Posted on 11 October 2022
We’ve
got lots of plants growing in the Canobi AgTech lab these days. We’re running several different trials with leafy greens, fruiting vegetables, and strawberries, all growing in GROWPIPES.
This large ‘Black Magic’ variety Kale plant is ready to harvest!
We’ve had fantastic success growing bell peppers (capsicums). This cluster of 4 peppers on a single branch is ripening to a beautiful red under the grow lights, and the plant itself is still flowering. We’re excited to find out just how long we can continue to harvest from each plant.
The pepper variety we’re growing here is ‘Early Prolific,’ and it lives up to its name!
We’re also having great success with eggplants (aubergine). We’re trialing both Italian and Middle-Eastern varieties. This is a ‘Vittoria’ variety, which produces long, slender fruit.
As well as plants, we’re also experimenting with different types of growing medium. Here we are using water pearls developed by RHST Industries. We’ve been experimenting with direct-seeding into the pearls, which eliminates the need to transplant, reducing labour costs! This is spinach, ten days after direct seeding.
We also have basil and bok choi seedlings sprouting.
Another
plant we direct-seeded using water pearls is yellow wax beans, variety ‘Gold Rush’. In earlier trials these started to flower and produce beans within just a few weeks of germination. This time we’ll be doing a continuous harvest trial, to see how long a single plant will continue to produce.
Imagine harvesting fresh vegetables from an indoor farm all through the winter in Canada’s food insecure North!
And of course we’re continuing to refine our grow recipes for the most popular leafy greens, like this ‘Oakleaf’ variety lettuce.
Stay tuned to the Canobi AgTech blog for more news from our Lab soon!
