How to create ideal plant growth conditions in vertical farms?

A basic principle in agricultural science holds the key to ideal plant growth conditions. It is called «Liebig’s law of the minimum». Liebig said that inhibits all plant growththe least available resource inhibits all plant growth. In other words, your conditions for plant growth depend on how well you control your resources.

What resources are we talking about? The most crucial resource for plants to develop photosynthesis is light. But controlling the lighting conditions is not enough. Temperature, humidity, CO2 level, nutrient supply, and soil moisture must also be optimized for plant growth.

Relevant article: What is VPD / RH? Vertical farming’s hidden success factors!

Then comes the biggest challenge. Maintaining ideal plant growth conditions requires constant adjustment of all resources in relation to each other. Vertical farming technology has made this challenge a whole lot easier. Indoor farmers today can easily control and create perfect conditions for plant growth.

Avisomo’s vertical farming systems are designed to abide the law of the minimum. The method is as simple as it is ingenious. The first step is installing Avisomo’s stacked shelves for plant growth, artificial light system, watering system, temperature control, nutrient dispersal system, computer system, and sensors.

Sounds interesting? Get to know the Avisomo system better.

When all components are installed, you simply start a «plant recipe» from your PC or mobile phone. This will set in motion pre-made plans for irrigation, fertilization, lighting, and climate control. They factor in what kind of crops you grow and adjust for ideal plant growth conditions accordingly.

If the conditions require additional adjustments, you can easily change the plant recipes from your PC or mobile control panel.

What are the benefits of vertical farming?

Consistent Crop Production All Year Round.
Predictable Results Both Growth-Wise And Financial.
Better Produce Quality.
Environmentally Friendly.
Energy-Efficient.
Minimal Water Consumption.
Reduced Transport Costs.
Little To No Use Of Chemicals And Pesticides.

Why is indoor farming more efficient than conventional farming?

Indoor farming is highly effective because it gives you total control over plant growing conditions. Vertical farming systems are easy to monitor by design. Our system is made so that you can quickly adjust the plant growth conditions in accordance with plant health.

The Avisomo system helps you find a good balance between your applied resources. Making perfect plant growth has never been easier. After arriving at the best possible formula for plant growth on your farm, you can automate the conditions with Avisomo’s software. After that, the production never stops, no matter the seasons or weather conditions.

Let’s take salad, for example, which roughly takes one month to cultivate from pollination to harvesting. This gives you twelve growth cycles per year. As soon as your vertical farm is up and running, costs and income will be much more reliable than what you can expect from conventional farming.

Sprouts, microgreens, and baby leaf vegetables are harvested at an earlier stage in the growth cycle. These plants can therefore be cultivated up to 36 times a year.

In other words, if you pay attention to your plant growth conditions, you can produce more plants with fewer resources. This is how vertical farming makes plant production more profitable than ever before.

On top of that, indoor farming offers much better protection from plant pests and diseases. This, in turn, eliminates the need for chemicals and pesticides. The result is sustainable, environmentally friendly, and highly efficient plant growth.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty of plant growth conditions

Indoor farming offers better resource control. It also allows for plant growth perfection, the likes of which conventional farming has never achieved. To cultivate supreme produce, however, you need to get close and cozy with your plants on a regular basis.

The reason for this is that all plants have different growth stages. Therefore, to keep plant growth optimized at all times, the growth conditions must be adjusted to fit the various growth stages.

How much light, moisture, and nutrients your plants need depends on whether they are sprouting, developing leaves and roots, or if the seed and fruit formation has begun.

Manual check of plant growth conditions on a vertical farm.

When plants sprout and grow, for instance, they need more water. When seeds and fruits are forming, the water supply should be decreased. In many cases, it is necessary to dehumidify plants in the final stage to protect against bacterial growth and pest infestation.

It is also essential to pay close attention to your lighting systems in vertical farms. Often, plants require reduced lighting as they grow closer to the light source. Taking control of plant growth conditions such as lighting, irrigation, temperature, airflow, and nutrient supply, is the first step towards streamlined and automated plant growth.

Total condition control requires detailed plant studies

Now that you have a better understanding of what it takes to make a good growth environment for your plants, it is time to discuss plant health. You can adjust lighting and temperature all you want; it won’t do much good if you don’t study your plants from root to top. In particular, you should investigate plant microclimate and root conditions.

Plant microclimate

To investigate plant microclimate, you need to look at what’s going on 0.1 mm above the surface of the leaves. This is the best place to control plant breathability, which is key to establish a well-balanced photosynthesis and optimized growth.

All green plants require moisture, light, and CO2 to grow. These nutrients are absorbed from the soil, the air, and light sources.

Green plants absorb C02 through tiny pores on the underside of their leaves. Energy is then synthesized and stored in carbohydrate molecules, while oxygen is released as a waste product. We call this process photosynthesis.

In large farming environments, it is not only challenging to optimize the microclimate around the plants but also between the leaves.

Vertical farming systems are designed with microclimates in mind. Digitally controlled plant growth conditions make it much easier to adjust lighting, irrigation, and ventilation systems. Total control over these conditions helps you maintain perfect micro-environments all year round.

Plant Root Conditions

It is equally important to ensure that the plant root conditions are as good as the microclimate. Luckily, agricultural researchers have developed methods to safeguard your plant root conditions.

The plant roots need a steady supply of oxygen to transport water and nutrients to all the plant cells.

Oxygen also strengthens the plants’ immune system and makes them more resistant to bacteria and diseases. Therefore, it is important to always ensure good supply of oxygen to the roots.

You must also keep in mind that plants are often propagated in very different environments. For example, some roots grow in soil, others in water (hydroponics). Certain plants are even grown in mid-air without the use of an aggregate medium. (aeroponics).

Owerwatering inhibits plant growth in soil. Too much moisture makes it hard for the roots to take up oxygen and might drown your plants. Make sure that the water balance allows for oxygen pockets to form in between the soil particles.

Hydroponics requires sufficient water circulation to make sure the plants get all the oxygen they need. Aeroponics is all about the size of the water bubbles that are sprayed on the roots. The roots cannot make good use of the water nutrients if the bubbles are too big or small.

As you have surely realized by now, indoor farming is a complex science with many factors to consider.

Fortunately, research and development in the vertical farming sector are taking huge leaps forward. As a result, the market is filling up with extremely efficient farming systems.

Indoor farming technology have made strides toward the future. In the process, vertical farming has become more user-friendly. At Avisomo, we believe in sharing such news with the world.

Conclusion: How do you make ideal conditions for plant growth?

Today, agricultural technology allows us to grow by Liebig’s law of the minimum like never before. If done right, vertical farming conquers all limiting factors for plant growth.

Avisomo’s farming systems for lighting, irrigation, ventilation, circulation, dehumidification and digitalization are easy to assemble and make way for ideal plant growth conditions.

The Avisomo growth systems and plant recipes take care of all the legwork. Make sure that your vertical farm properly set up. Therafter, monitoring the plant growth and fine-tuning the conditions is your main job.

Our system will notify you of the slightest change in plant conditions, and from your PC or mobile, you can make the proper adjustments on the spot.

Avisomo’s solutions are based on pioneering developments in agricultural science. We’ve used new technologies to design a farming system for minimized resource consumption and maximized profits.

Our method makes plant growth safer and more predictable than ever before. Simply put, we deliver the most efficient and profitable form of plant production available on the market today.