Singrow debuted their high tech indoor vertical farm site for strawberries on June 26. The indoor farm is located at the new Sprout Hub, which occupies part of the site where Henderson Secondary School once was.
Locally-grown tropical strawberries
The startup's chief executive officer (CEO), Bao Shengjie told Mothership that the strawberry variety grown by Singrow takes less than three months from seedling to the first harvest. In a conventional strawberry farm, he said that the time taken for the same process would be about five months.
As the strawberries are grown indoor, they can be grown all year round. In addition, the farm is 40 per cent more energy efficient as compared to conventional strawberry farms. The high-tech farm will feature robotic arms by another tech startup, called Augmentus, that will help with pollination of the flowers and harvesting of the strawberries.
Bao also shared that the strawberry variety developed by the team is able to grow in higher temperatures as high as 26°C to 30°C, which makes it better adapted to Singapore's weather. In comparison, conventional strawberry farms grow the plants in cooler temperatures of 20°C to 25°C.
Read more about Singrow's strawberries on Mothership (Sumita Thiagarajan)