Abstract
Indoor vertical farming offers great opportunities regarding a sustainable and consistent production of high-quality herbs and raw materials all year round for the perfume, chemical, or food industry. Cultivation takes place in an enclosed structure, operating predominantly independent from external conditions in multi-layer systems equipped with artificial lighting, enabling extremely high resource use efficiencies with a simultaneous increase in yield. On the other hand, field production in terms of plant quality and harvesting times is highly influenced by environmental conditions, making it difficult to maintain homogenous raw material qualities throughout the year. To show how different light qualities affect the overall efficiency and quality of Origanum majorana grown in an indoor farm, the resource consumption, yield, and cultivation time as well as the essential oil quantity was analyzed, and the efficiencies in terms of energy and land use efficiency calculated. The experimental setup clearly demonstrated that the yield regarding fresh as well as dry matter and oil content was comparable to one square meter of open field production. Based on this, the multi-layer system and the noticeable lowered growth period result in a significantly higher area efficiency compared to the open field, leading to a potential increase of annual yields of dried leave weight and oil contents by up to 21 times. It was also shown that a white spectrum (W) showed similar influence on plant growth and yield as a spectrum consisting of blue and red (B/R). Nevertheless, the LED treatment W did show higher light use efficiencies as well as a better working conditions inside the cultivation chamber. By an integration of indoor vertical farming into existing industrial processes, new and innovative opportunities for a flexible and low-risk supply chain seem feasible and according to German food industry meet the interests of existing stakeholders.
Highlights
Today the production of plant material is highly influenced by industrial needs
Due to the limited availability of water, accessible land, and fertile soil as well as the lack of favorable microclimatic conditions, which are affected by the increased occurrence of extreme weather conditions due to climate change, a sustainable and at the same time highly flexible agricultural production may be necessary for the coming decades
In the experiment we focused on three white spectra (HORTURION CL 230‐24 80 Formula White series, BLV, Steinhöring, Germany), characterized by a high proportion of green in combination with series, BLV, Steinhöring, Germany), characterized by a high proportion of green in combination with far red (W+FR), an equal proportion of green and blue (W) and a significantly increased proportion of far red (W+FR), an equal proportion of green and blue (W) and a significantly increased proportion blue (W+B) (Figure 2)
Summary
Today the production of plant material is highly influenced by industrial needs. The demand is characterized by constant availability and based on quantities and homogeneous qualities. Quality focused on special secondary plant metabolites to be used in aromatic or therapeutic applications or as source material for the perfume and chemical industry. Due to the limited availability of water, accessible land, and fertile soil as well as the lack of favorable microclimatic conditions, which are affected by the increased occurrence of extreme weather conditions due to climate change, a sustainable and at the same time highly flexible agricultural production may be necessary for the coming decades. In addition to intensified precision farming and ecologically sustainable methods, a further way of meeting these challenges is indoor vertical farming.
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