my thesis group is putting up a project that replicates a fully automalted greenhouse. all of the environmental factors would be simulated using several hardware and sensors.
as part of the testing phase, we plan to grow a plant specimen using our controlled environment. although this "plant-growing" phase ahould be completed in the shortest span of time.
we reside in a tropical country, thus having a plant specimen that requires cold environment/weather is needed in our project (during the testing phase).
That is a very interesting project... If i may suggest, investigate on environment control systems for data center or things like that, they control humidity and temperature...
About the plants, what about potatoes, as i know they grow in the highlands, cold weather and there are a variety of species of potatoes, you could even try selling them and grown new kinds of potatoes.