Greenhouse Crops Benefitting From Quantum Dots
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Yesterday we reported on the recent investment raise by UbiQD, a company that specializes in quantum dots technology for commercial greenhouses to optimize light for plant growth and productivity. Founder Hunter McDaniel says the technology works in a variety of greenhouse crops.
McDaniel… “ We've mostly focused on tomatoes and lettuce. I will say that crops that have a dense canopy tend to respond better, and part of the reason is that we're creating a diffusive light. The sun's coming down in a very columnated way. So there's a self shading effect in plants with a dense canopy. But with the glow, you're kind of getting light coming from all directions, and so you can penetrate the canopy deeper. So a denser canopy, like a tomato, a pepper to a degree maybe strawberries, will respond better than say, like more two dimensional crop like lettuce, leafy greens. We had good results with lettuce and leafy greens too, which is, more driven by the spectral effect than diffusion. And also we're looking at the higher value crops. A good litmus test is just, is it grown in a greenhouse? It's a greenhouse technology, so it's kind of an inherent thing. But higher value, the more we enhance, the more value we create.”
UbiQD recently announced they’ve secured their Series B funding to accelerate its expansion as the U.S. leader in quantum dots.
