A one-for-one retrofit of a Vermont greenhouse facility has resulted in an extra lettuce harvest per year and allowed the business to boost sales 25% in its existing footprint.
A one-for-one retrofit of a Vermont greenhouse facility has resulted in an extra lettuce harvest per year and allowed the business to boost sales 25% in its existing footprint.
Swedish horticultural LED luminaire specialist company has supplied a greenhouse grower of lettuce, herbs, and other greens located in Vermont, with the greenhouse operation realizing a 25% increase in business attributable to the solid-state lighting (SSL). Horticultural supplier and consultant firm assisted with the project at grower Green Mountain Harvest Hydroponics that has both reduced the length of crop cycles and improved yield.
Green Mountain had been growing greens hydroponically for some time with notable success in a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) setting under greenhouse cover.
The company recommended that the grower install LED luminaires in place of existing high-pressure sodium (HPS) lighting on a fixture-per-fixture basis. The presumed advantage would be the fact that the LED fixtures deliver energy peaks in the blue, red, and far-red spectral regions that encourage chlorophyll absorption and other growth attributes while still delivering broad spectrum white energy. Note, that there remain differing thoughts on light recipes, especially for biomass crops, but the red/blue combination seems to work well for leafy greens as we covered in a story on horticultural lighting science and vertical farms.
source: ledsmagazine.com