Hydroponics is a method for growing food in a water-based solution rich in nutrients, rather than using soil. This allows growers to plant more crops in a smaller area, saving land and water, and enabling plants to grow up to 50% faster than in traditional farming methods.

Researchers from the University of York in the United Kingdom have developed a new model that could help farmers decide which "light recipe" to use in indoor farms to boost yields, which will come in handy as the world's population grows. 

As the news release on the study, which was published in Quantitative Plant Biology, explained, the recipe is essentially different combinations of lighting that can be altered based on location and the type of plants grown. The research was conducted at the indoor urban farm Grow It York, which is uniquely located inside a shipping container. Vertically Urban, a UK-based horticultural lighting company, also collaborated on the study and analyzed how lighting impacted the growth of crops in various parts of the facility. 

Researchers have developed a new formula to allow urban farmers to design their own "light recipe"—a combination of different colors of lighting that could help increase crop yields in vertical farms.

The study, conducted at Grow It York, an indoor urban community farm based in a shipping container at SPARK in the city, developed a mathematical model that could help inform urban farmers of how light varies in different areas of a confined space and how to use this information to design better lighting systems.