Facilities
Vertify has facilities for cultivation without daylight (Vertical Farming) at both the location in the World Horti Center (WHC) and the location in Zwaagdijk-Oost.
The cultivable surface of the climate cells varies from 5 to 20 m2, the number of research modules from 4 to 12 and the cells are all equipped with dimmable LEDs.
A number of cells offer the possibility of growing tall crops in addition to low-growing crops. Vertify also has the option of conducting research under conditions that are somewhere between a greenhouse and a Vertical Farm: cultivation without daylight can be compared with cultivation under a combination of daylight and LED and/or a combination of daylight and SON-T.
Type of research
Vertify gebruikt de faciliteiten voor een breed scala aan activiteiten. Het teeltonderzoek vindt plaats in opdracht van zowel commerciële partijen als openbare projecten zoals het Fieldlab Vertical Farming en Interreg Hy4Dense. Daarnaast zijn de cellen ook regelmatig in gebruik voor het onderwijs en voor demonstratiedoeleinden.
An important application is also the research that – commissioned and in collaboration with breeders – focuses on the so-called 'Life Cycle Shortening'. The aim is to make the period from seed to seed as short as possible and thus accelerate the development of new genotypes. Daylight-free climate cells with LED lighting offer many possibilities for manipulating the development of plants in the desired direction by means of, for example, light, day length and temperature.
In the Fieldlab Vertical Farming, an important collaboration is established between knowledge institutions from South Holland and companies that are involved in the production of vertically grown products, the sale of vertically grown products and suppliers of technologies for vertical farms. The project creates an innovative ecosystem in which state-of-the-art knowledge from knowledge institutions and (SME) companies is brought together and where optimal facilities are offered to companies for business-driven research and innovation in the field of vertical farming. The Field Lab thus contributes to increasing the knowledge position of Dutch horticulture in the field of daylight-free cultivation and to maintaining the leading position of the Dutch horticultural sector worldwide. The Field Lab thus makes an essential contribution to the sustainable strengthening of the competitive position of the horticultural sector in South Holland. This cooperation is fundamentally different from what is now customary in production chains of fresh fruit and vegetables.