The Institute has installed 28 walk-in and seven smaller phytochambers, which together offer a growing area of 255 m². These facilities enable plants to be raised under fully controllable environmental conditions. In addition to controlling temperature, light intensity, photoperiod and humidity, in some of the chambers, it is also possible to alter the CO₂ concentration of the air. One of the chambers is equipped with an automatic phenotyping platform, and is lit by LEDs to allow manipulation of the light spectrum.

The Institute’s twelve plant cultivation rooms (area of 146 m²), particularly suited for growing the model plant Arabidopsisthaliana, enable the control of photoperiod and light intensity and temperature. A further three rooms (area of 36 m²) are used to eanble vernalization; this process, in which seedlings (particularly of cereal species) are exposed to a period of low temperature (typically 5°C), mimics the over-wintering conditions required to trigger the switch from vegetative to reproductive growth. Our most recent development is the construction of the plant cultivation hall.