient manner, potentially emitting zero pesticides and fertilizers, and with lower land and water use than conventional agriculture. Vertical farming systems (VFS) can meet daily consumer demands for nutritious fresh products, forming a part of resilient food systems-particularly in and around densely populated areas. VFS currently produce a limited range of crops including fruits, vegetables and herbs, but successful implementation of vertical farming as part of mainstream agriculture will require improvements in profitability, energy efficiency, public policy and consumer acceptance. Here we discuss VFS as multi-layer indoor crop cultivation systems, exploring state-of-the-art vertical farming and future challenges in the fields of plant growth, product quality, automation, robotics, system control and environmental sustainability and how research and development, socio-economic and policy-related institutions must work together to ensure successful upscaling of VFS to future food systems.

Size development of tomatoes growing in trusses: linking time of fruit set to diameter.

BACKGROUND: Size of fruit is an important issue in determining yield at harvest. Even under controlled conditions, variation between fruit and trusses can be considerable. As an easy to measure indication of size, the diameter of tomatoes growing in trusses was assessed in three experiments with different number of tomatoes per truss, as well as cultivars, and also by varying the level of ions in the recirculated drain water. RESULTS: By applying the von Bertalanffy growth model, more than 99% of the variation present could be explained by the time of fruit set for all tomatoes growing anywhere in the trusses. A linear relationship between time of fruit set and the biological shift factor, an indication of developmental age, was observed. Integrating this linear relationship in the analysis of the diameter data removed one stochastic variable (biological shift factor), effectively halving the number of parameters to be estimated. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study indicate that the major part of the variation present in the diameter of tomatoes growing in trusses is the result of variation in the time of fruit set of individual fruits. The position within the greenhouse (i.e. local differences in assimilates supply) exerted only a minor effect on diameter development. Accordingly, the time of fruit set largely determines fruit size. Likely, growing conditions before fruit set are crucial for final fruit size. The time of fruit set of each tomato in the truss and the local growing conditions within the greenhouse that affect assimilate supply need to be assessed accurately for a reliable size prediction.

Modelling of temperature-controlled internode elongation applied to chrysanthemum.

The DIF concept states that equal internode length can be achieved with the same difference between day and night temperature irrespective of the mean 24 h temperature. However, the physiological background of the DIF concept is unclear. An attempt to model internode elongation is presented based on three plausible processes, namely (1) the accumulation of elongation requirements during the day, (2) elongation during the night using elongation requirements and (3) the limitation of internode length due to low turgor pressure unable to counter cell wall elasticity. Each reaction rate constant, one per process, depends on temperature according to Arrhenius' Law. The resulting process-based model describes internode elongation in time and was calibrated on a chrysanthemum data set. Chrysanthemum plants were grown in growth chambers with rigorously defined day and night temperatures. In total, 16 temperature treatments were applied, resulting from the combination of four day and four night temperatures (16, 20, 24 and 28 degrees C). Internode elongation was measured for the tenth internode in ten plants per treatment. The percentage variance accounted for, R2adj, was almost 91%. Transferability of model parameters was shown to exist by cross validation. Simulation of the internode length in time as function of mean 24 h temperature and DIF showed that the DIF concept is not apparent after a growing period of 10 d, but is visible after 20 d. This model structure for describing internode elongation might also be applicable for other plants that show the DIF concept.