Last month, in the Netherlands, a group of interested parties visited Motreahof's bell peppers growers, Edwin and Stijn van der Ploeg. In their nursery, they displayed bell pepper plants they grew under LED lights in a climate cell with no natural light alongside conventionally raised plants.
The plants, which are of the same variety, were all sown on the same day. Those growing under the LED lights clearly fared better than their conventional counterparts. Group discussions, thus, centered around what benefits this might offer, Vertify shared on social media.
This trial follows an experiment a group of van Hogeschool Inholland students did at Vertify's World Horti Center. This was part of the Vertical Farming field lab project, and they wondered if you could grow bell peppers under conditions with no natural light.
That worked surprisingly well, so, most recently, conventional greenhouse cultivation was compared with cultivation in an LED cell (video below). The plants in the LED cell were significantly larger and further along than the standardly-grown plants. Subsequent plant establishment and further development were also virtually unencumbered.