The Background
Vitroplant Italia Srl Società Agricola is part of the Agri-food group Orogel. The Cesena-based company specialises in nursery growing and micropropagation tecniques. It is a grower of high value plants: small fruit shrubs or fruit trees. In a nutshell, the micropropagation technique consists in a process that begins with an initial germplasm (a portion of leaf tissue taken from a mother plant sample) that is placed in suitable containers on a special growth medium called Phyto Agar which contains glucose (a product of photosynthesis) and other substances necessary for vegetable growth.
After planting these vegetable tissues, shoots are obtained (in the propagation phase). In the next step (elongation), the shoots are separated and transferred to different specific growth soils to generate roots (rooting phase) before the final stage, in which plants are put out in a sort of “nursery” and exposed for the first time to sunlight; here, they will learn to be autotrophic, i.e. to provide by themselves for the production of energy from sunlight. The plants will reach this stage healthy and in very good general conditions, not only because they are cared for by experienced growers but also thanks to ideal lighting at every stage of the process.
Different types of light for plants to be born and grow in perfect conditions.
Vitroplant has chosen to rely on C-LED to ensure ideal lighting conditions throughout the growing process of its plants. These include initial exposure to white light with a carefully studied dosage of blue – the frequency of which largely depends on the plants’ morphological and physiological response, i.e. shape characteristics and health. Next comes a lighting combination called “acclimatizing”, formed by white, red and blue, to support and “train” the plants in the delicate transitioning phase from a completely artificial, sterile environment to an outdoor environment in which they must immediately begin to grow strong and thrive.
