Source:  NCSU COLLEGE OF AG & LIFE SCIENCES, 9/2/20


Brandon Huber, a Ph.D. candidate of Horticultural Science, shared some of his tomato research so that we may better understand indoor controlled environmental horticulture and its impact on young plant production. While studying indoor controlled environmental horticulture under the direction of Ricardo Hernandez, Huber was awarded second place at the national level from the American Horticultural Science Society (ASHS) for his oral presentation Dynamic Far-red light treatments to maintain plant uniformity in high-density tomato seedlings for grafting.

What is an indoor controlled environment system and how can it be used to improve the propagation of tomato seedlings?
An indoor controlled environment offers the highest precision in environmental control, exceeding the control that a traditional greenhouse can offer. Indoor controlled environment systems are completely contained indoors and remove environmental constraints such as seasonal variations in light intensity and temperature fluctuations that occur in a greenhouse. Because of this, we are able to increase spatial and temporal plant uniformity of transplants which leads to consistently high quality and high grafting success rates. 

These systems also allow for complete control of the environment and allows you to completely customize each environmental factor to optimize conditions to the needs of each crop. Some of these optimizations include spectral quality, CO2 enrichment, air velocity, and precise temperature and humidity control. These features increase the sustainability of controlled environments such as optimizing plant density and reducing production time.  In addition to plant uniformity, these systems increase water and nutrient use efficiency, eliminate pests and diseases, and generally eliminate pesticide usage. In addition, environmental optimization can yield tomato seedlings with specific plant architecture and flowering behavior to further increase yield when transplanted in the field.

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