Dutch PlantLab Revolutionizes Farming: No Sunlight, No Windows, Less Water, Better Food

Red and blue LEDS I've been using these to grow for awhile. It's not that new a thing. My interest is they dont create heat and they dont run up the electric bill . The first time I tried this I used a big plastic box and red and blue led christmas lights. works well

reply to post by HenryTwoTimes


YES YES YES IT WORKS . blue lights for vegging(leaf and stem growth) red for flowering(blooms and bud growth)

Looks interesting but...
what would the power consumption be on all those LEDs?

reply to post by Noviz


Next to nothing LED uses hardly any power at all, a good LED uses around 98% less power than a standard grow op

Originally posted by PapaEmeritus
reply to post by Noviz

 

Next to nothing LED uses hardly any power at all, a good LED uses around 98% less power than a standard grow op

How many lumens do you get from your LED's?

wonder how long till monsanto gets their hooks into this project.

I'm a big fan of efficient technology that increases yield and decreases cost and labor. You may say that automation is taking our jobs. If so, that's because you live under a different paradigm than I. If the increase in leisure time isn't a national goal, I can make it a personal one thanks to innovation.

reply to post by GhostR1der

The report I read also stated though that plants had evolved so that the leaves on the vast majority of plants could only photosynthesise using the upper part of the leaf for obvious reason, so lighting from beneath was largely pointless.

Although really I'm playing devils advocate and I can already imagine a couple of ways to work around that.

Still. Starred for the response.

So it's basically a more efficient version of hydroponic growing? Somehow, I don't see it being very long before people start using this to grow weed

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


Very intesresting. The only question I currently have it related to the seeds they use or plants depending on the stage they start doing this. I wonder if GMO's are related of that project, meaning the some crops would definitely be part of it. The idea is very good but I feel as we must know more to fully understand this.


Thruthseek3r

LED's are great for vegging plants, but are inferior to HID and Plasma light when it comes to flowering or fruiting plants. LED's sound great but still need more work. For example, growing weed under LED's, as some of you were questioning, produces a light airy product. Or when my boss ( I work at a hydroponic supply store and am a hydroponic tech) used the LED's to grow bell peppers, the bell peppers fell off the stem before they were fully ripe because the plant was not strong enough to hold the bell pepper.

I have friends running LED's right now, but they have to add supplemental lighting to fully ripen out there plants.

Also, a note to add, when they say in the video that no more pesticides or fungicides are used, that's total bs. Even in the most sealed environments I've been in, bugs still get in and pesticides are still used. Just saying.

-AlwaysProNeverAnti-

Originally posted by Daedal

Originally posted by PapaEmeritus
reply to post by Noviz

 

Next to nothing LED uses hardly any power at all, a good LED uses around 98% less power than a standard grow op

How many lumens do you get from your LED's?

As a grower I can tell you that LED's do not much lumens,I have used them.On top of that they are expensive.

Originally posted by Tephra
I find this more thrilling because it gives hope to interplanetary travel. With methods of growing without sunlight, we might just have a chance.

Not for long and you can see yourself as happy, if you still have national travel, American! (On the bycicle from L.A. to the Big Apple )

A system of LED based algaculture used as the nutrient input to support a system of aquaculture which in turn creates the nutrient input to nourish a system of LED grown foodcrops which cleans the water to re-use in the algaculture is getting ever closer to break-even as science advances.

More efficient strains of algae are being developed which may soon be able to provide sufficient bio-mass for system stabilization. As well as providing bio-fuel by-products to offset the energy input needs.

Supplies of bio-fuel, fish, fruits, grain crops, and vegetables from a current technology closed-system bio-sphere would not pay for itself at this time.

Input > output.

Kind of funny that needing some better slime is what stands in the way of true human progress...lol

Originally posted by twinmommy38
A system of LED based algaculture used as the nutrient input to support a system of aquaculture which in turn creates the nutrient input to nourish a system of LED grown foodcrops which cleans the water to re-use in the algaculture is getting ever closer to break-even as science advances.

More efficient strains of algae are being developed which may soon be able to provide sufficient bio-mass for system stabilization. As well as providing bio-fuel by-products to offset the energy input needs.

Supplies of bio-fuel, fish, fruits, grain crops, and vegetables from a current technology closed-system bio-sphere would not pay for itself at this time.

Input > output.

Kind of funny that needing some better slime is what stands in the way of true human progress...lol

Yea. If it was'nt for the bloody slime that stands in the way, we could use it for inter planetary travel. We need inter planetary travel, because having your own garden down on earth is soon forbidden by law! Thats how the US government motivates its citizen to give their tax dollars for the development of inter planetary travel!
Tell me the truth: Can you grow a potato out of common soil without a toolbox and a technical manual ?

reply to post by CarlitosAmsel


Yes, I am quite well versed in home-based horticulture. Growing, preserving, canning, cooking and presenting food comes as common as breathing in my family. Mom had all us kids helping in the garden and kitchen as soon as we could pull weeds or stir a pan.

None of which has anything to do with the OP. But then the US governmental abuse of it's population with non-existant laws to further hypothetical space travel doesn't either.

I just feel that with more research and development it will be possible to do away with famine and starvation by creating closed-system self-sustaining vertical farming platforms. Which through proof of concept trials like the OP provided are becoming a more likely reality.

I think i heard that the seeds of foods grown hydroponically lose fertility
reminds me of the movie "Children of Men"

reply to post by unsolicited


I'm no botanist and a pretty average gardener but I'd believe that to be correct. Stomata openings are usually on the top of leaves too, so that'd make sense. Curved leaves and side branches could be game though. I'll try it intracanopy facing down with tomatoes when they're going and see how it works with them in particular. 'dreams of fresh tomatoes'. Intense blue light causes ridiculously dense internoding, so intracanopy lighting is more effective in these cases (with led) than on usual sunlight 'stretched' internode sizes.


reply to post by AlwaysProNeverAnti


They could be using natural predators to control bugs? Just a thought. Filtered air and other precautions helps these systems immensely. Stopping mother nature is a tricky game.

Regarding your flowering statement, this was very true until mid 2010, now These leds have taken HID/MH to school for flowering. They're 37% efficient at moderate loads and chuck out a tonne of micromols or ue/m2 right on absorbtion peak. The pdf states 40% decrease in power usage over traditional existing setups and a several thousand square meter area was converted. They also stated flowers fetched higher price as they had more buds than normal. Obtaining these leds in non volume quantities is nearly impossible now though.

Most non custom, commercial LED products for either general illumination or growing, appear to fall short in design and technology implemented. I have heard of many disappointments like you have mentioned. However I have also closely studied the successes. Sucessful led arrays (for horticulture) are; either built within the last year using the latest leds and reliable design (which have tipped the scales finally); or built rather expensively prior to this but using a huge amount of leds, under driven to increase efficiency or overdriven and less of them to obtain required light levels at lower cost. Most commercial products do not provide enough light for the application in question, especially grow lights using no name leds from china. Reap what you sow.

reply to post by Daedal


Interesting comments regarding taste and how you work your setup. Could you elaborate more on the nutrients you use? Surely there is still some difference in taste between soils' trace elements and a good hydro setup. I don't discount that you can get excellent flavour from hydro setups, just that many commercial enterprises get blamed for 'watery flavourless fruit and veges' because they focus on yield and not quality in hydro setups often. That being said, some baby leafy veg (rocket/letteuce/etc) I tried from a local producer were stunning and without a single hint of soil to wash off, especially positive for high end reasturants.

I need to sleep but I'll dig up some longeivity data later on to disprove the 15,000 hour comment made previously. It is data from the 1st generation, smd chip, white high power leds. They have exceeded 20,000 hours in testing already and current degradation levels put them above specifications (50k hrs @90%). It's all temperature and drive current based really. Most cheap led designs suffer from heat degradation, plus sub-standard leds and drivers in the first place.

reply to post by speculativeoptimist
and here I was getting all excited about my raised beds!

Originally posted by PapaEmeritus
It's not that new a thing.

The LEDs aren't the big issue, it's the whole system.

They figure out the ideal grow conditions for each individual crop, every single minute detail is taken into account. Then they use computer control and automation to maintain this perfect environment throughout the entire grow. They custom tailor crop size, grow length, harvest time, etc. The LEDs are important because of the energy savings issue, but as I said, it's the whole system working together that makes this impressive.

Originally posted by CarlitosAmsel


Well, in case you forgot, I can tell you, what the natural way is. Tomatoes with their roots in fertile ground and their leaves in the sunlight, like in my garden behind the house, that gives enough tomatoes for myself and my neighbours, for no money at all. But oh, they dont grow in the wintermonths? What do you need tomatos in the winter months for? Thats why you need LEDs and artificial food.

Growing in soil under sunlight seems quite natural to me. And such plants even get love and daily attention. Every American city has its back yards, its balconies, its suburbs with yards, one of which could provide half the street with vegies. Organize your neighbours to grow own food in soil and sunlight and nobody needs LEDs and artificial tomatoes, for that is what they are...

Nope, sorry. That's not natural. Your garden would not exist if it wasn't for you planting it, so it's not natural. Sound ridiculous? Think that's just semantics? I agree. Just as ridiculous as saying food grown indoors or with a hydro setup is "artificial"

You either refuse, or are unable, to explain exactly what is artificial, wrong, bad, inferior about food grown indoors or with a Hydro setup. If you are growing Monsanto seed, then yes I'd agree with you. But growing non-GMO, organic fruits and veggies indoors with soil, or even with a Hydro setup is still REAL food. It's still GOOD food. It's still HEALTHY food.

Just because you have some sort of irrational aversion to food that isn't grown outdoors, in soil, with the sun as a light source doesn't mean there is actually anything wrong with it.