Vertical farming is a promising way to grow fresh and healthy tomatoes indoors, using less water, land, and pesticides than conventional methods. But how can you scale your vertical tomato farming operations to meet the growing demand and maximize your profits? In this article, we will explore some of the key factors and strategies that can help you achieve this goal.
There are different types of vertical farming systems, such as hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics, that use different methods of delivering water and nutrients to the plants. Each system has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on the cost, maintenance, yield, and quality of the produce. You need to choose the system that suits your budget, space, and market needs, and that can be easily scaled up or down as required.
From my experience, hydroponics doing wonders in tomato production. Since it provides direct control over nutrient levels and offering precise customization. -Easy to manage. Aquaponics, while more sustainable with the integration of fish, may require additional attention to fish health and system balance. The choice is yours ...
In my experience, its very costly and skilled labor intensive production system, though only affordable if high end niche market has pull force for a particular type of tomatoes. Due to high capex farmers could not afford to establish this type of system in Pakistan where prices are instable in regional and local market for tomatoes depending upon the production under open field systems and under plastics tunnels.
Scaling tomato production, or any other crop, must be market driven. Start by identifying a region underserved by high quality or consistent supply. Size the market, determine a reasonable target market share, and develop a highly detailed business case for a pilot facility. Only after careful scrutiny of the revenue plan, bolstered by real face to face conversations with retailers and distributors, you can begin a detailed design of your GREENHOUSE. Let's remember that greenhouses have always grown vine crops vertically. They're not stacked like leafy green systems, but they do utilize all available light and volume in the growing environment. Summary: let market needs shape your system design.
I will go for hydroponics any day because of its high yield and productivity as against open field. The tomato fruits also comes out with better quality and a little longer shelf life
Pour la cuture hydroponique de la tomate, J'utilise des tuyaux de 15cm de diamètre contenant des substrats composés de sciure de bois, de biochar et une petite quantité de composte. Après repiquage, les tomates sont fertilisés à l'aide du purin (engrais liquide) et la lutte biologique est fait à base de l'huile essentiel de Neem. Ce système ce montre très peu couteux compte tenu de la qualité des intrants utilisés. La faible quantité de sable utilisé comme substrats réduit les co?ts de l'entretien du système. L'apport de fertilisant liquide facilite l'accessibilité et une utilisation efficiente des nutriments pour la plantes ce qui permet d'obtenir un rendement optimal. Il faut préciser que dans ces conditions la production est bio.
One of the benefits of vertical farming is that you can control the environment to create the optimal conditions for your tomato plants. This includes factors such as temperature, humidity, light, airflow, and carbon dioxide levels. By adjusting these factors, you can enhance the growth, flavor, and nutrition of your tomatoes, as well as prevent diseases and pests. You also need to monitor and measure these factors regularly, using sensors and data analysis, to ensure that they are within the desired range.
Quality consistency and reproducibility in vertical farming production are greatly affected by production environmental conditions. Open warehouse-type vertical farms could be more challenging when it comes to environmental control, when compared to modular or container vertical farms. There are several advantages of modular vertical farms over warehouse type ones: - vertical farming modules could have decentralized environmental controls, air conditioning units, and fertigation control etc. Less risk when compared to centralized systems - each module is physically segregated and prevents the risk of disease, pest or contamination spread to other modules - greater precision to control the environment due to a smaller space footprint
Focus on optimizing space usage and efficiency. Use stacked layers to maximize production in a limited area. Invest in automated systems for watering and nutrient delivery to ensure consistent growth conditions. Employ LED lighting tailored to the growth stages of tomatoes for energy efficiency. Finally, continually innovate and apply new technologies to improve yield and reduce costs.
Planning the environment and space for vertical farming is essential beforestarting. The system should be designed to operate (24/7), with access for maintenance. It's crucial to maintain a sterile environment to prevent contamination and unwanted growth. Additionally, the design should facilitate easy cleaning and sterilization. In my experience, these aspects are vital, alongside the common challenges of measuring parameters and calibrating sensors, like pH and EC sensors. Sensors often require recalibration due to nutrient-induced calcification.The environment must be regulated in terms of temperature, humidity, CO2 levels, etc., using a filter system to eliminate unwanted particles and maintain optimal growing conditions.
Quantity and quality of light, based on source, should provide adequate IR, PPFD, and color within the blue and red spectrum, with the possibility of switching from blue to blue and red for flowering control. Impact of natural light on taste components needs to be ascertained for specific cultivars used.
When designing the environment for vertical farming you have to consider: Your economic climate: this is very important because you don't want to spend more maintaining the facility than what you're making. Making sure it's properly ventilated, sterile and easy to use. Vertical farming ensures more yield in limited space but it's important that whatever system you're using is profitable.
Another way to scale your vertical tomato farming operations is to automate some of the processes that are labor-intensive or prone to human error. For example, you can use robots, drones, or conveyor belts to move the plants, harvest the tomatoes, or sort and pack them. You can also use software, artificial intelligence, or machine learning to automate tasks such as irrigation, fertilization, or pest management. Automation can help you save time, money, and resources, as well as improve the consistency and quality of your products.
Would love to see how and why you would move the plants . A typical tomatoes in a greenhouse is approx 50 to 70 metres long so why would you move this. Picking and deleting is expensive in capital.
Studying the case of an important player in the tomato chain, I was able to see that automating the planting, harvesting and crop management processes can mean reducing costs and losses, adding up to 20% to the producer's final margin. Automation also contributes to the standardization of the fruit, improving the chain and reducing disposal, providing high levels of productivity and optimization of natural resources such as water and cultivated area, but also and more importantly reducing the use of chemicals in preventing and combating diseases and pests and also in reducing fertilizer applications in crops
You need automated devices that can actually tell you that a particular plant is not properly irrigated or fertigated. Plant do talk , automated device would accurately feed the plant "WHEN " its needed. Automation will safe the producer from alot of stress e.g. timing the minutes to feed the plant, detecting diseases / fungi infection , pest infestation and lot more. Automation has to do with programming, the automated device would have been programmed to carry out certain Farm operations which would make a tomatoe producer have fresh, quality and nutritious harvest.
Many may agree that labour in vertical farming production may account in some cases up to 30% of total production cost. A 15-tier Vertical Farm with a floor area of 1 ha may need more than 300 employees. Creating local jobs may not necessarily be a bad aspect, but when production capacity increases automation becomes essential. Fortunately, in the era of digital agriculture, we have access to robotic technologies, remote sensing, image processing, robotic hands, cloud computing, data analytics tools and 3-D modelling to advance vertical farming automation.
Automation is crucial for year-round vertical farming operations, focusing on lighting, environmental control, and feeding cycles. Managing environmental conditions can be challenging due to external factors like temperature fluctuations and greenhouse heating from sunlight. For hydroponics, particularly in aeroponics, automated nutrition cycles are essential for consistent root feeding and moistening. Although some processes, like post-growth cycle cleaning, may not be fully automatable, they are vital for a healthy environment. Additionally, plant monitoring can be automated using AI and multispectral cameras on drones or grids, providing precise control and ensuring optimal plant growth.
While tomatoes are a popular and profitable crop for vertical farming, you can also diversify your products to cater to different markets and customers. For instance, you can grow different varieties of tomatoes, such as cherry, grape, or heirloom, that have different colors, shapes, sizes, and tastes. You can also grow other crops that complement your tomatoes, such as basil, lettuce, or peppers, that can be sold as salads, sauces, or snacks. Diversifying your products can help you increase your revenue, reduce your risk, and attract more customers.
Addition of other fruit vegetables that are complimentary such as long pepper, bell pepper etc can help cushion cases of crop loss.
Hydroponics is good for diversity. For example some systems can be used to grow bell peppers, tomatoes and habaneros while some are used to grow lettuce, bok choy, celery etc. In Nigeria for example we encourage farmers to diversify their crops. If they grow bell peppers we encourage them to add tomatoes and habaneros because this are important ingredients in the soups we make. Most customers are likey to need at least two of this at the same time. This will lead to a higher customer retention and multiple streams of income since they have different life cycles depending on the specie.
Vertical farming is a suitable option for pharmaceutical-grade miraculin production (taste-modifying glycoprotein) using transgenic dwarf tomatoes. The highest miraculin production per unit area could be achieved with a light intensity of 400 mmol, while a more energy-efficient way to produce would be under an intensity of 100 mmol.
Try exploring determinate types of cultivars instead of commonly grown indeterminate cultivars in conventional greenhouses, which utilize defoliating the lower nodes and laying down the vines and supporting the fruiting part of the vine with cables or wires. Determinate varieties with multiple tiers of trays and platforms in three dimensional space can accommodate more plants and potentially increase yield. Regrowth from axillary buds needs to be studied for suitability over long term production without replanting.
Diversifying your products is a good strategy for increasing income from your vertical farming operation in eventuality of tomato crop loss. However, introducing different crops into the vertical farming systems can increase your chances of pests and diseases infestation. Different crop has its associated pest and disease management and practises. Hence, diversification will increase your farm management operation and cost. Athough the additional cost is compensated for by the sales made from the different products.
Finally, to scale your vertical tomato farming operations, you need to market the benefits of your products to your potential customers. You need to communicate how your products are fresher, healthier, tastier, and more sustainable than the ones grown in traditional farms. You also need to highlight how your products are locally grown, reducing the carbon footprint and the food miles. You can use various channels, such as social media, websites, blogs, or podcasts, to showcase your products and tell your story.
Carbon footprints is a great value which can be given with the products for customers. Plan of SKUs with the right visibility with a clear tag showing the impact of this produce on environment and what they actually pay for is helping for betterment of environment.
A common misconception is that vegetables produced in vertical farms are neither tasty nor nutritious. Indeed, it takes time to identify the cause-effect relationship between vertical farming cultivation practices and taste/nutrition. We may be still in the trial and error phase. However, once the relationship is identified consumers may benefit from consistent produce safety, quality and supply of produce that features desired taste, colour, texture, shape, freshness etc.
Proper planning, production consistency and improved research into other means to reduce strenous efforts about the production channel
Em países com economia robusta e de clima extremo, talvez um tomate produzido em ambiente indoor e vertical seja interessante e bem visto pela comunidade. Mas em países tropicais e de clima temperado, onde há abundancia de sol e áreas agricultáveis, o apelo comercial deve ser relacionado ao baixo risco de contamina??o e a redu??o ou extin??o do uso de agrotóxicos. Ainda assim, o produto corre risco de atender apenas um nicho de mercado mais rico. Ponto interessantíssimo e importante a ser observado.
Digital marketing is the powerful tool to use in marketing your vertical tomato products to your target customers/audience. Here, it is very important to identify the right digital marketing tool to reach your target customers/audience. You may use SEO, websites, social media (facebook, instagram, whatsapp), YouTube, blogs and e-mail. Then you create the right contents that appeal to your potential customers. Selling the benefits of your vertical tomato products to your potential customers via this digital platforms is very strategic to marketing your products.
Currently, in the United States (other countries maybe different), it is my recommendation that vertical farmers not scale regardless of the crop. Find your niche and make sure your niche can deliver the premium value and price required to grow in a vertical farm. Scaling will require you to compete in markets you cannot afford to. (Everything is relative, so take comments the same way.)
The math to grow tomatoes using vertical farming in North America doesn’t work unless you are charging $40/lb or more. Most consumers are out of shot of this price point. Where this approach might work is where labor and energy are less expensive. The Middle East comes to mind in this case. Think of Vertical Farming as a tool with attributes. High yield, but high capex and usually opex in the US. What you might consider is looking for regions where labor and energy are cheaper as this reduces capex and opex and can lead to lower consumer prices and profitability.
As demand for premium-priced leafy greens, herbs, and microgreens is satisfied in major urban areas, diversifying the crop mix by adding tomatoes may seem like a smart step. Tomatoes are the second most consumed vegetable in most countries (after potatoes), and the increasing number of tomato varieties grown provides interesting opportunities. However, in a system designed to minimize floor space and maximize density, large vine crops like tomatoes don't make financial sense. Vertical farms trying to compete with hydroponic greenhouses to stay relevant seems like a hail mary.
Vertical farming for tomatoes ????. 1. It's a vine crop, and needs height ... controlled environment farming is better for that, or open field. 2. Market pricing for most tomato is quite consistently low on a global level. How can you ever be profitable because of the high capex/OPEX costs involved in VF. 3. Tomato is not a challenging crop to grow (compare berries or herbs). 4. It's also a heavy crop, so can the structure take the weight of all the vines?
For tomatoes to fit well into vertical farming production following attributes should be considered: 1) tomatoes should be dwarf, around 30 cm in height 2) fast-growing 3) grow well under low light intensity and at high planting density 4) qualitative attributes of the cultivar could be improved with agronomic practices 5) High harvest index