Helping growers meet market demand with consultancy and recipe development

A lot is asked of fresh produce growers in today's market. There are operational challenges, like meeting unique specifications or managing input variability, alongside wider issues, such as managing supply and demand, adhering to local fresh produce regulations, and staying on top of input costs (e.g. energy). This is in addition to other big-picture issues, like scaling effectively and staying ahead of shifting consumer trends. Real progress comes with successfully navigating these issues, and taking an approach built off precision, adaptability, and deep-rooted industry expertise.

We've spent years working alongside growers across the world who face these challenges every day. They might be facing specific environmental conditions which require different nutrient or irrigation needs, contending with local supply issues which mean they're tied to one particular substrate supplier, or looking to optimise energy usage. Crop consultancy can play a pivotal role in overcoming these challenges. It can be used to tweak existing recipes for bespoke circumstances, or create a new one specifically for them.

© Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS)

Where crop recipe development can help growers
Targeting niche crop characteristics. Consumer preferences are wide and ranging, so it pays for growers to be able to produce less widely available crops and make themselves invaluable to offtakers. Crop recipe development can be used to help do this.

Basil, for instance, has different compounds which – when tweaked appropriately – can give it either an aniseed or peppery taste. Making changes to existing crop recipes allows growers to target these more niche products ,optimising environmental factors (such as lighting or irrigation) to ensure that these specific traits are supported. This is where crop recipe development can really benefit growers, particularly those operating on a large scale and looking to grow multiple crop varieties.

Optimising recipes for fertigation and substrate. The local environment in which a customer is operating may also require a shift in approach. Often, factors such as water pH can impact how a crop recipe works, while the specific substrate a grower has access to is an equally important factor. Our crop recipes are designed to be repeatable for a variety of use cases, but when a grower is tied to a particular substrate, water source, or nutrient input, we can flex to ensure the recipe is still optimised. This ensures that the recipe delivers consistent results, even with different inputs.

Whether a grower aims to create an entirely new crop recipe or refine an existing one, Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) works to achieve the desired outcome through its crop recipe development service. This service can be delivered from the IGS Crop Research Centre in Dundee or directly at the customer's site. The IGS team manages every stage of the process, from an initial scoping call through to a proof-of-concept study and multiple optimisation phases. These stages encompass key areas such as tray format and seed density, fertigation scheduling and volume, crop-specific irrigation, nutrient mix optimisation, and fine-tuning of the light spectrum for optimal growth.

To ensure the most reliable results, all trials are conducted multiple times under varied conditions designed to simulate real-world stress factors and confirm repeatability.

For growers planning to cultivate propagules using vertical farming technology before transferring them to a greenhouse or open field, IGS also examines the environmental factors affecting this transition. These conditions are replicated during testing to ensure a successful crop recipe. At the conclusion of each trial, IGS provides a comprehensive recipe report and card outlining all parameters, enabling customers to reproduce consistent, high-quality, and nutritious crops year-round.

Crop consultancy approach
IGS also offers a crop consultancy service for customers seeking to optimise plant growth, reduce energy use, or benefit from an expert desk study. Drawing on decades of combined experience and the successful cultivation of more than 250 crop varieties at the Dundee Crop Research Centre, the IGS crop science team analyses every key variable—from light intensity and spectrum to irrigation, nutrition, and the effects of seed selection, substrate, and other inputs on final yield and quality.