Farmers Cut implements eLabJournal in its journey to revolutionize the urban food supply

eLabJournal allows our team to work closely together on one platform with the possibility to store and share any information without losing context. In addition with eLabJournal we can manage all experiments easily but never lose flexibility.

Benjamin Zinßer, Plant Research Associate

Download Farmers Cut Case Study

Farmers Cut

Farmers Cut is a Hamburg company that builds indoor vertical farms. Its primary focus is on leafy greens: salads such as lettuce and rocket (arugula), and mustards, kale, pak choi, and spinach, which they grow as baby leaves. Farmers Cut developed a new farming technology called Dryponics®, which is considered to be the next step up from hydroponics. The plants are grown on a membrane, floating on top of the water, which creates a barrier impenetrable to pathogens but permeable to nutrients and water.

Goal

Maximize the effectiveness, productivity, and security of research and development.

Challenge

Organize research data and prevent any loss of knowledge and valuable research time

Since knowledge about growing leafy greens indoors is very limited, we need to conduct many experiments to create “plant recipes”, in which we define all environmental parameters, including the. propagation and germination times required to grow baby leaves, microgreens, and herbs. We are under great pressure to gain as much knowledge as possible in the least possible time and to keep it organized and structured so that it is instantly accessible. We needed an IT  solution that stores data sets of measurements, sample codes, and images in a way that is entirely safe and secure, to avoid any loss of data, which would inevitably mean loss of critical knowledge and delays in the project.

Solution

Keep a clear overview of all experiments and samples

We have set up our sample infrastructure with eLabJournal and use it for all of our documentation. Each rack now has its own ID, as does each sample tray (a layer which offers space for three samples). Every ID is linked to a specific storage location using QR codes on the sample labels. It is easier and faster for us to set up new experiments, and all of our tasks are now executed faster, so we are another step ahead of competitors that do not have such a system.

Result

Data is accessible to everyone from everywhere

Our team works in several different locations, but with the help of eLabJournal our workflow has been greatly improved. Now, there is only one place to store all the data—there is no need to go through multiple spreadsheets and merge data in order to be able to draw conclusions or view results. This saves a lot of time and makes it simple to create our own experimental result format, which is easily readable and understood by many different people.