If you fancy yourself a bit of a green thumb but wish you had more control and could grow plants in your home, not out, LG might just have something this year.
Depending on how big your home is, you might already have a complex kitchen area. You can have a big fridge, a way to show off that food with a door that allows guests to see the food as it stands, an electronically-controlled wine rack, and some other pretty handy gadgets for storing food.
But what if you want to show people that you’re growing food, too? And what if you want direct control over how you grow some of that food, handling it from the inside of the home rather than the temperamental temperature of the outside world?
Believe it or not, technology may well be coming to the rescue, as LG looks set to announcing something at CES next month.
LG hasn’t said what it will be called yet, but has detailed some of the approach, building what appears to be an appliance to let you emulate outdoor conditions in a modular cabinet. The system will rely on air circulation, LED lighting, and water management to grow food inside the home, with LG developing “seed packages” for the appliance.
Yes, that probably means to make LG’s appliance work, at least initially, you’ll be looking at a special type of seed package, though LG has said that those packages come with seeds, peat moss, and fertiliser, and will include basil, rocket, and various types of lettuce.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to plant your own seeds not produced by LG, though the company hasn’t yet said what will happen if you did that. Our guess is it should be fine, but that you may have to do some tweaking in regards to how the moisture is handled by the gardening appliance.
“Our first indoor gardening solution represents a new paradigm for LG in home appliances, offering a way for consumers to eat well while providing the joy of growing their own food, consistent with LG’s overall goal of making life better,” said LG’s Song Dae-hyun.
Officially labelled a “home gardening cultivator” by LG, it’s just one of many gadgets expected to make an appearance at CES early next month. As it has yet to be properly announced, there is no local pricing or details on availability, but the moment it happens, we’ll let you know.
Like other experimental gadgets, it’s possible Australia won’t see this at all, or if it does, not until later in 2020.
