We designed an innovative agricultural incubator called Demeter,
named after the Greek goddess of harvest, to enhance plant growth
through a fusion of hydroponics and LED lighting. Demeter works by
growing plants in a nutrient-rich water-based medium rather than soil.
This provides advantages over traditional methods including zero soil
use, 80% less water consumption, improved nutrient efficiency, a 2X
faster growth rate, and maximum utilization of available space.
Moreover, Demeter enables remote monitoring and control of
critical environmental parameters like humidity, temperature,
reservoir water levels, and LED wavelength/intensity. This allows
complete control over the climatic conditions experienced by the crops.
Through analysis of plant pigment absorption spectra, we found lettuce
has two intense absorption bands from 400-800 nm, mainly from chlorophyll and carotene.
We developed a system to vary LED emission spectrums based on each crop's needs,
and formed algorithms accounting for phenomena like photoperiodism. Experiments
showed RYB LED lights increased lettuce dry weight 3X compared to SRB lights,
likely due to superior color rendering benefiting growth. The target audience
is urban farming enthusiasts who want to grow crops as a hobby in limited spaces.
Demeter empowers them to achieve optimal plant growth.