"We don't want to fall into the trap of trying to fully automate everything"
Source: VFD.com
"It's not just like a binary one or zero," says Hitoshi Kawashima, Senior Vice President of Engineering at the indoor vertical farming company, during a panel moderated by Ryan Douglas, founder of Ryan Douglas Cultivation, at GreenTech North America in Philadelphia. "There's a spectrum in each of these of how far you actually want to go." Hitoshi described a deliberately narrow filter for deciding what to automate.
Oishii has not run into that case yet in its own operation, but he flagged it as a real part of the calculus for other growers. © Eelkje Pulley | VerticalFarmDaily.com Harvesting first, deliberately narrow Harvesting met the first two conditions clearly.
"Things like the lighting control or irrigation and nutrient control, temperature, relative humidity, CO2, those things all make sense," Hitoshi says, noting that most horticultural facilities already automate them. "We really try to focus on what we think has the most value to the business, versus trying to automate everything all at once." Different plants, different automation economics Not every crop fits the model Oishii has built around strawberries.
Why this matters: For operators, this is a water-management story. The useful signal is that direct substrate measurements can help cut drain loss materially without giving up yield or fruit quality, which is exactly the kind of controllable efficiency gain a facility can build on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does substrate sensing matter in free-drain strawberry systems?
Because drain percentage tells a grower what already happened, while substrate moisture and EC data show root-zone conditions directly. That makes it easier to cut water loss without guessing.
What is the operator takeaway from this trial?
If the thresholds are understood well enough, growers can reduce drain water materially while protecting yield and fruit quality, which makes sensing an operational tool instead of a reporting tool.
