The staff and students of don state technical University has developed an installation for the intensive preparation of seeds for germination in greenhouses. The device creates optimal conditions for rapid seed germination, allowing the output to get a strong and hardy plants.

New installation simulates the conditions of seed germination by led matrices of different light spectra. The lighting conditions are changed in accordance with the key parameters: temperature, humidity and duration of exposure.

"Innovation of our design is that the stimulating effect of creating variable lighting modes using led matrix. It allows you to adjust the intensity of the visible and infrared portions of the light spectrum," – said one of the founders, head of the Department "automation of production processes" DGTU Alexander Lukyanov.

According to the scientist, this more intensive preparation of the seed seriously reduces the vegetative period of cultivation and maximize the area of greenhouses.

"For example, if a standard greenhouse with artificial microclimate gives 3-4 crops of tomatoes a year, thanks to our development growing tomatoes can be year-round. This, consequently, will give up to 6-8 harvests per year. Thus, the efficiency of greenhouses has increased more than two times," – said Alexander Lukyanov.

The installation is 90% assembled from domestic materials, and its market value, according to the creators, will not exceed 10 thousand rubles. The device is already actively interested in a number of don companies and greenhouse farms of the Rostov region.

The development of a DSTU is part of a larger project "Creating high-tech production scale complexes off-season of intensive agriculturaluse with a high degree of automation and autonomy."

For the first year of operation the team DGTU managed to produce a fully functional plant layout. Subsequently, the team won the competition of innovative projects "Leader technologies", and also presented his invention at the exhibition "Souzpromexpo".

Since January of 2018, scientists intend to investigate in detail the impact of various regimes on different types of seeds: for each crop in accordance with varietal characteristics, select the optimal conditions of germination.

Photo: agroinfo.com