Module 5 – GreenHouse Phenotyping

The NPEC Greenhouse is highly isolated and fully air conditioned with air handling units and outside screening. The greenhouse is equipped with dehumidification and humidification installations and CO₂-dosing system. Heating and cooling is realised with a heat pump connected to an aquifer for seasonal thermal energy storage. Gantries with phenotyping camera’s (3D and thermal) are mounted in two of the NPEC greenhouse compartments to screen 1.000’s of plants per day including a gravimetric system to monitor plant transpiration integrated with per pot precise irrigation. In the other two conveyor systems are installed that allow phenotyping of 2x 560 plants in pots in a separate compartment with a range of imaging cabinets equipped with 3D, hyperspectral, chlorophyll fluorescence and RGB camera systems. These provide insight into a variety of properties: from the length of the stem to the size, colour and position of the leaves, and insights in compounds inside the plants and photosynthetic activity per plant.

The greenhouse has thermal and 3D cameras that can be positioned directly above the plants on a mobile gantry, so the researchers can study plants without moving them, such as quinoa plants that are grown on scales to measure changes in evaporation rates in response to salinification of the soil.

You are welcome inside to look around and discover this high-tech facility from behind your desk by visiting the virtual tour in the NPEC greenhouse. Enter the virtual tour:

The greenhouse is ready to run your experiment, please fill out the form above if you would like to request a research question or experiment with our tools and equipment.