Dutch based company PlantLab has utilized a purple/pink light, made of red and blue LED lights for growing indoors ,which marking the ability to grow crop with 90% less water than is currently used.
Currently, the Middle East and Africa have faced most pressure in manage water supplies due to water shortages. And PlantLab has invented a way to grow plants under LED lights indoors, with all the water recycled within the indoor environment for reuse to solve the problem.
According to the company, plants are not that dependent on using the sun for photosynthesis. And they certainly don’t mind being separated from their pests. And they are fine with 90 percent less water, if they get it over and over again.
They use LED lamps to grow the plants and water them with a slow trickle that drains through the soil and is collected and reused. Computers capture over 160,000 reports per second to determine the exact amount, cycle, and color spectrum of light that’s optimal for the plant, as well as water, so that no resource is wasted and the plant is neither undernourished nor overexposed.
Plants convert light from the sun into energy through the process of photosynthesis, but plants only need some parts of the sun’s color spectrum. Blue and red LEDs can provide just the light a plant needs, making the process more efficient and growing a stronger, healthier plant.
Additionally, PlantLab have also found a way to reduce crop dependency on oil. They have engineered the crops to be able to be grown using fewer fertilizers – which are made from oil.
What’s more, the technology can be replicated anywhere in the world, such as cities or high rise style buildings, reducing the need for transportation of food around the globe.