Videos

Have you ever heard of the mysterious "crazy root disease"? Sounds like something you'd rather not have in your garden or greenhouse, right? 🌱 Find out more about this bizarre plant disease and how the VIB and the KU Leuven are determined to get rid of it! 💡✨

Potatoes are highly susceptible to diseases and pests. To better protect these crops, computer scientist Jana Wieme is deploying drones and artificial intelligence. With that extra eye, potato farmers can monitor each individual plant and thus intervene quickly when needed. In this video, she explains how it works.

Let it be clear once and for all: tomatoes are technically a fruit, as expert Jakub Salagovic explains. Jakub is dedicating his Ph.D. research to tomatoes. He creates "virtual" tomato plants so that he can find the perfect growing conditions for these fruits, allowing you to enjoy tasty tomatoes all year round.

Meet Karimi Solomon, a researcher at KU Leuven - FWO. Karimi studies the aroma of apples. Does that mean he sniffs apples all day long? Not exactly. Watch the video to hear Karimi explain why & how he studies the aroma of apples.

Biologist Sébastjen Schoenaers (UAntwerpen) watches his son Ferre grow rapidly. Yet Ferre grows 150 times slower than an ordinary corn leaf 🌱 We still don't understand how plants do this. Sébastjen zooms in on the plant up to molecular level to figure out how it really grows 🔬 This can help us grow plants better and faster.

Ever heard of pyrolysis? Then chances are you have a self-cleaning oven. But pyrolysis more than a fancy option in a modern oven. Willem Vercruysse uses this method to make fertilizers and water purification products from microalgae and ivy. 

Once upon a time there was a bright and passionate young microbiologist who dreamt of growing healthy crops on bad lands. But how on earth could she grow crops on land devoid of life? ... Are you wondering how this fairy tale continues? Let Tori Langill take you along in her 'magical' research story.

Leila Paquay turns to funghi and bacteria to grow high-quality industrial hemp - not to be confused with drug type cannabis.

Winter, with its cold temperatures, is not the favourite season of our farmers. Certain plants and crops suffer greatly from the cold. But did you know that these plants themselves have the key to withstand the cold? Antoine Persyn explains exactly how this works.