The world's first unmanned vertical LED plant factory is put into use in Chengdu
Rows of LED lights are arranged on the cultivation racks, providing precise light to different crops. Under the soft halo, crops get rid of the constraints of natural solar terms and grow freely... The Institute of Urban Agriculture of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences presents a vibrant scene, which also demonstrates a vivid picture of exertion of Chengdu's simultaneous technological innovation and transformation of scientific and technological achievements.
Recently, reporters learned from the Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology that the world's first unmanned vertical plant factory independently developed by the Institute of Urban Agriculture of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has been put into use in Chengdu. This innovative achievement will provide a new solution for urban green planting.
Crops achieve “super growth”
Vertical farming technology is the current advanced stage of development of facility agriculture and an important area of cutting-edge scientific and technological exploration in the world's agriculture. "Customizing" the optimal growing environment for different crops is one of the advantages of vertical farming. The research and development team of the institute created the theoretical method of plant light formula and light efficiency improvement, overcame the problem of "low light efficiency and high energy consumption" in plant factories, analyzed the key technology of "light-temperature-nutrition" coupling control for rapid crop breeding, and established the 20-story vertical plant factory with the highest number of cultivation layers in the world is the first of its kind in the world.
"The current entire automated production system should be at the leading level in the world. The number of layers produced by a single facility is also the highest in the world." said the relevant person in charge of the institute.
This vertical plant factory with up to 20 cultivation levels adopts self-cultivated new crop varieties, a vertical three-dimensional cultivation system, an automatic nutrient solution supply system, artificial simulated energy-saving light sources, and an AI-based intelligent management and control system to achieve plant growth in the vertical space stable production. Not affected by climate and region, a crop of lettuce can be harvested in 35 days under environmentally controlled conditions. In addition to lettuce, other leafy vegetables, fruit vegetables, and edible fungi can be produced on a large scale in vertical plant factories.
"Under the conditions of the breeding accelerator, the growth period of crops has been shortened from the original 120 days to 50-60 days, and the breeding efficiency has been greatly improved." Yang Qichang, chief scientist of the intelligent gardening equipment innovation team of the Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told reporters that the test results it shows that the nutritional content of crops produced by vertical plant factories is basically the same as that of field crops, and there are no problems with pests and diseases of traditional crops.
To achieve "super growth" of crops, it is necessary to precisely control temperature, humidity, light, carbon dioxide and basic nutrients, and no longer "depend on the weather". In the vertical plant factory, the crops are densely covered with LED light sources, which are artificial light sources with different "formulas". "These artificial light sources simulate and replace natural light. Accelerating the crop development and breeding process is achieved by precisely controlling the brightness and color of light." Wang Sen, a researcher at the institute, explained that the LED lights currently used are called solid-state cold Light source, and the color of light can be accurately matched.