Boosting brassica nutrition in smart growing systems

Background

Growing food where it will be eaten, and only growing the amount of food required, could help to reduce both food waste and emissions. Vertical farming technology, such as growing with LEDs and hydroponics, integrated with machine learning and image processing, could help to improve indoor growing systems.

Evogro makes personal vertical farms for hospitality operators and homes. It uses the same technologies as industrial vertical farms, but scaled down to appliance size. This project will explore new technologies to move to net-zero food production. It will also investigate how new technology can help to grow young brassica crops with higher nutritional value to support healthy diets.

Young brassica plants as offering particular potential because of their high levels of nutritionally-beneficial phytochemicals, including glucosinolates, and their responsiveness to various fortification strategies including targeted mineral fertigation, lighting spectrum manipulation and stress manipulation.

Project aims

  • Design a new, highly-compact precision fertigation apparatus
  • Integrate the new fertigation capability into Evogro's IOT software stack
  • Use the new fertigation capability to develop new growing recipes for young Brassicas plants that will deliver enhanced nutritional value.

NIAB contact

Dr Eleftheria Stavridou

Partners

 

 

 

 

Funders

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project duration

May 2022 - February 2024