Indoor vertical farming is on the rise and systems like vertical farms, hydroponics, aquaponics, recirculating aquaculture systems, greenhouses, and living space farming are mostly or wholly entirely done without the need of the sun. Thanks to technological developments and smart agriculture, high tech farmers are now using led lights to grow crops.
Similarly, integrated urban farmers, people with short day lengths, and those with high market demands are also turning to this technology.
LED lights help distribute energy to the large number of crops grown in confined and closed places in the vertical farms where sunlight is not used.
Indoor vertical farms are majorly used to grow greens, herbs, fruits, leafy vegetables, and salads like tomatoes, cabbages, and lettuce. the plants majorly have a shorter growth cycle and high yields.
Advantages of LED lights in indoor vertical farming.
Led stands for light-emitting diodes. These amazing lights are not only cheap, but they also consume very little energy.
They are very efficient emitting substantial amounts of light energy per unit. The visible light spectrum contains a variety of colors but plants only need a few and of a particular wavelength to grow (red and blue).
Recent developments in LED light technologies have made it possible to extract and use only “targeted wavelengths” needed for photosynthesis and plant growth. These are the ones used in the artificial LED lights (red and blue). This gives them a pinkish glow.
This helps to ensure faster plant growth, allow production on a large scale, and enable agriculture to be carried out all year round irrespective of climate and location.
Led lights are also durable lasting almost 6 years and emit less heat compared to traditional bulbs like fluorescent or HPS- high-pressure sodium bulbs.
They therefore don’t harm the crops especially in vertical and indoor farms where plants are stacked on vertical trays and the bulbs have to be installed at each level.
There are some disadvantages like causing eye strain to farmers. The lights can also hide some pests and diseases due to camouflage allowing them to spread on the farm.
High start-up costs are involved in starting up vertical LED urban farms as compared to normal farms; setting up the facility, buying equipment, and installation all takes much money.
LED lights are becoming popular each passing day and are used by large urban green farms like AeroFarms to enhance production on a large scale. some people also use them to grow crops in their living room using hydroponic water substrate.