Hydroponic Vertical Farming: Nutrient Management, Resource-Use Efficiency and Crop Performance

Hydroponic vertical farming is increasingly being explored as a means of intensifying horticultural production while improving the use of space, water, and nutrients. Its agronomic performance, however, depends on interactions among nutrient-solution management, system configuration, recirculation strategies, environmental conditions, and plant position within the vertical structure. Variations in water and nutrient availability, radiation, temperature, humidity, and airflow along the vertical profile can generate heterogeneous crop responses, affecting growth, yield, uniformity, product quality, and overall resource-use efficiency. Although interest in vertical farming is increasing, experimental evidence remains insufficient to determine how these interacting factors should be managed across crops, vertical configurations, and growing environments. A clearer understanding of their spatial and temporal effects is therefore needed to improve the reliability and agronomic performance of hydroponic vertical production.This Research Topic aims to advance understanding of the agronomic management and performance of hydroponic vertical farming. Its distinctive focus is how vertical position and the associated hydraulic, nutritional, and microclimatic gradients influence nutrient availability and uptake, crop physiology, water use, growth, yield, uniformity, product quality, and resource-use efficiency. Particular emphasis will be placed on nutrient-solution formulation and delivery, fertigation scheduling, recirculation, and the efficient use of water and nutrients, while considering their interactions with system configuration and environmental conditions. The Research Topic will also examine how sensing, flow modeling, and data-driven decision-support tools can quantify these relationships and support management strategies that mitigate spatial heterogeneity within vertical systems. By bringing together experimental, methodological, modeling, and synthesis studies across crops, configurations, and controlled environments, it seeks to identify transferable principles that improve the productivity, uniformity, reliability, and resource-use efficiency of hydroponic vertical production.Submissions may address nutrient-solution formulation, dosing, and fertigation scheduling; recirculation, reuse, and renewal of nutrient solutions; water-, nutrient-, and space-use efficiency; hydraulic and nutrient uniformity along the vertical profile; crop nutrient requirements and uptake patterns; plant responses to vertical position and spatial variation in light, temperature, humidity, and airflow; crop physiology, growth, yield, uniformity, and product quality; comparative assessment of vertical-system configurations and management practices; monitoring and modeling of water flow, nutrient availability, and nutrient uptake; and sensing and decision-support tools for improving system management.We welcome Original Research, Brief Research Report, Methods, Review, Mini Review, Systematic Review, and Technology and Code articles. Purely descriptive studies should move beyond reporting treatment effects by providing mechanistic understanding or validated management principles applicable to hydroponic vertical farming. Topic editors: Maria Fernanda Quintero-Castellanos, ERIKA PADILLA-ORTEGA, Pablo Delgado-Sánchez, Miguel Guzman, Ricardo Hernandez Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85884/hydroponic-vertical-farming-nutrient-management-resource-use-efficiency-and-crop-performance