Indoor Vertical Farming

In vertical farming we try to bring our modelling skills from outdoor systems into indoor system. In controlled conditions we can determine on a very detailed level what are influencing factors of crop growth. The idea of vertical farming comes with the idea to save land and input resources such as water or fertilizer and adapt it to the specific needs of a plant. Furthermore, a high degree of mechanization, for example through fully automatic transport of the plants within the rooms as well as lighting and irrigation systems, reduces the operator effort to a minimum. In the closed system, which is shielded from the outside world, water consumption could be reduced by up to 90 percent and chemical plant protection could ideally be dispensed with altogether. The yield can be increased many times over by optimal supply and growth conditions.
Wheat and soybean experiments are conducted in the vertical farming chambers located in the Dürnast station at TUM-Weihenstephan campus. Furthermore, Professor Asseng is one of the TUM main investigator of the Proteins4Singapore (link) project, where he conducts a pilot experiment of a soybean vertical farm in Singapore.