Vertical Farming

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gl...e-68341208

Interesting article about a commercial salad leaf "farm". Puts my 3 light gadget into the shade, literally.

I wonder if all the 'false' sunlight affects the taste and nutrient density compared to outdoor field grown salads? If we ever were to colonise the Moon or Mars I suppose all sorts of stuff could be grown this way?
I'm not really a fan of this or other forms of 'un-natural' plant growing but would imagine you would need a large supply base in case some of the supermarkets you supply went bust or decided they didnt want your salad and you were left with a load of wilted leaves at harvest time? A  nightmare to organise I would imagine?

I don't believe that statement that you can grow basil from seed to harvest in 18 days. Basil takes about a week to germinate and there's no way it's a full size plant 11 days later, you'll still have a tiny plant from which you can harvest a small growing tip. All of the basil I've bought from a supermarket has thick stems that are obviously not from very young plants.

That company seems to be owned by Ocado, so no wonder they could afford the massive start up costs. According to their accounts they have £10 million in assets!

I don't think vertical farming is ever going to be useful for anything but salad leaves, herbs and maybe strawberries. At £1.25 a bag of leaves, I'd rather invest in a grow light and a cheap hydroponic system, you'd probably make your money back in two years or so. Over winter I grew cos lettuce in the Kratky containers the basil was in during the summer, and we got 12 heads of lettuce in about 6 weeks, with the light set to ~25 W and on for ~8 hours a day.