Cluster B: Quality

Project B1: Taste, appearance and shelf life

This project aims at understanding the complex interaction between growth conditions in a vertical farm, the quality of the harvested product and the postharvest performance (quality and shelf life). To unravel the complex plant metabolome (containing highly polar, medium polar and non-polar components), a holistic and multi-analytical platform-based approach will be employed.

Project B2: Nutritional value

Soilless plant cultivation can boost plant production by 30%. This increase can’t be fully explained by optimal nutrient availability and root temperature. It is the root penetration resistance per se that impacts leaf elongation and photosynthesis. Quantification and fundamental understanding of the mechanisms behind these root-shoot signals, can be used to determine choices on substrate properties like density and structure.

Project B3: Breeding for optimal performance in vertical farms

Vertical farms represent a novel production system that requires breeding of new varieties. For vertical farming it is of utmost importance that cultivars have a strong enhanced quality with a high light use efficiency (yield; g/mol of light) to reduce energy use and cost price. In this project, we will generate and exploit genomic and genetic resources in lettuce to unravel the genetics of both yield and quality traits at harvest and post-harvest. We will phenotype parameters and their interactions that influence yield and quality to find genetic loci that harbour allelic variation that can be selected to breed for lettuce with high light use efficiency and high (post-harvest) quality.