Fresh Faces in CEA Spaces: Isabelle Amlicke
May 21, 2024 In our 2024 Fresh Faces in CEA Spaces series, we’re talking to young professionals in CEA about their work and where they see the industry going in the future. CEAg World recently chatted with Isabelle Amlicke, a grower at Little Leaf Farms.
CEAg World: What first interested you in horticulture, then later, CEA?
Isabelle Amlicke: I’m one of those people who always knew what they were interested in. So probably from the age of 5, I always I knew I wanted to work with plants. Even when I was a toddler, I used to make my mom read me field guides of wildflowers and insects and all these other things. When I learned the term botanist, I knew that’s what I wanted to do, which set me down the path of science and biology.
But in the public school system, there really isn’t much exposure to plant sciences. Even if you take AP bio and high school, there are only two chapters on plants in the AP bio curriculum. And almost everyone I’ve talked to said that their school skipped right over those two chapters, like you learned about photosynthesis and that’s it.
By the time that I was in middle school, I knew I wanted to learn even more about plants and meet other people who are interested in plants. And the only thing that I could really find was this educational, sustainable farm in my hometown of Westport, Connecticut, which used to be a farm town.
But when I was growing up, we were very far removed from farming. And so there was a family that had been there for a long time and wanted to bring farming back to the community. They donated some land to the town and wanted it to be used for an educational farm and I was one of their first apprentices.
So, that’s where I really got interested in agriculture and then through agriculture and sustainability. With sustainability comes thoughts of resource efficiency, and when I was in my early teens, I would sit in bed on the weekends and daydream about how I could grow plants inside while using as little energy and as little water as possible. So I was always probing ideas of vertical farming and CEA.
Amlicke’s Strawberry Propagation Lab at Cornell University | Photo: Isabelle Amlicke
CEAg World: Could you tell us more about your research at Cornell University?
Isabelle Amlicke: In simple terms, I got to design my own vertical system for Alpine strawberries. I got funding to buy a bunch of different cultivars of Alpine strawberries, which are very small since they’re diploid strawberries. They have like ¼ the amount of genetic material than strawberries you find at the grocery store, which makes them so small.
So, over the course of this experiment, I tried to figure out how to grow them in a controlled environment. Only a couple of researchers around the world had ever done anything with Alpine strawberries just because they’re not a great crop to work and have an extremely short shelf life.
I mainly focused on how to grow those plants, which are difficult to grow in hydroponic systems because one, they have crowns and are very susceptible to crown rot. And two, they spread horizontally. So, they grow more crowns that should get fatter at the base. If you want to grow them in a nutrient flow technique system or NFT system, you’re pretty much screwed. There’s no way they’ll bust out of your system immediately, so I ended up growing them in beta buckets and soilless substrate. Then, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.
When we finally moved into a vertical setting, I got placed in an office space and they told me not to get too much water on the floor. All of the building’s electrical stuff was right below me, so I had to be very careful. But it all worked out in the end and we figured out that you can grow Alpine strawberries inside. It ended up being a really interesting experiment and I got to run the whole thing.
Isabelle Amlicke
CEAg World: How did you get started at Little Leaf Farms?
Isabelle Amlicke: So, I first found out about Little Leaf Farms through multiple sources at once. The first person who told me they were looking to hire an assistant grower was actually my boyfriend, who’s now my fiancé. Then, a couple of days later, I went to have a meeting with Neil Mattson, my advisor, because I was looking for jobs in the CEA space. He suggested Little Leaf because there are a lot of Cornell alumni who work here.
I applied, got an interview and it went really well. I got along great with the people who interviewed me and they invited me out for a site visit. Keep in mind, this is in the winter of 2020, and I showed up in the middle of a snowstorm. It was a Saturday, too. So, they had all come in on a Saturday just to do this whole interview so they could get to know me. This was a really good sign for me because I saw how dedicated these people were and how much they cared about each other. I could immediately see myself working there and I felt like I fit in without even trying.
It’s a super challenging career path to follow, being a grower, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. It wasn’t what I expected to get into right out of college, but it ended up being, I think, the best thing that I could have done for my career because I’ve learned so much more than I could have ever imagined. I’ve learned about plants, controlled environment agriculture, physics and chemistry just by working here every day. So, it’s been a really cool educational experience that I also get paid for. It’s a win-win.
CEAg World: What would you say is your biggest accomplishment so far?
Isabelle Amlicke: School-wise, I think my biggest accomplishment is graduating as a Mayoral Presidential Scholar, which is in the top 1% of my class. I had no idea that that was even a thing until Cornell emailed me. So, it was really cool to be recognized for all the hard work I’ve done over the years.
As for Little Leaf, we have a hierarchy of growers. So, you start as an assistant grower, then you can go on call by yourself. This basically means you have the greenhouse alarm hooked up to your phone and if anything happens in the greenhouse, at any time of the day or night, you’re on the hook for it.
I got to run the entire greenhouse and did the job of the head grower for a week and a half while my boss was gone. I kept track of the crop and yields and everything. Just having him come back and say that everyone was impressed with what I’d done to keep the ship afloat was super rewarding.
CEAg World: Are there any trends you’ve noticed in the CEA industry so far?
Isabelle Amlicke: Everything is always onwards and upwards and constantly changing. Something that I have really appreciated coming from a research background and going into growing is that everything you do is a step forward. No one is holding on to old ways in CEA, which I think you find in a lot in traditional farming.