Farm Plants from "Pinkhouses"

By Ashley:

Architects and engineers have conceived the idea of vertical farming which consists of cultivating farm plants in buildings. These towers should provide food in urban area in the near future.

However, nowadays, most of these constructions resemble more to large greenhouses.

Besides, many horticulturists do not see any practical use in such structures.

According to Cary Mitchell of Purdue University, a horticulturist who has been working on ways to grow plants in space for more than 20 years, farm towers are not practical from an energy perspective. Also, he says that the future lies more in large suburb warehouses than in vertical farms on account of the fact that both real estate and electricity are cheaper.

He then goes on further by maintaining that these vertical gardens will have nothing to do with traditional greenhouses and their fluorescent lamps as they will glow from blue and red LEDs which associated are perceived as magenta. These plant factories will be “pinkhouses”.

Light is really important for plants to grow.  With vertical farms, plants on the top shade the ones at the bottom. Consequently, artificial light is added, but this light is expensive and harms the environment.

Fortunately, the expenses can be reduced by using only blue and red LEDs in view of the fact that these two colors are the most needed for plants to grow. In addition, LEDs are generally energy sufficient, they can produced specific wavelengths like those of blue and red which enhance the growth of plants, and they can be placed close to the plants since they are cooler. That way, energy loss is diminished.

Currently, experiments with LEDs are carried out to supplement natural light, but not to replace it.

Still, some growers such as Barry Holtz at Caliber Biotherapeutics use this method to grow plants in enclosed rooms to protect them from harmful environment factors such as temperature changes. He reports to have his crops growing faster by 20 percent, and to save energy.

Nevertheless, Holtz thinks that indoor gardening of that kind will not replace traditional farms for quite a while in light of the fact that it is a relatively expensive way to grow food even with the efficient use of water and electricity.

From my perspective, vertical farming has many benefits. First, it is a good way to deal with the shortage of food. With the future 9 billion of people the Earth will count, it is important to produce more food. Also, they can be placed directly in cities, reducing the transportation cost. As for the environmental advantage, everything is recycle in vertical farms, and less if no more pesticides will be used. Furthermore, it is very convenient. Any kind of crops and plants could be consumed at any time of the year since they grow in closed space, and are not influenced by external factors. Moreover, they will probably be organic with no pesticide. Fresh and natural vegetables will be at hand. An additional benefit I see in “pinkhouses” is that plants will grow faster. 

Source : http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/05/21/185758529/vertical-pinkhouses-the-future-of-urban-farming