Solar Optical Waveguide System for Value Added Transplant Production

Situation or Problem: Use of high quality transplants (seedlings or rooted cuttings) is critical for success in horticultural crop production. The transplant quality can be evaluated using various aspects including visual quality, vigor and status of pests/diseases. As high quality transplant production is a specialized technology, more growers purchase their transplants from specialized propagators, instead of growing their transplants at their own facilities. One of the problems that can occur in purchasing transplants is the accidental introduction of diseases and pests. To minimize the risk of spreading diseases, propagators rigorously maintain sanitation of the facility and the whole propagation process. Today, more advanced propagators in Asia and Europe choose to produce their transplants inside a contained production facility, such as the "closed-type" transplant production system described below. Purpose: The purpose of this proposed program is to develop a plant lighting system for value added transplant production. The proposed system is intended for application to plant lighting within a closed-type transplant production chamber where controllable and efficient plant lighting will be required. Closed-type transplant production systems have been introduced commercially in Europe and Japan. Our purpose is to develop a solar plant lighting system to be used economically for high value added transplant production. The system can be used for floriculture crops as well as vegetable crops based on renewable energy with minimum adversarial impacts to the environment.