Vancouver-based agtech leader Terramera develops plant-based replacements to synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Now the company has built six custom, state-of-the-art plant growth chambers to showcase its technological capabilities, improve its R&D, and redefine indoor agriculture’s contribution to field-based production. The growth chambers will also reduce trial time from weeks to days.
Many crop protection products fail in the field because labs and greenhouses do not accurately replicate real-world conditions, according to the company. Each of Terramera’s new chambers offer precise control over temperature (ranging from 5-40°C), humidity and light to simulate multiple field conditions, from cool nights and morning mists to desert and subtropical conditions, and are outfitted with a Terramera-built automation system for end-to-end integration.
“Customised growth chambers allow us to simulate weather to study disease and insect infestations with integrated treatment and imaging systems in one automated system – replicated six times for parallel studies,” said Annett Rozek, Terramera’s chief scientific officer. “This is as close as we can get to real-world conditions in a research environment and will deliver solutions as rapidly and efficiently as possible.”
Automation will enable experiments to run entirely without human intervention, including watering, spraying, nutrient dosing and imaging of the plants throughout their lifecycle, dramatically accelerating data collection for product performance and increasing accuracy with Terramera’s innovative AI and machine learning platform.
Read more at Food and Farming Technology (Anthony James)