This is what crops look like in technicolor

Have you ever seen crops in technicolor?

Long after the sun has set on this field of leeks on a quiet farm in the Dutch town of Lelystad, that's exactly what happens.

LED lights in red, blue and ultraviolet project across the plants' leaves in a mesmerizing night-time display.

It's part art installation, and part science. The project is called "Grow," and it pairs the plants' natural beauty with a futuristic light show.

It's the brainchild of artist Daan Roosegaarde - who wanted to pay homage to farmers and inspire them to experiment with artificial light in outdoor farming.

"The mission was to do something from a creative perspective, from a design and innovation perspective, on one hand, showing the beauty of sustainability, of sustainable agriculture, and on the other hand - that's my personal interest - sort of highlighting science, or light science, to speed up potential development to improve the world. So that's the combination of sectors."

Using specialized LEDs to assist crops grown in greenhouses has become common, and "vertical" farms in cities grown entirely with LEDs are becoming increasingly popular.

Roosegaarde says LEDs have potential outdoors in rural areas for the same reason.

"Somewhere, somehow the notion of 'light recipes', the word 'light recipes' popped up. And so what's a light recipe? That's a specific wavelength designed to activate something. We, as humans, are very sensitive to light -- the sun, or different colors -- but so are plants. And so we found out that the red and the blue light help plants to grow better, this has been around for many years but indoors, nobody has ever done it outdoors, and the notion of ultra-violet light which can sort of boost the resistance of the plant and therefore reduce the use of pesticides."

A film of the exhibit will be launched on Studio Roosegaarde's website from Monday (January 18).

Roosegaarde's goal is to take "Grow" to 40 different countries - with each installation featuring a local or national crop with its own unique "light recipe."