Modern-day farmers face numerous challenges: climate change, high energy prices, supply chain disruptions, food safety concerns, and having to ship products over thousands of miles before ever reaching our plates. Planted Detroit is addressing these challenges head-on by making farming more efficient and effective.
Photo credit: E.E. Berger
Planted Detroit has a unique vision for a vertical farm. They brought together a diverse team of plant health experts, hydroponics specialists, systems technicians, and other specialized trades to leverage the latest in growing technology, lighting, automation, and control systems to execute their vision. Planted Detroit now harvests delicious and nutritious baby greens and microgreens daily. They package their greens into mixes, micros, and ready-to-eat salads, all of which can be ordered and delivered directly to their customer's door.
Planted Detroit's diverse selection currently uses an ebb and flood hydroponic growing system that feeds the plants a stream of nutrient-rich water. But, rather than applying a singular production approach to all plants, they adjust multiple factors including temperature, light intensity, light spectrum, humidity, and nutrient mixture, to optimize plant health and the flavor of each individual crop.
"Before working with the Argus Controls system, Planted Detroit used a patchwork of software with multiple logins. This required toggling between different views to monitor environmental conditions in the facility," says Andrew Ebert, CEA Systems Project Manager. In just a few months, Planted Detroit realized the power of having that single centralized view and has begun to extend this approach to the remainder of its operation.
Another significant efficiency gain involves control of the irrigation system. Previously, workers manually operated all of the irrigation controls. However, now Planted Detroit uses Argus Controls to automate its 670 solenoid irrigation valves.
Before Argus it took one person three hours a day to water. Not only is this more time consuming but can be error prone. Now the entire task is reduced to 20-30 minutes.
- Andrew Ebert, CEA Systems Project Manager
"Argus allows us to target the crops more precisely. Our older system was a cascading irrigation system, which can lead to over or under-watering,” Ebert notes. “With Argus feeding water into individual trays, the crops can get the exact amount of water they need without getting over or under watered."
Targeted lighting
Precision is also critical in lighting to elicit desirable plant traits. For example, Planted Detroit maintains a lower light level during the seedling stage and shifts the light spectrum toward blue wavelengths during the cultivation stage. Precisely targeting the light spectrum helps plants develop sturdy roots. Light duration also comes into play when the team wants to adjust plant growth rates.
Planted Detroit uses a mix of red and blue spectrum LED lights and switches based on the desired morphological characteristics.
"The Argus system currently manages light duration and output. Planted Detroit has plans to eventually integrate more of its lighting controls with Argus to enhance efficiency and deliver the level of control we are looking for," Kai Misner, Leader of Hydroponic Technology, says.
Data drives informed decisions
While Argus ensures optimal operation of environmental systems, it's also collecting valuable data for Planted Detroit's team. Data is essential for continuous improvement throughout the company's operation. Some of the data collected includes tracking nutrient dosage, water usage, and seed inventory to help make data-based decisions concerning its processes.
For instance, Planted Detroit uses Trane rooftop HVAC units and can compare the data from their Trane sensors against similar Argus sensors positioned throughout the nursery to ensure the air handling units operate correctly.
"Argus allows us to audit which lights are on, which lights are off, which solenoids have fired during any given day," Ebert says. "We can check Argus' environmental history and compare that against Trane as a double confirmation that sensors are working properly to prevent any misreadings."
Building for the future
Planted Detroit is expanding its vertical farming operation to include racks that reach 20-feet-high, compared with the 12-foot-high racks they are currently growing in. They will also be launching an edible flower and herb facility in 2023 that’s entirely controlled and automated by Argus. The new facility will further leverage the capabilities of the Argus Controls system, including using Argus to control all fertigation, temperature, and humidity, as well as capture condensate water reuse.
"We are going to be collecting the condensate out of our air-handling units and using the water to irrigate,” Zac Varela, Senior System Project Manager, says. “Argus is essentially taking over more of our sustainability and environmental approach."
We started with a bare minimum but we wanted to give over more control to Argus and use it as our go-to source for controlling our environment and irrigation. Centralization is a big part of that. Having just one software that the team goes to control all these different aspects is extremely useful as opposed to a patchwork of logins and tabs you have to bounce to. The centralization is super convenient.
