What if world population growth continues to outstrip the resources we have at our disposal? We can’t increase the size of the planet... so how will we find enough farmland to feed the whole world?
Vertical farming is a solution specifically designed to respond to these new needs.
What is vertical farming?
Vertical farming is an innovative practice that allows urban cultivation of vegetables by making use of new or existing buildings.
What matters is not so much the chosen building itself as the technology used to recreate suitable, natural vegetable-growing conditions. With indoor farming growers need to take temperature, lighting and many other factors into account if they are to succeed in accurately recreating the outdoor environment.
Summing up, we can say that with vertical farming it’s necessary to:
- Maintain a consistent climate.
Depending on the specific crop being grown, the climate is deliberately designed to be suitable for growing throughout the year. This means that it is necessary to design a system that ensures just the right temperature at all times.
- Control the nutritional substances.
Plants are placed in a layer of expanded clay pebbles or rock wool containing, in dissolved form, the nutrients they require. An automated control system that feeds in the correct amount of nutrients is therefore essential.
- Manage the lighting.
Plants need light, hence the need to optimise lighting control and create natural conditions that replicate the "perfect day". This is achieved by using LED lighting, which provides unmatched performance.
Such optimisation lets farmers continue growing any kind of plant all year round.
All the advantages of vertical farming
Vertical farming was developed as a solution to the problem of population growth. However, that was only the beginning. As the technique was developed a clear picture of all the advantages of vertical farming emerged, especially from a sustainability viewpoint.
Current agricultural practices have become unsustainable because water is treated as a limitless resource and extensive use of pesticides contaminates soil, aquifers and the air. What’s more, there’s the considerable problem of harvested products rotting and going to waste.
Vertical farming seems to offer a solution to all these traditional agriculture drawbacks. How?
- No water wasted!
Everything is managed automatically, which means zero waste: the system uses only the amount of water required and no more. It’s estimated that vertical farming uses 90% less water than traditional techniques.
- Goodbye to climate-related problems!
As already stated, the perfect climate is set automatically. Temperatures are fine-tuned according to the crop being grown and light exposure is optimised via accurate control of the LED lighting system.
- No pesticides used!
From an environmental sustainability standpoint, this is a big step forwards. In vertical farming, pesticides are completely unnecessary as cultivation takes place in a closed environment free from insects or parasites.
- Farm anywhere!
Any type of building is suitable. While cultivation-only ‘skyscrapers’ do exist, they’re certainly not the only option. For example, it’s perfectly feasible to design mini-greenhouses for use in any apartment.
- Minimal soil consumption!
Vast fields are no longer needed to provide the entire population with food. Thanks to vertical greenhouses, food can now be grown inside buildings too.
Aquaponics, aeroponics and hydroponics: the three vertical farming techniques
As mentioned previously, vertically farmed vegetables are not planted in the ground as they are in traditional agriculture but are placed in a soilless environment. This is nothing less than a true agricultural revolution as:
- it reduces water consumption by up to 95%.
- helps protect groundwater reserves.
- allows growers to retrieve almost 100% of the nutrients introduced into the system that are not absorbed by the plants.
This methodology has obviously made it necessary to come up with new growing techniques, namely hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics.
Vertical hydroponics is used where an organic substrate is present. With this technique, soil is replaced by an inert material such as expanded clay or perlite. Plants are fed with water-dissolved mineral nutrient solutions; this means plants do not have to extend their roots because they do not need to search for nutrients.
By combining a hydroponics system with the reproduction of a natural ecosystem in which fish and bacteria produce fertilizers suitable for plant growth, we obtain vertical aquaponics.
This technique lets farmers grow plants without using traditional soil and nourish them with substances naturally produced by fish and bacteria.
Lastly, vertical aeroponics allows soil-free cultivation by way of a system based on the nebulisation of water and mineral nutrients. This ‘mist’ nourishes the plants and allows them to grow.
Interested in vertical farming? Discover our LED growing lights!
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