Growing without lights

Wonder how this will go ...
Plant growth without light control

Jun262012
Plants are dependent on the sun. Sunlight does not only supply them with energy, but also controls their development steps. So-called photoreceptors activate the processes of germination, leaf development, bud formation, and blossoming in the cells. The light-absorbing component of a photoreceptor may be replaced by a chemically similar synthetic substance. For the first time, the effects on complete plants are now described in the The Plant Cell journal.
“The plants developed in the dark as if they were in light,” says the Director of the studies Tilman Lamparter, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The seeds and seedlings of thale cress were fed with a synthetic substance named “15Ea-phycocyanobilin”. In the plant cell, this substance replaces the natural, photoactive component of the photoreceptor, the “phytochromobilin”. Incorporation of 15Ea-PCB activates the photoreceptor and the plant is made believe it is exposed to light. In spite of the darkness, model plants germinate and grow similar to a control group exposed to light. “It was shown for the first time that synthetic substances can cause light effects in entire plants.”
Synthetic photoreceptors might be valuable tools for research, as they facilitate studies of many chemical plant processes compared to conventional genetic engineering methods. Apart from growth, photosynthesis can also be investigated much better. “Blossoming of flowers or development of the photosynthesis system may be controlled much better in the future,” predicts Lamparter. “These findings would be of high use for agricultural industry in the cultivation of flowers or biomass production, for instance.” In the future, it is planned to study related aspects in further detail.
Source: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Crazy! What's next, just feed em sugars so they don't have to photsynthesize their own? No light required?

Well if you check what these guys do , they claim reducing water plant consume up to 90% ...
A Dutch company -PlantLab – has come up with a method for growing indoors, using a purple/pink light, made of red and blue LED lights.
The significance of the new method is that it could mean the ability to grow crop with 90% less water than is currently used.
The need to manage water supplies is most pressing in the Middle East and in Africa, areas that are already being challenged by water shortages now.
PlantLab has invented a way to grow plants under LED lights indoors, with all the water recycled within the indoor environment for reuse. Plants, it turns out, are not that dependent on using the sun for photosynthesis. And they certainly don’t mind being separated from their pests. And they are fine with 90 percent less water, if they get it over and over again.
Strikingly, PlantLab have also found a way to reduce crop dependency on oil.
They have engineered the crops to be able to be grown using fewer fertilizers – which are made from oil.
Secondly, the technology can be replicated anywhere in the world, drastically reducing the need for transportation of food around the globe.

The crops can even be grown easily in cities, in high rise style buildings.
But PlantLab believes we must rethink food production to survive.
“In order to keep a planet that’s worth living on, we have to change our methods,” says PlantLab’s Gertjan Meeuws.
The methods PlantLab is suggesting are revolutionary. They use LED lamps to grow the plants and water them with a slow trickle that drains through the soil and is collected and reused. The neon pink light of the lamps make the space look more like a nightclub than an indoor farm.
Computers capture over 160,000 reports per second to determine the exact amount, cycle, and color spectrum of light that’s optimal for the plant, as well as water, so that no resource is wasted and the plant is neither undernourished nor overexposed.
Plants convert light from the sun into energy through the process of photosynthesis, but plants only need some parts of the sun’s color spectrum. Blue and red LEDs can provide just the light a plant needs, making the process more efficient and growing a stronger, healthier plant.
Such methods of growing also reduce unpredictability. They are not so much at the mercy of the elements and extreme weather conditions. They reduce the danger of both shortages and of waste, and also help to make prices more stable.

Very interesting.

That's pretty wild. How would it work with a photoperiod plant?

Kinkao said:

Wonder how this will go ...
Plant growth without light control

Jun262012
Plants are dependent on the sun. Sunlight does not only supply them with energy, but also controls their development steps. So-called photoreceptors activate the processes of germination,

Click to expand...

....is as far as I go, my seeds didn't need light but water and warmth..? just saying?

you got it all wrong - plants that create their own light would be much more useful for our glorious species.

better yet, plants that can fly and lay eggs in people who are assholes and turn them into useful glowing flying plants that live twenty five million miles under the ground. and give feetrubs.

today's question is: how can we fuck up nature even more with some dumb shit to do? survival is hard, but how can we make it even more incredibly retarded?

OMG I'M OUT OF 15Ea-phycocyanobilin MY WHOLE GROW IS FUXXOR3D
i'm going to have to masturbate 15 million gerbils *again*.

let me curse you morons now before your children do it.

waveguide said:

you got it all wrong - plants that create their own light would be much more useful for our glorious species.

better yet, plants that can fly and lay eggs in people who are assholes and turn them into useful glowing flying plants that live twenty five million miles under the ground. and give feetrubs.

today's question is: how can we fuck up nature even more with some dumb shit to do? survival is hard, but how can we make it even more incredibly retarded?

OMG I'M OUT OF 15Ea-phycocyanobilin MY WHOLE GROW IS FUXXOR3D
i'm going to have to masturbate 15 million gerbils *again*.

let me curse you morons now before your children do it.

Click to expand...

Right but what are we going to do when the sun goes belly up in 5 billion years? Or even worse the Knights Templar start taxing sunshine? Aren't you happy that Santa could grow auto strains like lowryder year round!

If the plant could be made more sensitive to light..? then 'we' could have something..?

meaning: if 'we' could grow a plant that is the same size etc, with a 250w hps rather than the 1Kw required now? then yes thats something?

It seems plants are harvesting photons, wether they carry radiant energy or not (they still carry energy).
That process is triggered by light and apparently they found a gene that induces the same reaction.

Of course that is very interesting, especially the implications of the study may be.

What seems logical to me is the plant uses positive and negative energy to make electricity.
When the lights are out or sun is down the air is still positively charged and the earth still negative.


Assembly of Synthetic Locked Phycocyanobilin Derivatives with Phytochrome in Vitro and in Vivo in Ceratodon purpureus and Arabidopsis

Sigh.....really?

This is the dumbest shit I have read all day. Sure low light low water low food, yep it will still grow. Its a fucking weed!!! Hardy as hell.

BUT to be grown properly to its fullest potential, you are going to need the sun in one form or another.

Waveguide, dude your posts are epic man, love it!

Belvadere, should we worry about when the sun is gone in 5 billion years? I'm getting old now, I'm not sure I have 5 billion left in me. Maybe 3 tops lol

Anyway thanks for the laugh everyone!!