Growing Tobacco and Other Experimental Crops in a Modular Vertical Farm

Explore Altario School's Crop Experiments in Vertical Farming

The Altario School expanded with an Osiris Education Farm to have more room to experiment and teach.

Agriculture Education at Altario School

The Altario School is not your typical school. Located near the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan, this K-12 school has found its niche in agriculture.

The school created an agriculture education program where students can get hands-on experience raising chickens, sheep, cows, turkeys, and bees. In 2022, the Altario School added a hydroponic vertical farm to be able to grow fresh produce year-round and teach students about controlled environment agriculture.

Expanding Learning with an Osiris Education Farm

The following year, they expanded with an Osiris Education Farm which is a Growcer farm with less growing racks and more room to teach.

This Education Farm is where plants and curiosity flourish.

“Our educational unit is specifically used for students to experiment with, and they choose whatever crops they think will grow well in the environment given,” explains Ellen Van Lagen, the teacher who oversees the vertical farms.

Students from grades 7 to 12 volunteer to help in the farm with various tasks from seeding to transplanting to harvesting.

Beyond Leafy Greens: Growing Unique Crops

Typically, in a Growcer farm it’s recommended to grow a variety of lettuces, leafy greens like spinach and kale, and herbs, because they grow quickly and at reliable volumes. But it doesn’t mean you can’t think outside the leafy green box and explore other crops.

The students at the Altario School experimented with growing tobacco, peppers, tomatoes, sunflowers, broccoli, peas, sweetpea, and asters.

Red bell peppers at 7 weeks old.

Red bell peppers at 2 months old.

Red bell peppers at 5 months old.

Cultivating Tobacco in a Vertical Farm

Tobacco growing in Altario’s modular vertical farm.

The tobacco seeds were sourced from a local community member.

Nothing in the farm’s environmental parameters (pH, temperature, E/C, etc.) was changed.

“We used the same nutrients and light schedule as we would for our greens,” Van Lagen shares.

For lettuces, typically they spend two weeks in the seedling area and four weeks in the main growing area. For tobacco, it was in the seedling area for a little longer – three weeks – before being transplanted to the main growing area where it grew for seven weeks.

It’s important to note the longer growing times here. Yes, you can grow lots of crops using hydroponics, but it’s always a balance between “yes we can do it” and “is it worth it?” Would you grow a watermelon in your farm if it took four months to grow?

Thankfully, in tobacco, the students did not experience any new diseases or pests for the new crop.

However, when it came to harvesting the tobacco was challenging because the stems were thick and difficult to remove. After the full 10 weeks, all dozen tobacco plants were harvested, and the leaves were dried.

Growing tobacco is different because tobacco leaves are very large, and the stem gets thick which makes it difficult to remove. Van Lagen says if they were to grow tobacco again, the tobacco would need more room to accommodate the larger leaves.

When testing other crops, it’s also crucial to wonder – how will this impact their neighbours? Plants respond to other plants, so there’s always an element of caution when introducing new plants to the mix. You can see that when Durham College tried to grow tomatoes and jalapeno peppers, they had to pick one crop over the other. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case with tobacco.

“Tobacco was grown on the top runway in our main farm along with our leafy greens, and there was no noticeable difference with the greens grown alongside the tobacco,” Van Lagen says.

The thick stems made harvesting a little challenging.

The root system of a tobacco plant.

Hydroponic Pea Growing: Lessons Learned

Peas growing in a modular vertical farm.

The first harvest of the hydroponically grown peas is underway!

The peas were sourced from the grocery store, Mackenzie Seeds. Again, nothing was altered in the growing environment for the peas.

Peas were in the seedling area for two weeks, and then the main growing area for seven weeks until first harvest.

Like the larger tobacco leaves, peas are very enthusiastic in their own way.

“Peas need to be contained, or they will overtake every level of the farm,” Van Lagen says. “We should have used trellises, but we didn’t so the peas helped themselves to every level.”

Peas at the 2 weeks mark.

Thankfully, the students also did not see new pests or diseases in the peas. The peas were grown in the Education Farm alongside other experimental crops, and they did not seem to stunt or interfere with the growth of other crops.

For the peas, the students did a partial harvest at nine weeks and a full harvest at 11 weeks. The peas from the partial harvest were mostly eaten by students during harvest time and the remainder was taken home by a community member.

“The students loved harvesting the peas, eating as they went,” Van Lagen shares.

Results and Insights from Crop Trials

Van Lagen says everyone was surprised by how well both crops did. If the students want to grow them again, she says they will, but they would add in a trellis for the peas and find a way to make more room for the tobacco.

“The students surely learnt what can be grown and what should be grown in our hydroponic unit. They also learnt that every plant has different needs to full develop, like more space to grow,” Van Lagen says.

Sunflowers at 7 weeks old.

Sunflowers at 11 weeks old, but unfortunately with some hail damage (there’s no hail when you’re growing indoors :)

New Crop Options for Vertical Farms

It is great to see the success the Altario School had experimenting with crops outside of our traditional rotation. At Growcer, a strawberry farm is in development with our research team to ensure you’re able to grow them reliably and at a volume that makes sense.

Strawberries, tomatoes and peppers are all flowering crops, and although they can be grown in hydroponic systems, they require a different set up and additional considerations (e.x. pollination) to be cultivated indoors, year-round.

For broccoli, we can grow broccoli microgreens (allowing broccoli to sprout, then harvest right away). The microgreens would have the flavour of broccoli and some of the nutritional benefits, but overall broccoli heads grow large and heavy which makes them not a good choice for hydroponics. The growing cycle of broccoli is also long, again, making it less suitable for hydroponics. When it comes to hydroponic growing, it’s never a question of “can we grow it,” but are hydroponics the most efficient way to grow the crop?

Hands-On Agriculture for Students

Food and sustainability are top of mind for the next generation. Offer students hands-on experience in agriculture, science, and sustainability—right on school grounds with a Growcer farm.

Altario’s modular vertical farm sits steps away from the school growing fresh produce.