LAS VEGAS — Indoor Ag-Con 2025 drew more than 1,650 attendees and a record 300 exhibitors showcasing the latest products, technology and solutions for the controlled environment agriculture industry to the Westgate Las Vegas on March 11-12. The 12th annual conference and expo brought together industry professionals from across the indoor and vertical farming industry.
On the expo floor, exhibitors offered an array of solutions aimed at addressing the specific needs of indoor growers.
Ageye is a turnkey indoor growing company specializing in advanced farm management software, internet-connected devices, artificial intelligence-driven crop analytics and fully automated robotic solutions for vertical farming. Its simple operating system is user friendly and can be used to grow everything from leafy greens to tomatoes and flowers indoors, says Tiffany Carroll.
Ageye’s solutions address two key areas for indoor growers: energy usage and labor.
With Ageye, users can monitor energy usage on a tablet — everything from lights to carbon dioxidee to water levels to air temperature and humidity to pH and more. And you don’t have to be a farmer or an IT person to operate the system, says Carroll.
When it comes to lighting, said CEO Nick Genty, “programmatically, we’re figuring out what that optimal range is … based on your farm. It’s a very hyperlocalized approach to managing your energy cost spend overall.
“The system looks for inefficiencies,” said Genty, with the aim to reduce grower losses to 2.5% or less. “If you’re selling to U.S. Foods or Sysco, you need to meet the specs or your product will be rejected. The ability to make changes while still growing is where we see significant value.”
Ageye’s fully automated robotic solutions also offer a significant labor savings.
“For growers operating at a commercial scale, it’s not about replacing the grower, it’s about how the grower gets to spend their time,” said Genty.
“A 15,000-square-foot facility that we just brought on can operate with two full-time and one half-time workers. It’s highly efficient,” said Genty. “Outside of energy, labor is the next big cost. And labor is hard to find. We’re not retooling. We’re not reallocating. It is a true headcount reduction.
“If you want to succeed in this space, you’ve got to cut your costs and that’s going to be energy, and that’s going to be labor,” Genty continued. “We sit down with growers and we look at what their path to profitability is, and there’s usually significant cuts to head count. We do that with automation.”
Genty says Ageye’s goal is for its customers to see a ROI in 36 months or less.
Sollum Technologies, which recently collaborated with Leaficient to bring a closed-loop, plant-adaptive dynamic lighting system to market, featured its new tech at Indoor Ag-Con.
Dynamic spectrum LED lighting allows growers to fine-tune red, blue and green light for precision control over light quality and intensity to optimize plant growth as opposed to fixed lighting, which is static, said Abhay Thosar, a plant physiologist with Sollum Technologies.
With dynamic lighting, a grower can also switch crops from cucumbers to strawberries and adjust the lighting needs of the plants accordingly, he added.
“We also offer user-friendly software at an affordable price that is comparable with fixed LED lighting costs,” Thosar said.
Dynamic spectrum LED lighting also adapts to the changing needs of the plant in the growth cycle, said Thosar. The ability to adapt the lighting in controlled environment agriculture maximizes both yield and sustainability.
Rooted Robotics showed off its indoor ag automation targeted at small to medium microgreens farm operators looking to boost productivity and operational efficiency.
Most microgreens growers use 10-by-20-inch trays to grow the greens, said Rooted Robotics’ Eric Roth. The company featured machines designed to grow, harvest and clean microgreens.
“Our three machines address the biggest pain points for microgreens growers,” said Roth.
The company says its machines are also up to five times cheaper than large-scale automation solutions.
Justin Bartlett of Legacy Labor, a farm labor contractor providing H-2A labor, explained how the company takes the risk and exposure of hiring off of the grower. From payroll to housing, Legacy aims to take labor management out of the equation for growers so they can focus on farming.
“We are the employer of record,” said Barlett. “We take care of everything from payroll to housing and we pride ourselves in doing things the right way.”
Sun Gro Horticulture’s Annie Silins spotlighted the company’s Sunshine Black Bear Indoor and Outdoor Potting Mix for consumer and commercial applications. Made with biochar, a byproduct of lumber mills, the potting mix captures carbon and locks it away from the atmosphere, Silins said.
The biochar in Sunshine Black Bear Indoor and Outdoor Potting Mix is a sustainable alternative to perlite that promotes aeration and drainage. “It holds and releases nutrients,” said Silins. “It’s like a sponge that’s great for growers.”
The biochar is blended with Canadian sphagnum peat moss that’s certified under the Veriflora Responsibly Managed Peatlands program. The result is a versatile gardening solution, the company says.
Daniel Lewis says Good Natured Products offers the widest range of plant-based packaging in North America.
Its packaging is Biodegradable Products Institute and Compost Manufacturing Alliance certified compostable and made with PLA (polylactic acid), a bioplastic made with corn.
The company, which produces some 70 different plant-based packaging options including clamshells and multipurpose containers, also offers customizable solutions.
Good Natured Products manufactures packaging in both the U.S. and Canada.
Any farmer with high energy bills can benefit from working with Sun Farmers Group, said Jennifer Rogers.
Sun Farmers Group offers a turnkey solar solution that helps growers with planning, funding, tax credit monetization, grant navigation and installation.
Rogers says typically Sun Farmers Group is able to get growers 80% to 100% of their solar project costs covered. “There’s cash flow in year one,” said Rogers.
“If [indoor growers] have lights, we can work with them.”
SGS North America is a testing, inspection and certification company that operates a network of over 2,500 laboratories in 115 countries, said Lynn Byrns at Indoor Ag-Con 2025.
The company’s testing, inspection and certification services “offer one source for indoor growers and food manufacturers from seed to sale,” said Byrns.
