Agroscope has set up a ‘Home Garden’ pilot plant on its Conthey site to transfer its expertise in indoor-farming research (greenhouse and vertical farming) to the ‘Home Garden’ system developed by the Zurich-based company Pleasant Plants.
The ‘Home Garden’ is a form of indoor farming developed at household scale with the aim of supplying a family with fresh herbs and vegetables. The plants grow with minimal human intervention and require almost no agronomic skills on the part of the user. All of the plants’ needs are monitored and dealt with automatically. Nowadays, ‘Home Garden’ systems are often networked and it is possible to monitor your own crops on your smartphone, and even take action remotely.
A specialist in commercial greenhouse and indoor (vertical farming) crops, Agroscope is collaborating with the Zurich-based company Pleasant Plants in the development of a ‘Home Garden’ system with a view to optimising lighting and growing conditions. More precisely, we are studying the type and duration of lighting that best suits different species such as basil or salad leaves. The optimisations are implemented using LED lighting systems, which consume very little energy.
This automated hydroponic (on neutral and inert substrate) cropping system enables the production of basil or salad plants in just three weeks and at extremely low energy costs, whatever the season.
The first promising results are available. Further research will aim to validate them.
