TY - JOUR AB - A growing population needs an expansion of agriculture to ensure a reliable supply of nutritious food. As a variable concept, vertical farming, becoming increasingly popular, can allow plant growth for local food produc¬tion in the vertical sense on, e.g. facades in addition to the classical layered structure in buildings. As substrates, textile fabrics can be used as a sustainable approach in terms of reusability. In our experiment, we investigated which properties a textile should possess in order to be suitable for an application in vertical farming by the example of cress seeds. To determine the best-fitted fabric, four different textiles were mounted vertically, and were provided with controlled irrigation and illumination. Our results showed that a hairy textile surface as provided by weft-knitted plush is advantageous. There, the rooting of cress plants used in this experiment is easier and less complicated than along tightly meshed, flat surfaces, as for woven linen fabrics. AU - Diestelhorst, Elise AU - Storck, Jan Lukas AU - Brockhagen, Bennet AU - Grothe, Timo AU - Post, Inken Blanca AU - Bache, Thorsten AU - Korchev, Rumen AU - Rattenholl, Anke AU - Gudermann, Frank AU - Ehrmann, Andrea ID - 1581 IS - 4 JF - TEKSTILEC KW - vertical farming KW - textile substrates KW - cress KW - cost-effectiveness KW - germination SN - 03513386 TI - Necessary Parameters of Vertically Mounted Textile Substrates for Successful Cultivation of Cress for Low-Budget Vertical Farming VL - 64 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Vertical farming is of major interest in research and development to enable the production of food in the quantity sufficient for the growing world population under the weather conditions, which are increasingly becoming more and more extreme. Especially in cities, vertical farming allows for growing vegetables and other plants locally. Apart from industrial applications of vertical farming, new ideas are being developed to make cities “greener”, often related to the maker culture. In the study, we concentrated on the second approach by investigating the possibilities to grow plants on textile fabrics placed vertically, e.g. along a balcony railing, but also as structural elements in agricultural areas. Our investigations revealed, using the example of cress, that steadily irrigated knitted fabrics enable plant growth on them, indicating no significant differences between differently knitted stitch dimensions and different illumination intensities. Finally, we discuss the possibilities to measure the time-resolved plant growth reliably and suggest additional possibilities to evaluate the growth success. AU - Böttjer, Robin AU - Storck, Jan Lukas AU - Vahle, Dominik AU - Brockhagen, Bennet AU - Grothe, Timo AU - Herbst, Sabine AU - Dietz, Karl-Josef AU - Rattenholl, Anke AU - Gudermann, Frank AU - Ehrmann, Andrea ID - 594 IS - 3 JF - Tekstilec KW - vertical farming KW - textile fabrics KW - plant growth KW - knitted fabrics KW - hydroponics KW - measurement technology KW - cress KW - illumination KW - irrigation TI - Influence of Textile and Environmental Parameters on Plant Growth on Vertically Mounted Knitted Fabrics VL - 62 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Vertical farming is one of the suggested avenues for producing food for the growing world population. Concentrating the cultivation of crops such as herbs in large indoor farms makes food production susceptible to technical, biological or other problems that might destroy large amounts of food at once. Thus, there is a trend towards locally, self-sufficient food production in vertical systems on a small scale. Our study examined whether conventional knitted fabrics, such as patches of worn jackets, can be used for hydroponics instead of the specialized nonwoven materials used in large-scale indoor systems. To this end, seed germination and seedling growth of 14 different crop plant species on knitted fabrics with three different stitch sizes were compared. Our results showed that hydroponic culture on knitted fabrics are indeed possible and allow for growing a broad spectrum of plant species, suggesting recycling of old textile fabrics for this purpose. Among the 14 plant species studied, differences in germination success, average fresh and dry masses, as well as water contents were found, but these parameters were not affected by knitted fabric stitch size. AU - Storck, Jan Lukas AU - Böttjer, Robin AU - Vahle, Dominik AU - Brockhagen, Bennet AU - Grothe, Timo AU - Dietz, Kar-Josef AU - Rattenholl, Anke AU - Gudermann, Frank AU - Ehrmann, Andrea ID - 614 IS - 4 JF - Horticulturae KW - vertical farming KW - plant growth KW - textile fabrics KW - knitted fabrics KW - hydroponics TI - Seed Germination and Seedling Growth on Knitted Fabrics as New Substrates for Hydroponic Systems VL - 5 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The mycelium of the edible mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus can be used for diverse technical applications, such as packaging materials or wastewater treatment, besides the more obvious use for nutrition. While P. ostreatus usually grows on sawdust, wood or similar materials, a former study investigated mycelium growth on different nanofiber mats. Here, we report on growing P. ostreatus on fabrics knitted from different materials, enabling the use of this mushroom in textile-based vertical farming. Our results underline that P. ostreatus grows similar on natural fibers and on synthetic fibers. The agar medium used to provide nutrients was found to support mycelium growth optimally when applied by dip-coating, suggesting that, in this way, P. ostreatus can also be grown on vertically aligned textile fabrics for vertical farming. AU - Helberg, Julia AU - Klöcker, Michaela AU - Sabantina, Lilia AU - Storck, Jan Lukas AU - Böttjer, Robin AU - Brockhagen, Bennet AU - Kinzel, Franziska AU - Rattenholl, Anke AU - Ehrmann, Andrea ID - 577 IS - 14 JF - Materials KW - textile materials KW - knitted fabrics KW - agar KW - Pleurotus ostreatus KW - vertical farming TI - Growth of Pleurotus ostreatus on different textile materials for vertical farming VL - 12 ER -