June 2022 - 8

Driscoll's and Plenty are using
new technology to grow
strawberries indoors through
vertical farming. Driscoll's plans
to open a vertical farm in the
Northeast U.S. Photo: Plenty
INSIDE BERRIES
By Doug Ohlemeier
Assistant Editor
Driscoll's Inc., in a partnership with
Plenty Unlimited Inc., is planning an
indoor growing facility designed to
marry strawberry growing expertise with
vertical farm technology.
Watsonville, California-based Driscoll's
hasn't chosen a site yet or released
construction details for the research and
development project, said Soren Bjorn,
president of Driscoll's of the Americas, a
business division of Driscoll's.
" Our motivation for indoor farming
is how far you can push flavor, " Bjorn
said. " We know how good all the flavors
can be across all four berries, " he said,
referring to strawberries, blueberries,
raspberries and blackberries.
Because of strawberries' compact
nature, a grower can place many of the
plants on a vertical plane. This leads to
better fruit growth afforded by the threedimension
greenhouses, Bjorn said.
Though dwarf varieties developed over
time could work indoors, the different
physical structures of blueberries,
blackberries and raspberries wouldn't
work as well because pickers wouldn't
want to bend so much during harvest,
he said.
Pods at Plenty's Laramie, Wyoming, facility where Driscoll's grows strawberries
indoors. Photo: Plenty
Farming vertically in the cube is
different from field farming. Indoor
growing requires heating and providing
artificial lighting to all the different levels
in linear feet as opposed to acres and
drives a growers' costs.
Sea change
" From our perspective, it's a
big change in mindsets because
we're coming from this outdoor
environment that's two dimensional
on an acre, or sometimes linear and
one dimensional, " Bjorn said. " Because
we can go up high (indoors), per-acre
productivity must go way up. It's about
what kind of productivity we can get
out of every single plant and how we
can best use the whole tube. "
With field-grown strawberries,
Berries being grown indoors in a joint
venture between Driscoll's and Plenty.
Driscoll's plans to open a vertical farm in
the Northeast U.S. Photo: Plenty
breeders are confident the berry will
succeed because they know how it will
be farmed and other factors during
the seven-year development phase, he
said. Developing varieties for indoor
production is an entirely different
world, Bjorn said.
With environmental factors
including rain, heat and pests easier
to control indoors, more effort can
Driscoll's pioneering
indoor strawberries
YOUR #1 RESOURCE TO THE INDUSTRY
Whether you are a grower, supplier, processor, consultant or an educator, your success is our mission.
STAY CONNECTED AND SUBSCRIBE!
VEGETABLEGROWERSNEWS.COM/AGGROUP_SUBSCRIBE
Great American Media Services is an award-winning B2B media, marketing and event company serving the retail, sports, agriculture and horticulture industries.
Visit www.greatamericanmediaservices.com to learn more.
8 | VegetableGrowersNews.com

http://www.VEGETABLEGROWERSNEWS.COM/AGGROUP_SUBSCRIBE http://www.greatamericanmediaservices.com http://www.VegetableGrowersNews.com

June 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2022