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Why did these companies start with boring stuff like lettuce? The article says that indoor growing like this could allow growing delicate plants which don't tra

by dymk 4y ago

Why did these companies start with boring stuff like lettuce? The article says that indoor growing like this could allow growing delicate plants which don't travel well - why wouldn't they start with that?

jethro_tell 4y ago
Because lettuces has a short growing cycle. One of the best cases for artificial light is that it can be used in times when natural light is not enough. If you have a crop like lettuces, that you can only grow 2x per year and now you can grow 12x per year in the same space it's easier to make the case than something like garlic that can be in the ground up to 8-9 months. If you can only turn the 'ground' or pod over once/year just like normal than you're only getting the stacking, but you could just use shelves in a greenhouse then and skip most of the tech. Strawberries are another good one, you can only double your production in beds with a 6 month growing cycle, (granted, you can stagger your growing cycles in an artificial environment). An awful lot of small scale farming is about turning over the resources you have as fast as possible to put product on the market and that is the same for flat land farming and vertical farming. It's not unlike other kinds of startups where you aim for an mvp maybe even a profitable mvp before you move on to the complex stuff for the big customers. Lettuces is a small farming MVP regardless of the tech used for farming (vertical, greenhost, flatland).
mentalpiracy 4y ago
in addition to the very good sibling comment: lettuce is also a cold-tolerant crop that can grow well at 50F, whereas other popular consumer produce like tomatoes or peppers require minimum soil temperatures of 75-85F for optimal growth. Managing that optimal growing environment gets costly quick. Another important factor: lettuce grows uniformly, and the whole plant is harvested at once. There is no pollination required, no trellis-training for production vines, or fruiting bodies that must be plucked when ripe. Lettuce is about as straightforward as you can get in terms of mass production.

by dymk 4y ago

jethro_tell 4y ago

Because lettuces has a short growing cycle. One of the best cases for artificial light is that it can be used in times when natural light is not enough. If you have a crop like lettuces, that you can only grow 2x per year and now you can grow 12x per year in the same space it's easier to make the case than something like garlic that can be in the ground up to 8-9 months. If you can only turn the 'ground' or pod over once/year just like normal than you're only getting the stacking, but you could just use shelves in a greenhouse then and skip most of the tech. Strawberries are another good one, you can only double your production in beds with a 6 month growing cycle, (granted, you can stagger your growing cycles in an artificial environment). An awful lot of small scale farming is about turning over the resources you have as fast as possible to put product on the market and that is the same for flat land farming and vertical farming. It's not unlike other kinds of startups where you aim for an mvp maybe even a profitable mvp before you move on to the complex stuff for the big customers. Lettuces is a small farming MVP regardless of the tech used for farming (vertical, greenhost, flatland).

mentalpiracy 4y ago

in addition to the very good sibling comment: lettuce is also a cold-tolerant crop that can grow well at 50F, whereas other popular consumer produce like tomatoes or peppers require minimum soil temperatures of 75-85F for optimal growth. Managing that optimal growing environment gets costly quick. Another important factor: lettuce grows uniformly, and the whole plant is harvested at once. There is no pollination required, no trellis-training for production vines, or fruiting bodies that must be plucked when ripe. Lettuce is about as straightforward as you can get in terms of mass production.