A sneak peek into London's underground shelter farm

The ‘Growing Underground’ vertical farm has been featured on CNN, BBC, National Geographic, Al Jazeera and countless other worldwide media platforms. Located 33 meters underneath central London in an abandoned WW2 shelter, it supplies local restaurants and retailers with 15 varieties of microgreens daily. They go from seed to harvest in a matter of days and pack a flavor punch that even sunlight grown herbs do not. The secret is a finely tuned light spectrum, optimized for vegetative development of the plant and accumulation of phenolics which are responsible for flavor and nutrients buildup. The spectrum in question is AP673L by Valoya, the Finnish manufacturer of high end LED grow lights.

Herbs are grown 100% under artificial illumination. The entire farm is equipped with Valoya’s LED grow lights due to the high quality spectrum but also because of low energy consumption and negligible heat emission. In total 1620 pieces of Valoya’s L-Series illuminate the growth area.

Valoya’s AP673L spectrum stimulates leaf development while delaying flowering. This makes it ideal for leafy green vegetables, herbs, microgreens and other plants harvested before flowering. The spectrum is a wide (also known as full or continuous) spectrum which contains bits of all spectrum colors including outside the PAR area, just like the sun. Unlike the sun, parts of the spectrum which do not contribute to efficient plant development have been reduced thus creating a light which feeds the plant only with the information it needs resulting in optimal development.

Vertical farms are one of Valoya’s three main market segments.

For more information:
Valoya Oy, Finland
Tel: +358 10 2350300
sales@valoya.com
www.valoya.com

Growing Underground
1a Carpenter's Place
Clapham
SW4 7TD
growing-underground.com