3 ms·

For lighting we have gotten some real gains in the last few years on full spectrum high-efficiency diodes. There are easily and cheaply available diode boards a

For lighting we have gotten some real gains in the last few years on full spectrum high-efficiency diodes. There are easily and cheaply available diode boards and spotlight CoB leds that will do 200 lumens per watt in white light. I myself just bought 600 watts of Quantum Boards which have Samsung LM301B diodes because it puts pretty much any older lights and diodes to shame in both efficiency and in light spectrum. Most household LED socket lights are only 100 lumens per watt but new diodes can get 200 lumens per watt for only about $1 per watt and you need around 30-40 watts of these diodes per square foot for fruiting and flowering plants, half of that for plants outside of a production cycle. With everything else I definitely agree. I think picking ripe fruits by hand is what needs to be automated the most, everything else is already 95% automated with basic farm equipment. Automating growing cabbages is about as impressive as making a car drive in a straight line without a driver. Seasonally handpicking fruits for pennies out in the sun, bent over 12+ hours a day, is the real grueling work. I would rather be roofing houses than handpicking strawberries or other handpicked soft fruits.

jelliclesfarm 8y ago
I agree. Lighting has made great strides. Everything can now be controlled to the needed wavelength, it’s actually amazing to see how far we have come. It’s very satisfying. Fruit picking is very tough. I feel that canopy management and spacing and everything else has to be standardized for the machines. Apple picking has a number of autonomous options now. They even have been able to figure out sorting and packing. The problem though is soft fruits. Like strawberries and raspberries and blackberries. Really difficult. Growing them indoors makes it really easier, but it’s the grip and their bruising tendency that is the problem. Cabbage has been mechanized. It’s a beautiful thing to watch. There is no need to make it autonomous because the labour needed isn’t picking and bending and working in the sun..they can be in the shade in the deck as the machine brings the cabbage to them and they can inspect and pack them. It’s easier but still repetitive manual labour. But not brutal like those working in the field to harvest. Cabbage, lettuce, asparagus, sugar cane, sugar beets, corn and soy, of course..grains like Millets and barley etc are all easy. If there is one thing to crack it’s plants that have continuous and multiple harvests. Like eggplants or peppers or tomatoes(heirlooms and cherries. Sauce tomatoes and those for processing are already automated).
KaiserPro 8y ago
As soon as farming startups start using lighting to improve yeild, then they've already losing in the efficiency stakes. Urban farming, the type proposed by most US based startups are already at a massive disadvantage. Not only is the price of land much higher, but the running and capital costs are far far greater, totally obliterating any hope of profitability. Take this current startup, they use a generalised robot arm, which would have cost >$100k plus the software to do the visual registration. Event then its moving one plant at a time... Why are they not spending the time working on low tech plan holders, that could be plucked and moved using cheap conveyor belt systems? even better a tray, with known locations, that can be moved to a specialised plucking machine, which can pluck an entire tray in one go. There is no mention about pest management, its a massive monoculture, and one or two fungal spore could wipe out that entire warehouse in a matter of weeks.
- jelliclesfarm 8y ago
  I agree re how indoor farming starts with losing efficiency. But imagine if this is Iceland or on a cruise ship. At a location where a natural disaster has struck. Or in the Middle East. Or in the middle of a drought. Innovating in ideal situations has its pros and cons. Pros...it can be done without pressure of impending threat to growing. Cons...the tech may not be transferable to places that really need them. Which other third world country has uninterrupted power supply or internet connectivity for uploading to cloud etc. but it’s a start before creating the eco system. This will be a long and painful journey, it seems to me... But you are also right. The equipment needs to operate in freezing cold or dusty environments or humidity. Indoor growing inside hoophouses or greenhouses and glasshouses are a lot more effective. I agree. Pest issue is the Achilles Heel and weapon of wholesale complete destruction of harvest. They are trying to combat it with more technology. I want to say that I am really impressed by how Indoor Ag has evolved over the years. It’s not perfect but way better than how it was ten years ago.
  - KaiserPro 8y ago
    The only valid place for this is a cruise ship. Everything else has either been done already, or stuff needs to be shipped in. Hydroponics in the middle of a drought is a disaster, it sucks huge amount of clean water. Yes, if you are careful you can use it to clean water, but again, its at the risk of importing fungus/pests. Most agriculture doesn't need high tech solutions, it needs simple ones. The biggest threat facing most farmers in the developing world are drought and pests. Drought can be managed by creating small simple dams that slow the passage of water to the sea. (lots of india for example used to do this.) The future of agritech is small, simple and cheap. The Netherlands has this other type of stuff nailed. In the developing world, land and labour are cheap, asking a farmer to buy into this style tech is like asking us to buy a small Caribbean island, impossible. The only people that can do this are the rich, who are normally the ones causing the droughts and destruction in the first place.

jelliclesfarm 8y ago

I agree. Lighting has made great strides. Everything can now be controlled to the needed wavelength, it’s actually amazing to see how far we have come. It’s very satisfying. Fruit picking is very tough. I feel that canopy management and spacing and everything else has to be standardized for the machines. Apple picking has a number of autonomous options now. They even have been able to figure out sorting and packing. The problem though is soft fruits. Like strawberries and raspberries and blackberries. Really difficult. Growing them indoors makes it really easier, but it’s the grip and their bruising tendency that is the problem. Cabbage has been mechanized. It’s a beautiful thing to watch. There is no need to make it autonomous because the labour needed isn’t picking and bending and working in the sun..they can be in the shade in the deck as the machine brings the cabbage to them and they can inspect and pack them. It’s easier but still repetitive manual labour. But not brutal like those working in the field to harvest. Cabbage, lettuce, asparagus, sugar cane, sugar beets, corn and soy, of course..grains like Millets and barley etc are all easy. If there is one thing to crack it’s plants that have continuous and multiple harvests. Like eggplants or peppers or tomatoes(heirlooms and cherries. Sauce tomatoes and those for processing are already automated).

KaiserPro 8y ago

As soon as farming startups start using lighting to improve yeild, then they've already losing in the efficiency stakes. Urban farming, the type proposed by most US based startups are already at a massive disadvantage. Not only is the price of land much higher, but the running and capital costs are far far greater, totally obliterating any hope of profitability. Take this current startup, they use a generalised robot arm, which would have cost >$100k plus the software to do the visual registration. Event then its moving one plant at a time... Why are they not spending the time working on low tech plan holders, that could be plucked and moved using cheap conveyor belt systems? even better a tray, with known locations, that can be moved to a specialised plucking machine, which can pluck an entire tray in one go. There is no mention about pest management, its a massive monoculture, and one or two fungal spore could wipe out that entire warehouse in a matter of weeks.

jelliclesfarm 8y ago
I agree re how indoor farming starts with losing efficiency. But imagine if this is Iceland or on a cruise ship. At a location where a natural disaster has struck. Or in the Middle East. Or in the middle of a drought. Innovating in ideal situations has its pros and cons. Pros...it can be done without pressure of impending threat to growing. Cons...the tech may not be transferable to places that really need them. Which other third world country has uninterrupted power supply or internet connectivity for uploading to cloud etc. but it’s a start before creating the eco system. This will be a long and painful journey, it seems to me... But you are also right. The equipment needs to operate in freezing cold or dusty environments or humidity. Indoor growing inside hoophouses or greenhouses and glasshouses are a lot more effective. I agree. Pest issue is the Achilles Heel and weapon of wholesale complete destruction of harvest. They are trying to combat it with more technology. I want to say that I am really impressed by how Indoor Ag has evolved over the years. It’s not perfect but way better than how it was ten years ago.
- KaiserPro 8y ago
  The only valid place for this is a cruise ship. Everything else has either been done already, or stuff needs to be shipped in. Hydroponics in the middle of a drought is a disaster, it sucks huge amount of clean water. Yes, if you are careful you can use it to clean water, but again, its at the risk of importing fungus/pests. Most agriculture doesn't need high tech solutions, it needs simple ones. The biggest threat facing most farmers in the developing world are drought and pests. Drought can be managed by creating small simple dams that slow the passage of water to the sea. (lots of india for example used to do this.) The future of agritech is small, simple and cheap. The Netherlands has this other type of stuff nailed. In the developing world, land and labour are cheap, asking a farmer to buy into this style tech is like asking us to buy a small Caribbean island, impossible. The only people that can do this are the rich, who are normally the ones causing the droughts and destruction in the first place.