How to start vertical farming

How to start vertical farming

Vertical farming or city farming is a hot trend. Consumers love fresh food produced locally. Investors love the new business opportunities. But where do you start and what do you need to succeed? Signify has been in city farming from the start. With our extensive lighting know-how and plant expertise, here is our vertical farming recipe for growth to help you make a flying start.

Understanding how to grow plants indoors

Understanding how to grow plants indoors

When thinking about how to start vertical farming, many investors expect they can simply pick a crop to grow, buy a building, plug in some grow lights and start planting. Actually, the process starts by understanding how to grow plants indoors. Once you know that, you can decide what crops to grow, what kind of facility to choose and the vertical farming technology and vertical farming lighting you need. Find out more in our blog.

Picking the right plants to grow indoors

The easiest plants to grow indoors are lettuce, herbs and microgreens, and a lot of indoor vertical farming companies are focused on these crops. There are other crops that can be grown indoors, including berries, eggplants, peppers and grains. At our GrowWise Center, our experts study the types of plants that can be grown and the conditions needed to optimize plant growth in vertical farming facilities. For inspiration, read about 4 remarkable results you can achieve with dynamic LED grow lights in a vertical farm.

Grow with the pros

Dynamic lighting allows you to have the flexibility to choose the crops and change the lights whenever you want to. With dynamic lighting, you can grow various crops in the same facility, and you will be able to steer the color and intensity of the light so you can develop your light recipes. Dynamic lighting also gives you the opportunity to predict the harvest time and get your crops at the time that you wanted. Read more about the remarkable results with dynamic lighting in our blog.

GrowWise Center

At the Philips GrowWise Research Center, our experts study the conditions needed to optimize plant growth. This includes the effect that different types of vertical farming lighting, climate systems, nutrition, irrigation, sensors and data collection can have on plant health and quality. It enables us to develop growth recipes for vertical farmers that will produce specific characteristics and create healthier plants with higher yields.

GreenPower LED production module

A vertical farming lighting module for multilayer cultivation of herbs and leafy greens. Includes the ideal light recipe for higher yield, better quality, higher propagation success rates and year-round production. A dynamic version allows you to individually adjust the LED colors and light intensities.

GrowWise Control System

This vertical farming lighting control system is an easy way to create and run custom light recipes to meet the needs of specific crops and improve quality and productivity. Can be used with the GreenPower LED production module Dynamic.

Vertical farming blogs

Sun-free yet summer sweet strawberries build the case for a vertical farm

The latest trials from Philips GrowWise Center have yielded sweeter strawberries in a vertical farm that has no daylight.

How to build a successful vertical farm

Business expert Roel Janssen shares 3 key lessons learned to build a successful vertical farm enterprise around climate, lighting and spacing.

5 learnings for growing top-quality tomatoes in a vertical farm

We conducted three trials to finally optimize the 5 most suitable optimal growth recipes for indoor tomatoes growing.

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