Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- RotoGro (RGI) provides an update of its vertical farming technology with encouraging results from recent trials
- The company says recent data indicates its garden systems produce more yield per square metre when compared to other indoor vertical farming methods
- Further, trials of RotoGro 710 are said to be progressing well and the team is trialling how to further reduce water and energy usage
- RGI is also encouraged by its studies and customer feedback for its RotoGro 420 system which it says validates commercial-scale cultivation of lawful cannabis
- Shares were trading 2.3 per cent higher at 4.4 cents apiece
RotoGro (RGI) has given an update of its vertical farming technology with encouraging results from recent trials.
RotoGro designs and manufactures cultivation solutions for indoor vertical farming, operating in perishable foods and lawful cannabis.
The RotoGro Garden System is the core of the company’s technology with the ability to maximise plant surface growing area by situating a spherical garden around a centrally placed lighting system.
The systems can be stacked, maximising the yields per square metre when compared to the ground space occupied.
RGI said data collected from recent crop trials conducted in collaboration with agriculture company Verity Greens and herb grower and distributor Fresh Leaf indicates its garden systems produce more yield per square metre when compared to other indoor vertical farming methods.
Specifically, RotoGro projects yields 3.8 to 15.3 times the yield per square metre compared to industry leading farming producers and greater in contrast to greenhouse and conventional farming.
CEO Michael Di Tommaso said ventures like the ones with Verity Greens and Fresh Leaf will “strengthen RotoGro’s market presence by successfully penetrating the burgeoning indoor vertical farming industry with its technology offerings”.
Further, internal trials of the company’s most recently developed garden system, the RotoGro 710, are said to be progressing well with cultivation of 48 kilograms of basil and 26.5 kilograms of cilantro in a single harvest cycle.
After multiple trials cultivating leafy greens, the agronomy team repeatedly achieved yields of 124 kilograms in a fully planted RotoGro 710, indicating single harvest yields of 372 kilograms could be achieved when the technology is at full capacity, stacked three-high.
The team is trialing shorter full crop cycle lengths while maintaining yields, and aims to refine the plant irrigation schedules to further minimise water usage and refine the environmental controls to ensure enhanced energy efficiencies.
In other news, RotoGro has enabled full automation of its lawful cannabis cultivator, RotoGro 420.
The company’s software controls the wheel revolution speed, lighting cycles and spectrum variations, direct CO2 injection as well as the plant irrigation processes and environmental controls including temperature, air conditioning and humidification.
Notably, the 420-garden system has been able to consistently produce 10.2 kilograms of dried cannabis flower in a single 56-day crop cycle when stacked three-high.
RGI said its studies in combination with its customers data validates the commercial viability of RotoGro 420 in the commercial-scale cultivation of lawful
cannabis.
Mr Di Tommaso said RotoGro is continuing to develop relationships globally to expand its presence in both the perishable foods and lawful cannabis markets.
Shares were trading 2.3 per cent higher at 4.4 cents apiece at 1:31pm AEST.
