Plant Factory: An Indoor Vertical Farming System for Efficient Quality Food Production

Lets start by warning that this is a very technical book, not for beginners or "garage" farmers.I should have read this book a couple of years ago, would have save me from a lot of headaches.Lots of scientific background and in field experiments.

This book is an absolute powerhouse for those wishing to open up an indoor hydro vertical operation. It goes into incredible detail for every single facet of such an undertaking, from the biochemistry of photosynthesis to the architectural layout of your warehouse/growing area. It's also clear that there are no ulterior commercial motives here, as they do not shy away from clearly stating that (ultra-expensive) LED systems do not offer any advantages over the much cheaper T5 fluorescents (with a specific light spectrum, of course).This, along with the works of Howard Resh will be all you need to have a firm grasp on hydroponic food production. And if you're still in doubt, read Dickson Despommier's "The Vertical Farm" for added inspiration.If I have to point out a single shortcoming it'd be that some of the sentences would have benefited from a native English-speaking editor. Everything is clear and no information is lost, but you can tell it was written by Japanese professionals. Again, not really a problem.

This is not an easy to read book full of generalities. This is hard core science research that goes far beyond what a casual reader will understand. I would say it is at the post graduate level and is a warehouse full of valuable data.

Alot of Useless information. This book does nothing to give you knowledge you seek in vertical farming. It contains alot of technical jargon and useless math equations. Not useful at all. It is like opening up a math book. It tries to use a fancy picture in the cover to lure customers into thinking it has more to offer with its specialty and expertise in vertical farming but it does nothing to teach you anything useful.

The content of the book is good. However, the quality of the book is sub-par. We placed the book in the library and has had very light use and a few pages are already falling out. It's an expensive book to already having issues with it. I just ordered a replacement copy since the first one is falling apart

Not just data but links to other sources of information. It is defiantly a must have for the closed growing system manager.

Alot of commercial level information in one book. Recommend.

This book presents a biased view of closed plant factory. The economics analysis is not comprehensive at all, with assumptions not clearly stated. In addition, it assumes that the technology for conventional farming will stall while in reality, there's a lot of innovations in software being applied to conventional farming.