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

What about penetration. I can't remember the exact terminology, but I remember reading that LEDs were still lacking the light penetration from source to ground compared to MH or HPS?

I would think the food grown would be bland...food needs sunshine and good old fashioned dirt for flavor!

Think of hothouse tomatoes (yuck!)

It would be good for a situation where people couldn't for whatever reason plant food normally.

reply to post by CarlitosAmsel

Why do people always jump for joy, everytime some scientist weirdos mess with our food that has served us well for millions of years??

Because of coming food shortages maybe? It's not about replacing farming all together, but more supplemental, imo. We need all the help when can get when it comes to producing food, both here on Earth as well as in the future on other planets perhaps.
I agree with GhostR1der and James1982 regarding this also

Peace,
spec

reply to post by unsolicited


Correct. Penetration is an important factor with single point source, traditional lighting technology. (Street light/warehouse style lamps).

LEDs sidestep this issue completely by lighting the target from the top, sides, underneath, even intracanopy lighting has been trialed with interesting results. This gives a 25% raise in efficiency with the same light (using only side and top lighting).

Here is the nasa study in question, I cannot relocate results which mentioned the 25% gain as this was part of much earlier research into this side of R&D and over a year ago. wcsar.engr.wisc.edu...
Even back then they said LEDs were king for indoor usage, since 2003 LEDs have about doubled in efficiency while cost has reduced.

Here's the McCree photosynthetic response curve for anyone interested. Plantlab is most likely targeting the 450nm~ and 660nm~ peaks. These are the most efficient with current tech and required for non abnormal growth.
Credit to gardenscure.com and much respect to a leading led researcher 'knna'

reply to post by speculativeoptimist

But there are no food shortages! Every western nation throws away tons and tons of food daily, to keep the prices stabil. And if there are food shortages somewhere in the world, they are mostly artificially created because of financial or political reasons. How about "Food as instrument for population control" (Ask Henry. He invented it) and more. So, you beliefe in food shortages? I bet you also beliefe in climate change by man made Co2 that Obama is a born US citizen and that Gadaffi is a bad man??

reply to post by CarlitosAmsel

So, you beliefe in food shortages? I bet you also beliefe in climate change by man made Co2 that Obama is a born US citizen and that Gadaffi is a bad man??

Uh, you sound like a troll now bro, good day to ya

peace

Thanks OP for posting this infomation, this is the most positive thing I have seen about agriculture in years.

Starred and Flagged!

Plenty of old factory buildings in the USA to utilized this method.

Mass production of plants in a small area, it seems since this is a controlled environment it is a win win situation.

Many farmers in the USA lose to mother nature.

Good thread. I'm on a phone so without reading much, I'm just going to say if some governments start using this method, we could be easily drugged/poisoned easier than we are now.
We deal with pestisides, but this takes it to a new level.

My first thought was a Lunar colony, this technique would solve a huge problem with food, water and air production in that kind of environment. Cheap in resources required with huge payoffs, this might be one of the technologies we need in order to set up a new colony.

Originally posted by operation mindcrime

Guess where this technology is being used most when thinking about the Netherlands and plants. One of the sure fire ways for police to round up indoor "greeneries" was the electic bill. Since a few years we have the advantage of LED. It's been in use for some time now...

True and not true.
The use of heat cameras by the police has increased dramatically. Because Leds produce less heat you have one problem solved.
But to replace a 600W HPS and not suffer a decrease in yield you'll need 600W Led panels, no matter what the manufacturer of these panels claim.

Originally posted by operation mindcrime
Standard lifespan is 50.000 hours.

That's what the manufacturers claim and it has no basis in reality.
This can only be archieved if the light is constantly on.
To switch it on and off decreases the life span enormously.
Standard life span is less than 15000 under real conditions.

I have nothing to back my claims up, I just know from experience.
Make of it what you want.

Originally posted by speculativeoptimist
reply to post by CarlitosAmsel

 

So, you beliefe in food shortages? I bet you also beliefe in climate change by man made Co2 that Obama is a born US citizen and that Gadaffi is a bad man??

Uh, you sound like a troll now bro, good day to ya

peace

Why should I sound like a Trol, claiming there is no such thing as food shortage, but you would not sound like a Trol, claiming there is such a thing?

The LED would make sense and it makes me wonder about something that may seem far fetched but I will put it out here and ask your thoughts.

I have recall of many of my experiences with other life Beings (Aliens) "one thing" they use is a pure type white light for ........... is to heal.

What do you think could it be possible?

Originally posted by observe50
The LED would make sense and it makes me wonder about something that may seem far fetched but I will put it out here and ask your thoughts.

I have recall of many of my experiences with other life Beings (Aliens) "one thing" they use is a pure type white light for ........... is to heal.

What do you think could it be possible?

Yes, but this is probably not necessarely a white light, but a high frequency, like 150Mhz, modulated on top of a low frequency wave. Its known to earthly medics too, but they wont release it to us, since we must stay sick in order for them to get rich...-

Only problem is it's dependent on power.... Solar panels to run all the lights would be off the charts . It's a huge advancement for sure. To bad the idiot faces making decisions in the world would never use it for the greater good of all mankind.

reply to post by ArMaP


That is all I think about but led's currently aren't terribly great at what they do. I've thought of going for led lighting but frankly it is a waste, and saving water is not too big of a priority since it needs to circulate to draw in nutrients, the more it circulates, the more often the water in the soil is refreshed to dissolve things with until it reaches saturation and goes through the plant. Marijuana growers have been finding these led lights not at all as good as they are advertised. The equivalent quality of product resembles something in between flurescent lighting. The price for these lights is outrageous as well. They still pollute, rare earth elements and phosphor into the landfill when you chuck them out. They dim over time so fresh out of the box they are efficient, but after a few years that efficiency will go down and the chances of someone staying on top of replacing expensive led lights every 50,000 hours are slim to none for anything other than professional growers and commercial producers. Hobbyists won't do it.

I've done my research, a digital ballast will provide all the improvements I need in indoor farming. If I want to go uber expensive there are plasma lights that work great, they are 2 grand though.

Yes vertical farming works I've used the concepts for sometime and seen plenty of interesting arrangements regarding that. The simple fact is, we have more land wasted for roofs, useless lawns, and pretty flowers, because we are decadent not because we care about feeding the world. Even our corrupt governments reflect this, their investment in community gardens is minimal compared to the FORTUNE they spend keeping their rose gardens in check and rust free. All of the money goes to making the down town pretty while my community looks like a ghetto.

Lol you guys needs to get up to date, Certain revolutanaries have been growing GREEN plants for years using LEDS

Originally posted by Vanishr
Lol you guys needs to get up to date, Certain revolutanaries have been growing GREEN plants for years using LEDS

You must be brought up to date. Some revolutionary people have grown GREEN plants with sunlight for millions of years

This is an interesting subject.I for one already grow food in my house hydroponically using nutrients and a grow medium.One of the comments I read was that this would produce bland food which in fact is not true.Plants grow using a wide spectrum of light during specific growth stages,one being seedling stage,then the vegetative stage and of course the flowering stage;and at each cycle from seedling to flowering more lumens are needed to produce buds/flowers.
The only problem I have come across with using LED's is the light output/lumen output.Lumens are measured in foot candles.So for each lumen,one can denote it has the same output as one candle.There are differences you can see from growing indoors to growing outdoors.One thing I have noticed is the plants I grow in the house under HPS lights or High Pressure Sodium lamps for the flowering cycle,produce higher yields compared to the same plant in the garden outside.
I am in the process of setting up an outdoor green house powered with solar energy,that's the way to go.Because if you have a garden indoors which is reliant upon external sources of energy derived from an outside source not within your control,you then have problems.Having a hydroponic garden which is self sustainable is key.



I think growing inside is an awesome idea and something we should learn to do.Considering the rise in food cost and the turbulence in our world,learning to grow food is an excellent way to begin to become self-reliant and non-reliant on you know who.
Happy growing.

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

reply to post by CarlitosAmsel


Haha, your point is an elaborate troll

Obviously this is the case that you can use sunlight, but some of these people are talking about hydroponics and using leds as if its some sort of new idea ! Hydroponics has been around for a long time and so has growing with leds, i was just making that clear.