WHATELY — As demand for berries from growers, gardeners and resellers rises, a new structure at Nourse Farms on River Road is rising to meet the moment.

The nearly 90-year-old farm’s extensive expansion project, which got underway in October 2023, is projected to finish by November. Construction is progressing on a tissue culture lab for mother plants and a 7-acre “foundation warehouse” for indoor growing of plant material.

The project is the result of a partnership with investment management firm Solum Partners, which is focused on the food and agriculture industry, as Nourse Farms moves to expand and modernize its propagation footprint. The expansion also led to the acquisition of a 15-acre greenhouse in North Carolina.

CEO John Place said the expansion is an opportunity to meet the growing demand of the berry industry while also making an investment in the future of Nourse Farms here in Franklin County.

“The berry industry itself has been growing at a significant clip for the last 10 years,” Place said, adding that the modern lab and greenhouse will increase their capacity by “10 times.” “This is headquarters. This is home.”

The defining characteristics of Nourse Farms’ expansion are its sustainability and push for innovative technology.

Once completed, the greenhouse, which has a glass roof rather than polyethylene plastic, will operate 365 days a year and will be irrigated through runoff from rainwater on its roof. The water will be collected in a 4.5-million-gallon pond excavated behind the building. Inside the greenhouse, the trays growing raspberry, strawberry and blackberry foundation materials will be on automated tables, which will reduce the amount of time staff spend moving plants around.

Indoor growth, Place added, is becoming more commonplace in the U.S. and allows for much higher production outputs, while avoiding some of the challenges Mother Nature throws at you.

“All of our investments now are putting roofs over our plants,” Place said, noting that this allows the farm to have “high plant hygiene” and be climate-resilient, which is especially important after flooding devastated crops across the region in July 2023. Havecon Horticultural Projects, a Netherlands-based firm that specializes in greenhouses, designed the project and is constructing it, while local contractors from around the Pioneer Valley and New England are also on site.

In the 20,000-square-foot lab, explants (plant tissues that are used as starting material to grow another) will be automatically injected into fresh jars by a robot, which will also reduce staff time on a labor-intensive process.

“We’re in the pick-and-shovel business,” Place said, referring to the business concept where a company invests in the technology needed to produce something rather than the final product.

The implementation of these innovative and high-tech investments will also bring a benefit to the region through the creation of new technical jobs to operate these robots and other devices.

Once the tissue culture lab, greenhouse and other infrastructure is completed, Place said Nourse Farms should be well-positioned for future demand in the industry.

“If this expansion isn’t big enough to handle the demand, that’s a great problem for us to have,” Place added. “We’re excited about the future. There’s a lot of growth in front of us.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.