Growing micro peppers and tomatoes in vertical farms (Experiment) — Growcer

Big stretch

Once the tomato production was eliminated, the peppers spread out to occupy one side of a raft.

James says this was done for two reasons:

1. The pepper plants became top heavy and began to lean.

2. The peppers needed horizontal support ACROSS the runway to encourage this lateral growth (why fight their growing path, when you can support it?). Then supplemental lighting was directed toward these horizontal plants too.

While the plants encountered a small “shock” after being repositioned, their fruiting production wasn’t severely interrupted and continued.

Pollination

A key difference between vegetables and fruits is that fruits require pollination.

James shares throughout the experiment, all the flowers were hand pollinated using an electric toothbrush. He pollinated the crops once a week for no more than 15 minutes. James speculated that as the experiment progressed and only one row of peppers required pollination, it became easier to provide “more thorough pollination of the flowers” which could be why yields improved over time.

And there you have it! Nothing like a mini experiment to spice things up.

If you’re interested in learning more about The Barrett Centre of Innovation in Sustainable Urban Agriculture at Durham College, check out what was said during the grower panel.