Improvement in productivity of strawberry (Fragaria X ananassa Duch.) under vertical farming system

Abstract

Vertical farming has evolved keeping in view the constraints of space due to the increasing population and shrinking agricultural land. Although vertical farming is more associated with small-duration crops, especially vegetables, flowers, and annuals such as strawberry can also be grown through the selection of appropriate variety and farming structure. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of full spectrum light on the growth, flowering, fruiting, and yield of strawberry under a vertical farming system. Results revealed that plant height, plant spread, petiole length, number of leaves, number of fruits, average berry weight, and average yield were highest at light intensity of 175–200 μmol s-1m-2. It was observed that in T1 when plants were at the fourth level or top level (L4) of verticals under natural light, were superior in comparison to plants at lower levels in T2 (L3), T3 (L2), and T4 (L1) due to decreasing light intensity down to the base of verticals. The plants grown with an additional supply of artificial full spectrum light (AFSL) at these lower levels had performed better in T5 (2 h at L3), T6 (4 h at L2) and T7 (6 h at L1) in terms of growth, flowering, fruiting, and yield of strawberry and were at par to T1. In the vertical farming system, space, water, nutrient, and light optimization is possible as it ensures efficient resource utilization such as precision agriculture. Thus, the supply of AFSL is important to ensure sustainable yield in vertical farming.