Meng’s Delaware Indoor Ag Lab (DIAL) works on soilless production of specialty food crops, including leafy greens, culinary herbs, microgreens and fruiting crops. His research focuses on plant physiological responses in controlled environments like indoor vertical farms and greenhouses. 

“This allows us to improve growth and quality traits of indoor crops efficiently by optimizing variables like light, temperature and nutrients,” explained Meng.

The luxury of growing plants indoors can boost crop yield, taste and nutritional value while shortening production cycles. The appeal is evident for many groups, including non-profits feeding people with food insecurities, local food devotees and even astronauts.

A student in UD’s plant and soil sciences graduate program, Emily Kennebeck is working on NASA-funded space crop production research with Meng. The researchers are investigating how hydroponic leafy greens grow under different light wavelengths and superelevated carbon dioxide levels found in space conditions. As a former NASA intern, Kennebeck is passionate about how we can grow food crops efficiently to supplement astronauts’ dietary nutrition in long-duration space missions. Her research uses state-of-the-art plant growth chambers in DIAL. 

“My time spent interning at the plant processing area at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center solidified my interest in furthering space crop production and its relevance for use on Earth,” said Kennebeck. “I was excited to learn I could continue doing plant research with space applications under Dr. Meng at the University of Delaware.”

At the undergraduate level, students learn to build hydroponic systems, grow food crops, manage nutrient solutions and analyze economic viability in Meng’s Hydroponic Food Production course. Comprised primarily of sustainable food systems and plant science majors, undergraduates get the ultimate hands-on education as they build, test and maintain their own greenhouse hydroponic systems, collecting and analyzing data as they grow and harvest crops. They also learn to diagnose problems like nutrient deficiencies during the production cycle. 

“Hydroponics is a big part of making our food systems more sustainable. My favorite project was building the nutrient-film-technique system because it was a big, complicated system [where a stream of water containing dissolved nutrients is re-circulated],” said Ian Kelly, UD Class of 2024 member and sustainable food systems major. “We had to work as a team, and there was a lot of problem-solving involved in putting it together.”

The produce will be carried across the street from CANR to UD’s Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus as Grain opens a new, full-service restaurant on the ground floor of the under-construction FinTech Innovation Hub. 

Also, across the street, Meng and Honors undergraduate student Stefanie Severin are working with the College of Health Sciences to revitalize a hydroponic herb garden in The Tower on STAR. Right next to the green wall, the herb garden is now fully functional with a wide array of culinary herbs to be used in cooking demonstrations and nutrition classes. The garden is a practical showcase of Meng’s research on how different light colors can influence plant growth and flavor.