The GPN Annual Meeting in Lincoln Nebraska featured a Precision agricultural track. Three tours were included: a radio station, research farm, and greenhouse.
The official name of the greenhouse is the Greenhouse Innovation Center. Please watch the video on their website to see the plants move on conveyor belts. The greenhouse is climate controlled and holds over 600 pots when full. It conducts research for grants and outside commercial companies.
What makes this greenhouse special is a series of cameras which record various aspects of the plants as they grow. When at full capacity, it takes 23 1/2 hours to photograph every one. Each pot is labeled so all data is tied to it throughout the study.
Different strains can be studied under identical conditions, or the same strain can be compared with different environmental aspects, such as more or less water and nutrients. The pots have no drain holes in them, so precise amounts are added when its weight is below a specific amount.
Two things stood out about this tour for me. The first was that plants sleep like other living creatures. When they are photographed at night, they pass through a lighted “wake up” chamber beforehand.
The second was illustrated a chive (the ones commonly growing in our yards) drought study. Those watered the least flowered earlier than the well watered ones. Plants want to survive and reproduce. When resources are scarce, they flower as quickly as possible in order to propagate themselves. With ample resources, they take their time and grow larger and have more blooms. Are there situations where an early, smaller crop is preferable to a later, larger crop?