After a successful first year, the Delphy Improvement Centre is once again opening registration for the Experimental Areas. In 2027, companies, knowledge institutions, start-ups, and innovative entrepreneurs will again have the opportunity to develop and/or demonstrate their knowledge and products within the tomato and cucumber crops at the Delphy Improvement Centre.
The Experimental Areas were developed to make innovation accessible and visible to the greenhouse horticulture sector. The strength of the concept lies in the low entry threshold: participants can join with as little as a single cultivation gutter. This makes it possible to test an innovation under real-world conditions relatively easily and to bring it directly to the attention of growers, advisors, suppliers, and other professionals in the sector.
In the Experimental Area, a single crop is grown under a single climate strategy, while participants can each test or demonstrate their own innovation. This allows multiple companies to use the same cultivation environment simultaneously. Last season, it proved its value as a platform for various companies and knowledge institutions to develop and demonstrate knowledge and innovations in practice. In tomato cultivation, Arruga, Concert Bio, Inholland, Sakata, and Veginova participated, while in cucumber cultivation, collaboration took place with Sakata, Agronomy, and Concert Bio. Additionally, the latter research facility hosted the Fieldlab Vertical Farming 2.0 project, supported by the Kansen voor West program.
The Experimentation Sites serve as an innovation platform where the horticulture of the future becomes visible. Delphy aims to facilitate this future by developing, testing, and demonstrating innovations in an accessible manner and under real-world conditions. This provides space for both sustainable cultivation concepts, such as 100% green cultivation, and technological developments in the fields of robotics, automation, and data. By bringing together diverse parties and innovations in a single Experimentation Site, a unique ecosystem is created where new collaborations emerge, innovations are validated, and the path to practical application is found.
Registration for the 2027 growing season is now open. Companies and knowledge partners wishing to test or demonstrate their innovation are invited to register for participation in the Tomato and Cucumber Experimentation Sites by sending an email to: ic@delphy.nl stating “register for experimentation sites”.
Please contact our colleagues for more information:
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