Advancing Physiological and Agronomical Insights in Vertical Farming
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 16
Special Issue Editor
Interests: controlled environment agriculture; vertical farming; artificial lighting; plant physiology; energy demand; renewable energy; environmental assessment; resource use efficiency
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue aims to bring together cutting-edge research focused on understanding and optimizing plant physiology and agronomic practices within vertical farming systems. As urban agriculture and controlled environment agriculture (CEA) rapidly evolve, there is a growing need to deepen our scientific understanding of how plants respond to highly controlled environments and artificial growing conditions. Contributions to this Special Issue will explore innovative strategies for enhancing productivity, sustainability, and resource use efficiency in vertical farms.
Main Goals of the Special Issue:
- Uncover Plant Physiological Responses: Investigate how light spectra, photoperiod, CO2 enrichment, temperature, and root-zone conditions affect plant growth, development, and metabolism in vertical farming environments.
- Optimize Agronomic Practices: Evaluate and develop best practices for irrigation, nutrient delivery, crop spacing, and harvest scheduling tailored to stacked, multilayer growing systems.
- Promote Sustainable and Scalable Models: Explore energy-efficient technologies, circular resource management, and yield forecasting models that support environmentally and economically viable vertical farming operations.
Dr. Dafni Avgoustaki
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- vertical farms
- optimization strategies
- green cities
- life cycle analysis
- environmental performance
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