Optimizing growth conditions in vertical farming: enhancing lettuce and basil cultivation through the application of the Taguchi method

Abstract

This paper reports on the findings of an experimental study that investigated the impact of various environmental factors on the growth of lettuce and basil plants in vertical farms. The study employed the Taguchi method, a statistical design of experiments approach, to efficiently identify the optimal growth conditions for these crops in a hyper-controlled environment. By reducing the time and cost of designing and running experiments, this method allowed for the simultaneous investigation of multiple environmental factors that affect plant growth. A total of 27 treatments were selected using the Taguchi approach, and the signal to noise ratio was calculated to predict the optimal levels of each environmental condition for maximizing basil and lettuce growth parameters. The results showed that most of the parameters, except for EC and relative humidity for certain growth parameters, were interrelated with each other. To validate the results, confirmation tests were conducted based on the predicted optimal parameters. The low error ratio between expected and predicted values (1–3%) confirmed the effectiveness of the Taguchi approach for determining the optimal environmental conditions for plant growth in vertical farms.

Enhancing Productivity and Improving Nutritional Quality of Subtropical and Temperate Leafy Vegetables in Tropical Greenhouses and Indoor Farming Systems

“…An integrated approach, therefore, is imperative for increasing food security. For instance, using aeroponic farming systems for vegetable production could be the most promising water-efficient approach to urban agriculture [26,91]. The adoption of innovative technologies has the potential to decrease water consumption while simultaneously preserving or even enhancing crop yields [92].…”

“…To increase areas of cultivation, growing leafy vegetable crops vertically indoors under controlled environments and in greenhouses has become increasingly popular in Singapore [1,8]. Light plays a crucial role in the cultivation of vegetables [26][27][28]. My team has developed a commercially viable vertical aeroponic farming system integrated with LED technology to cultivate leafy greens both indoors and in greenhouses.…”

“…More and more studies have highlighted the importance of LED spectral quality on plants grown indoors [21][22][23][31][32][33][34]. However, the optimal LED spectral combinations vary depending on the plant species [26,30,35,36]. The success of indoor vertical farming illuminated by LEDs also hinges on local energy costs and environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, nutrient availability, and CO 2 levels [35].…”

Product safety aspects of plant molecular farming

“…Closed cultivation facilities achieve an even higher degree of process control than greenhouses. These facilities are designed to eliminate any environmental impact on plant growth by providing a complete artificial climate: temperature, humidity and irrigation as well as light and potentially gas composition ( Farhangi et al, 2023 ). The terminology used for closed cultivation facilities can be misleading and ambiguous.…”

Parametric Design and Genetic Algorithm Optimization of a Natural Light Stereoscopic Cultivation Frame

“…The optimized structure of the NLSCF could meet the normal growth requirements of lettuce. Compared with previous studies that optimized LED light recipes using the design of experiments (DoEs) methodology [43] and the Taguchi method [44], this study harnessed innovative computer simulation and modeling techniques, including parametric modeling, light simulation techniques, and the genetic algorithm method, to assess the impact of different design parameters on the lighting distribution and to utilize cost-efficient natural light in a better way.…”