Irradiation System for a City Farm Automated Multi-Layer Phytoinstallation

Abstract

Contemporary light engineering is ready to make its contribution in the development of new, automated and (in the nearest future) fully computerised production facilities based on application of artificial irradiation for technological purposes. It is referred to cultivation of plants using the photo-culture technology in multi-layer phytoinstallations with spectral characteristics and level of irradiation taking the species and tasks of cultivation into account. The major type of plants for these installations is lettuce cultures, consumption of which in Russia significantly lags behind the recommended values, especially during winter. The article reviews major specifications of LED-based irradiation devices and lighting systems based on them, used for cultivation of lettuce in automated multi-layer phytoinstallations in photo-culture environment. An example of such phytonstallations is the automatic research installation developed in S.I. Vavilov VNISI, which has no parallel in Russia. A principal distinction of the irradiation devices used in this installation is application of multi-component LED compositions based on white and colour elements allowing us to vary spectral characteristics in the PAR region within a wide range. Generally, the installation is notable for contemporary hardware and availability of computer control.

Studies of the Effect of Combined Spectrum LED Phytoradiators on the Growth and Development of Cucumber Plants

“…The conducted photobiological studies (the first vegetation) made it possible to preliminarily identify the most favorable emission spectrum, which provides the best biometric characteristics and productivity of plants of Liliput F1 cucumbers grown with the use of light culture technology, which can be explained by the presence of radiation with a wavelength of =730 nm in the PR2 spectrum, that is, radiation outside the PAR, which is not used and does not exert an energetic effect on plants, but, by exciting the active form of the plant F730 pigment phytochrome regulates photomorphogenesis plants. The influence of the spectral range (700-780 nm) on the growth and development of plants is currently being studied, which makes its presence desirable in the radiation spectrum of phytoradiator [9,10].…”