Nebraska Innovation Campus Greenhouse
The new Greenhouse Innovation Complex located at the Nebraska Innovation Campus (NIC) is an automated, high-throughput plant phenotyping platform (LemnaTec Scanalyzer 3D). This system includes greenhouse bays and an automated conveyor belt with 672 plants capacity.
The system is fully automated and environmentally controlled, with automated watering and weighing stations, and 4 chambers equipped with cameras capable of collecting images in the visible, infrared, fluorescent and hyperspectral range of each plant up to maturity or 2.5 m height. The facility is available for use by University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty, students and private companies, with a fee for use model.
Greenhouse Space with no phenotyping component is also available for use by University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty, students and private companies, with a fee for use model. Please fill out this project request form to provide information about the project: Greenhouse Innovation Center Project Request.
Imaging Capabilities
- Visible RGB Camera (leaf area, growth rate)
- Fluorescence Camera (chlorophyll fluorescence, quantify senescence area)
- Infrared Camera (measure leaf temperature, water relations relative transpiration rate)
- Hyperspectral Camera (stress and physiological activity)
- Plants can be imaged from planting to maturity
- Plants can be imaged at specific stages
- Plants that are not imaged for entire life cycle can be grown in another house then loaded onto the system for the developmental stage of interest
- Small number of plants (~20) can be imaged off the system at longer intervals
- 2.5 meter plant imaging capacity
Soil and Carriers
- Commercial or custom mixed soil, with pasteurization to prevent contamination
- Cooler for seed storage or vernalization
- Autoclave for sterilization of transgenic materials
- Pot washing and sterilization of special pots for conveyor system
- Soil in pots to specific weight for consistent watering
- Germination of plants and growth before imaging stage
- Carriers include unique identifying number, RFID chip to store plant information, and support ring to prevent plant movement
- Carriers always face same direction unless in imaging chamber
- Pots are positioned for correct orientation of plant
- Plants loaded into carriers and identifying barcode scanned
- Carriers return to same position after watering and imaging