Image credit: NASA

Space chilies are blooming marvellous

Over our heads, on the International Space Station, chili peppers are blooming and being hand-pollinated by astronauts. There are four pepper plants growing in the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH). NASA astronaut Megan McArthur posted pictures of them starting to flower. Plant researchers at NASA’s Kennedy…

"Technical optimizations offer even wider deployment and greater usability"

Bever Innovations introduces its updated 7-layer Leaf Carrier. "This grow cart incorporates a number of new and very interesting technical features, which make the cart even more user-friendly and more widely applicable," the team says. The water-resistance of the bottom side has been increased to IP65,…

The do’s and don’ts of using nutrients in vertical farms

“It’s important to use good quality liquid fertilizers in a vertical farm. It goes without saying that choosing the correct total hydroponic recipe for the crop type, humidity, temperature and the lighting used is very important,” says Roy O’Mahony, Co-founder and CTO at Cleangrow. Based in California,…

Planting the seeds for better vertical farm crops

Humans have been farming outside for around 12,000 years. Over those thousands of years, farmers have stumbled upon or bred specific varieties of plants and seeds that do well in outdoor field farming environments. And as farming has turned from a local business to a massive profit-making behemoth, the…

Smartphone screens effective sensors for soil or water contamination

The touchscreen technology used in billions of smartphones and tablets could also be used as a powerful sensor, without the need for any modifications.  Researchers from the University of Cambridge have demonstrated how a typical touchscreen could be used to identify common ionic contaminants in soil or drinking…

Verdelab Bioscience inaugurates its new headquarters

Verdelab Bioscience inaugurated its new headquarters in Rimini, near the Agri-Food Centre and the Rimini Nord highway exit on 25 August 2021. "We are opening the doors to the new phytosanitary laboratory, which is about 1500 square meters, compared to 300 at the previous location. Not only does it comply…

Transition from hydroponics to gelponics

YesHealth Group has been gradually transitioning away from hydroponics, and towards Gelponics. The purpose of this transition is to decarbonize vertical farming - by eliminating the substrate material (sponge or similar) used in hydroponics and replacing it with a hydrogel substrate. This leads to…

Urban AgNews

Who will be the first in CEA to challenge the future of medicine?

"For the past year we have been talking about how to boost the immune system with plant phytonutrients and how this can present new opportunities for farmers, particularly if plant pharmaceuticals can be extracted from plants grown in a controlled environment," says Janet Colston with Urban AgNews.  With an…

New study may help to make spinach leaves look like lettuce

A new study could help introduce innovations in the food industry as it could help change the shape of the salad leaves as one desires. Plants have either ‘simple’ or ‘compound’ leaves. A mango tree, for example, is considered to possess ‘simple’ leaves because they have a single, intact leaf blade. A…

Kasveista

Vertical farm specified seeds with open-source licensing

When thinking of vertical farming, we usually think of rows of lettuce or herbs all neatly placed under purple LED lights. However, if it were to Rosario Iacono, founder of Kasveista, vertical farming should be all but limited to leafy greens. Kasveista’s mission is to expand vertical farms with all…

Plant booster and protection hits Spanish market

SIPCO Innovations is pleased to announce the launch of its new product HYSHIELD in Spain this August, in partnership with Hortitec. This European launch comes after the success of HYSHIELD™ in the North American market and the increasing demand for this product in the marketplace. HYSHIELD is derived…