Vertical farms, indoor farms that grow upwards, represent the new frontier of sustainable agricultural production. They allow plants to be grown 365 days a year, regardless of the external climate, completely eliminating the use of pesticides and herbicides.
Plants grow on top of each other on shelves several meters high, inside closed and controlled environments. The roots can be buried or immersed in water solutions or even suspended in the air and sprayed with nutrients. Thanks to LED lights and constant climate monitoring, water savings of up to 95% can be achieved compared to open fields.
In such a technologically dense ecosystem, where space is minimized, automation becomes a fundamental resource. However, managing plant life requires not only “steel hands,” but also technology capable of delicacy and flexibility: vacuum.
The role of vacuum begins well before the plant sprouts, at the seedling stage.
Imagine having to pick a single lettuce or basil seed, just one millimeter in size, from a container containing thousands of them. Mechanical grippers would end up crushing it or picking up too many. Automatic seeders, on the other hand, use small nozzles connected to a vacuum generator: a tiny suction “calls” the single seed, holds it steady on the tip of the nozzle, and releases it only when it is exactly above the growing tray. This surgical precision ensures that each soil cell has only one seed, avoiding waste.
Once the plant grows, the management of the so-called “pucks” comes into play. These are small circular or alveolar containers (similar to discs or jars) that house the single seedling and its roots. In a vertical farm, thousands of these discs must be moved constantly to receive light or nutrients.
Here, vacuum is essential for speed and adaptation: suction cups adhere to the top or side of the puck, allowing the robot to lift and move it without having to embrace the container from the sides. This space saving allows the containers to be kept very close together, increasing the density of cultivation.
There are many other applications for vacuum technology in vertical farms, from automated repotting to puck cleaning and vacuum packaging of fruit and vegetables.
To find out more about technologies for the agriculture of the future, please contact Vuototecnica technicians on the website: www.vuototecnica.net.
