Soilless & vertical farming

Soilless production gives full control over the root environment, so plant nutrition becomes the main lever for yield, quality and nutritional value. We develop nutrient recipes for soilless greenhouses and vertical farms, test substrates such as biochar and perlite mixes made from greenhouse waste, and study how light and nutrient supply shape leafy greens, seedlings and fruit vegetables.

Much of this work runs with companies. With Plant Factory we developed nutrient recipes for their vertical farming system and host an indoor R&D unit on campus; with Vahaa we optimized the system and nutrition of a smart home garden and developed an IoT-based soilless growing unit with its mobile application. A domestic growth capsule prototype made from natural raw materials is being developed for seedling production and different soilless systems.

What we have found

Biochar produced by gasifying tomato crop residues can, after a suitable pre-treatment, replace part of the conventional components of soilless seedling substrates, which turns a greenhouse waste stream into a growing medium. In the indoor vertical farm we showed that the sulfur supply of the nutrient solution modulates selenium biofortification, yield and nutritional quality in leafy greens. The nutrient recipes developed with Plant Factory run in their commercial vertical farms, and the plant science developed with Vahaa reached the market in 2022 as the Arzum x Vahaa Smart Garden. The publications listed below carry the details.